<論文>暴力と結びつく身体的特徴、その社会問題化過程について --タンザニアのアルビノ・キリングを事例に--

Abstract

Albinism is a congenital condition that causes a lack of pigmentation in the body, and persons with albinism (PWAs) have certain special physical features such as white skin vulnerable to the ultraviolet rays, pale-colored hair, and dysfunctional eyes accompanied by nystagmus, photophobia and low vision. Since the end of 2007, cruel acts of violence against PWAs (including murders) in Tanzania have been reported by local and international media, and the news immediately drew significant attention around the world. The killings of PWAs immediately became recognized as a serious social problem where human rights were being violated by uneducated locals with superstitious beliefs. The aim of this paper is to examine the processes and factors that rendered violence against PWAs in Tanzania a worldwide social problem. Based on the social constructionist approach towards social problems, first, this paper sketches the dynamics of the claims-making activities. Second, this paper explores the history of social labelling on PWAs in the pre-albino-killing Tanzanian society, mainly by reviewing local publications. By the early 1980s at the latest, Tanzanian society has provided PWAs with the social positions as a distinctive target group of dermatological medical service and an outstanding advocative actor representative of the people with disabilities. Taking these facts into account, this paper criticizes the previous interpretations of killings of PWAs as inappropriate localization of the problem. Killings of PWAs indicate the contemporary problematic relationship between the concept of disability, the concept of human rights, and the biomedical categorization of people.