Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Chapter 8 examines cases of torture, mutilation, and other forms of extra-lethal violence perpetrated against elders affiliated with the victim groups in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Indonesia. For each context, important social norms that prescribe the veneration and protection of elders are explained, as are beliefs that associate elders—as keepers of communal knowledge—with the continuity of the community’s history and heritage. The cases discussed reveal how perpetrators transgressed these norms by deliberately inflicting symbolically laden atrocities on elders during the genocides in Rwanda, Indonesia, and Bosnia. In doing so, the perpetrators undermined the victim groups’ social vitality by torturing and murdering knowledge-holders, while causing survivors severe psychological distress.</jats:p>