Answer To: Its an anthropological long essay on the study of 'The land of open graves: Living and Dying on the...
Arpita answered on May 28 2020
Q. What does De Leon mean by the PTD policy of the U.S government bureaucratization of the state, events recorded in the set text contribute to a diminished visibility of Violence? Compare this to other instances of the ‘Invisibility of Violence’ (Bourgois) raised in the unit and reflects on how this accords with an understanding of violence in terms of images and forms.
The book “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail” by Jason De Leon focus on the stories of undocumented migrants from Mexico and elsewhere in central and South America. The main objective of this book is to examine the undocumented migrant journey in which the personalized tale of people can be undertaken. This book highlighted on the sore that people are forced to take along the extreme heat, dryness of the Sonoron Desert. The issues due to which the people are forced to endure such drastic measures are covered in various tales that De Leon presents. Those who are undocumented without papers are precise without which they cannot enter or exit from territorial integrity. In the United States, the undocumented migrant is not people without papers or shape of identification in other states; they are simply people without papers or shape of identification in other states. It is a substance standard preferably than a case of black and white. The tale of undocumented migrants who have been lived for a period or married and have children’s of US citizens. Additionally, they have made the journey from more than once to south to north. The matter of their ‘Undocumented’ status is not related to prevention through Deterrence and other policies on Border patrol. Rather, the prevention through Deterrence is related to the terrorist activities, smuggling of weapon and drugs, and entry of offender as an instance of the myriad ways that the peace and progress of state are threatened by such unlawful activities.
According to De Leon, this book was first launched in the year 1993 “Prevention through Deterrence” (PTD) was first deployed in EL Paso, Texas. From 1994 to 2014, the number of Border Patrol agents increased from over 4000 to 20,863. Prevention through Deterrence (PTD) policy of US government was produced as a response to high emigration levels following the Mexican corn crisis. It is launched in the mid-1990s, Prevention through Deterrence policies sought to diminish unofficial migration by improving border safety measures around major ports of entry to urban areas and allowing the danger of the Sonoran dessert – Utmost temperature, variability, limited water and shade, smooth terrain, and hostile plant and animal life- to work as natural deterrents to human environment. At the time, PTD was just an off-the-cuff homegrown precautionary measure against the brown-skinned unlawful barrier jumpers and the subsequent chaos the border patrol generated by pursuing them through poor Latino neighborhoods where it was impossible to figure out who belonged and who didn’t. De Leon’s analysis of prevention through Deterrence is based on archaeological study of the articles that crosser leave behind in the desert, forensic analysis of bodies, ethnographic fieldwork within immigrant shelters, and interviews with immigrants, their family members, and Mexican and U.S. authorities. Indeed, a key point made by the book is that it is productive to combine archaeology and socio-cultural anthropology. Archaeological implement make it possible to learn immigrants’ lives through the traces that they leave behind – backpacks which is filled with food, a shoe, identity documents. And ethnographic approaches provide insight into migrants, thoughts, sentiments, and experiences. De León writes, “A focus on the matter traces of ongoing contested social phenomena which can provide fresh...