Alexander Laban Hinton
Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
Cornell University Press: 2022
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It should have been no surprise when Alexander Laban Hinton, a distinguished professor of anthropology at Rutgers University and an expert on genocide and on Cambodia, was called to testify before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

Yet Hinton was torn by the summons to the Khmer Rouge tribunal. He asked himself what was the value and appropriateness of his appearing as a witness. What were the professional, philosophical, theoretical and ethical implications? He got to ‘yes’, deciding that as a ‘public anthropologist’, his testimony would reflect ‘my commitment to contribute to the politics of justice and explain the origins and dynamics of genocide in a very public forum’.

That introspection, more professional than personal, sets the tone for Hinton’s revealing book Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. His hesitation becomes a leitmotif throughout his often dense examination of three and a half days of testifying as an expert witness. He alternates between feeling impressed by the court with its robed jurists and bulletproof-glass enclosure and wondering what good will come of it all.

• Tags: Alexander Hinton, Cambodia, Elizabeth Becker, Issue 29