Cultural genocide

In a cultural genocide (or culturicide), one group of people attempts to destroy the culture and identity of another group.

A Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin created the terms "genocide" and "cultural genocide" in 1944. He argued that destroying culture is a major part of genocide.

 Definition 
The precise definition of cultural genocide is still debated. The drafters of the 1948 Genocide Convention initially considered using the term, but later dropped it from inclusion.

Cultural genocide, by itself, does not meet the United Nations' definition of genocide. This definition requires proof that perpetrators "intended to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice[.]"

The Armenian Genocide Museum defines cultural genocide as "acts and measures undertaken to destroy nations' or ethnic groups' culture through spiritual, national, and cultural destruction". In this definition, cultural genocide is essentially the same as ethnocide (trying to destroy an entire ethnic group).

References

Category:Genocide
Category:Ethnology