The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail
In this gripping and provocative "ethnography of death," National Book Award winner and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time—the human consequences of US immigration and border policy. 
 
The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
 
Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, systematic violence has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field. Featuring stark photography by Michael Wells, this book examines the weaponization of natural terrain as a border wall: first-person stories from survivors underscore this fundamental threat to human rights, and the very lives, of non-citizens as they are subjected to the most insidious and intangible form of American policing as institutional violence.
 
In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.
 
The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.
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The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail
In this gripping and provocative "ethnography of death," National Book Award winner and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time—the human consequences of US immigration and border policy. 
 
The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
 
Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, systematic violence has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field. Featuring stark photography by Michael Wells, this book examines the weaponization of natural terrain as a border wall: first-person stories from survivors underscore this fundamental threat to human rights, and the very lives, of non-citizens as they are subjected to the most insidious and intangible form of American policing as institutional violence.
 
In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.
 
The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.
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The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail

The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail

The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail

The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail

Hardcover(First Edition)

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Overview

In this gripping and provocative "ethnography of death," National Book Award winner and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time—the human consequences of US immigration and border policy. 
 
The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
 
Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, systematic violence has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field. Featuring stark photography by Michael Wells, this book examines the weaponization of natural terrain as a border wall: first-person stories from survivors underscore this fundamental threat to human rights, and the very lives, of non-citizens as they are subjected to the most insidious and intangible form of American policing as institutional violence.
 
In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.
 
The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520282742
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 10/23/2015
Series: California Series in Public Anthropology , #36
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 384
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jason De León is Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies and Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA. He is a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, which organizes the global participatory exhibition Hostile Terrain 94. He is the author of Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Table of Contents

Introduction
 
PART ONE. THIS HARD LAND
1. Prevention Through Deterrence
2. Dangerous Ground
3. Necroviolence
 
PART TWO. EL CAMINO
4. Memo and Lucho
5. Deported
6. Technological Warfare
7. The Crossing
 
PART THREE. PERILOUS TERRAIN
8. Exposure
9. You Can’t Leave Them Behind
10. Maricela
11. We Will Wait until You Get Here
12. Epilogue
 
Acknowledgments
Appendix A. Border Patrol Apprehensions, Southern Border Sectors, 2000–2014
Appendix B. Border Patrol Apprehensions, Tucson Sector, by Distance from the Border, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011
Notes
References
Index
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