Temptations in Ruin: Sovereign Accumulation and the Making of Post-Genocide Turkey

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Alice von Bieberstein

Temptations in Ruin

Sovereign Accumulation and the Making of Post-Genocide Turkey

Alice von Bieberstein

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

University of Pennsylvania Press
28 October 2025

Middle Eastern history; Genocide & ethnic cleansing; Social & cultural anthropology; War crimes

Series: The Ethnography of Political Violence

An ethnographic account of the political-economic afterlife of the Armenian genocide in present-day Turkey

Temptations in Ruin examines the political-economic afterlife of the Armenian genocide in present-day Turkey, focusing on the region of Muş (Moush). Anthropologist Alice von Bieberstein explores how the 1915 genocide and dispossession of Armenians shaped property regimes, citizenship, and economic logics that continue to reverberate today.

By combining ethnography with historical context and diverse perspectives, Temptations in Ruin generates new insights into how past violence shapes contemporary economic practices and social relations. To tell this history, von Bieberstein introduces the concept of ""sovereign accumulation"" to describe the ways in which the state and other actors mobilize histories of sovereign violence for present-day economic benefit. This framework illuminates the legacy of violence and resource extraction present in such practices as urban renewal projects, treasure hunting for ""Armenian gold,"" and heritage tourism and identifies these practices' very existence as manifestations of the economic aftermath of the genocide.

Temptations in Ruin uncovers the ways in which the genocide gave rise to a racialized property regime and a recursive movement of sovereign accumulation that builds on and re-animates the Armenian genocide as generative of wealth in the present. And it demonstrates the complex interplay between genocide denial, destruction, and valorization in post-genocide contexts. Highlighting the enduring resonance of genocide, von Bieberstein enhances our understanding of political violence's long-term impacts on society and on the economy.

By: Alice von Bieberstein
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781512828405
ISBN 10: 1512828408
Series: The Ethnography of Political Violence
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Alice von Bieberstein is Assistant Professor of Social Anthropology at Humboldt University, Berlin.

Reviews for Temptations in Ruin: Sovereign Accumulation and the Making of Post-Genocide Turkey

""Temptations in Ruin is a brilliant study of the afterlives of the genocidal expropriation of Armenian wealth in Turkey, and of the everyday practices and gestures that undo state narratives of oblivion.""-- ""Gastón Gordillo, University of British Columbia""