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RETENTION OF GENOCIDE
Structural Functionalism is the field of study that deals with the underlying, unconscious
regularities of human expression, which are the unobservable structures that have discernable
effects on behaviour, society, and culture. The Structural Functionalism comprises various
functioning of a society. It is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex
system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability (Form and Wilterdink,
2018). It consists of social structure framework that has various social institutions in two
Education, Government, and Economy. The Emergent Institutions include Sports, Mass
In any post-genocidal state, all these institutions play a prominent role in helping retain the
memory of the genocide. A society that has sufferance from a genocide in its backdrop will
always strive to keep alive the memories, and more importantly, lessons from that genocide.
What factors led to the genocide? How could it have been avoided? How can a repeat of it be
avoided? What were the costs-human, social, economic, cultural- that the genocide entailed?
All these questions can be answered not by any one of the institutions mentioned above. With
the passage of time, newer institutions can play a more prominent role in remembrance of the
genocide. In genocides such as the Holocaust, one sees that the memory of it is kept alive by
the states and public through remembrances, educational inclusions in academic coursework,
memorials among others. With the advent of mass media, especially social media, it is
becoming increasingly common for people to seek out and connect with the horrors their
fathers and forefathers had to endure while living in the times of the genocide. The
remembrance is also kept alive by the families of the sufferers though verbal renditions to
apprise their younger generations about their history. In addition to these, the governments
also play a prominent role in remembering the genocide. Although one of the intended
era of their collective history, one may argue that in cases of government, the reasons are
garner sympathy and subsequently, votes. An example of such appropriation can be seen in
India where a major national political party, the Indian National Congress marks the
anniversary of a horrible genocide, the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre ,which took place during
the Indian Independence struggle in an attempt to connect with the voters and show itself a
Out of all the institutions that help preserve the memory of a genocide, Education is the most
effective and responsible at helping the remembrance of the genocide. There are multiple
reasons to it. Firstly, education is both formal and informal. There is institutional education
imparted in schools, colleges, and universities wherein lessons on the genocide are taught to
young people during their impressionable years to help them appreciate the contribution and
suffering their ancestors endured that shaped their society. Most societies that have witnessed
conflict strive to learn lessons so as to avoid a repeat. This is a primary reason that societies
include genocide history in the academic curriculum to make the students aware of it and let
them explore the contours of the conflict in their mind so as to avoid a repeat. Secondly, the
rendition of the event that effectively help in propagating the memory of the genocide.
Education is a potent vehicle for ensuring remembrance as it conveys the message both
consciously and sub-consciously. Every discussion, talk, debate, article is a tool of educating
the people about the genocide. For instance, families bitter at the loss of member(s) would
speak to the children in the family and that is how it propagates. A manifest function of
knowledge is to spread awareness, which in turns help preserve the memory of a genocide
among other topics and subjects. A latent function of education is to help young children and
and handling conflicts. This understanding leads to empathy, which in turn gives them a
perspective on how the genocide could have been avoided, or how a recurrence of it can be
Of the given institutions, Economy is the institution that does not help the cause of
as much as the human capital. That is to say that the human cost of a genocide is always
much higher than the economic cost of it in terms of loss of man hours and productivity.
Throughout history, we see instances of people and countries that faced genocide bounce
back in the economic sense. For instance, Jews were among the most persecuted people
during the reign of Adolf Hitler, however, the Jews overcame the effects of the Holocaust to
an extent after which some of them settled in what is now modern-day Israel and have
successfully rebuilt their economy. So if once goes only by the economic yardsticks and
parameters, there is always a risk of a tragedy being hidden behind numbers. The primary
goods and services, and enable members of a society to be able to consume these goods and
services. This activity shares little with remembrance of a tragedy. A latent function of an
economy is to use the labour of workers and use the value of input factors such as land,
capital and enterprise. The working of economy, therefore, shares little with the propagation
of a historical event.
According to the theory of Structural Functionalism, a number of institutions play a role in
the working of an economy. However, each institution plays a specialised role and while it
may be suited for a particular purpose, it may not so be another. Educating a generation on
the horror of a genocide and conditioning their mind ensures they seek, analyze and question
the actions of all parties involved in the genocide. However, an economy that is progressive
and doing well may as well function in deterioration of memory of the genocide as it would
make a past event that the young people have little or no recollection of irrelevant.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Trueman, C. (2018). Functionalism and Education - History Learning Site. [online] History Learning
Form, W. and Wilterdink, N. (2018). social structure | Definition, Examples, Characteristics, & Facts.
Lamb, Z. (2018). Structural Functionalism: Manifest and Latent Functions. [online] Sophia. Available
Oct. 2018].