From ‘Cultures of Fear and Terror’ to the Normalization of Violence

Abstract

This article critically examines the widespread usage of such constructs as ‘culture of terror’ and ‘culture of fear’ to characterize settings in which state power is based on the intimidation of civilians. ‘Cultures of fear and terror’, it is argued, are at once inflationary and reductive tropes which obscure the political agency and cultural resources that are called upon to end regimes of coercion. As an alternative, it is suggested that state-authorized aggression is neither equivalent to culture nor a characteristic of a cultural group, but a historically specific means and rationale for disciplining particular categories of people. Ethnographic evidence from the rural Philippines is presented in support of a more practice-oriented approach toward conceptualizing what scholars now term ‘civil wrongs’.