ABSTRACT:The ideal of agaciro, or dignity, is foundational for the contemporary Rwandan nation-state. More than two decades after genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government seeks to make dignity a core characteristic of the new, post-conflict nation. At the same time, the state uses heritage sites, especially genocide memorials, to establish the nation’s history and identity. Focusing on the intersection of the dignity imperative and the value of genocide heritage to nation-building, this article examines the mobilization of dignity through a study of a joint Rwandan-American preservation initiative at Nyamata Genocide Memorial. Such memorials are essential to the RPF’s nation-building project, and according dignity to the remains of genocide victims is powerfully linked to re-establishing dignity for living Rwandans and the new nation. This article examines how dignity has historically shaped choices about the burial and display of the victims and artifacts of genocide, and how preservation work at Nyamata encounters new manifestations of these ongoing questions. Given dignity’s importance to the state and the connection between genocide and the new nation’s identity, the crucial but complex decisions about preservation are a key material engagement at the root of a key national characteristic. Tracing the practical transformations of a foundational abstraction for the post-genocide Rwandan state, this article shows that the state’s commitment to dignity at the memorials is based in an agentic conception of genocide remains, an understanding with powerful implications. But despite this, and although the state insists on dignity’s importance to the new nation, dignity is not only contested as a material practice but also remains uncertain as a basic principle for the new nation’s engagement with its defining moment.

中文翻译：

---

生与死的尊严：在卢旺达尼亚马塔种族灭绝纪念馆的保护实践中为国家谈判阿加西罗

摘要：agaciro 或尊严的理想是当代卢旺达民族国家的基础。种族灭绝事件发生二十多年后，卢旺达爱国阵线 (RPF) 政府试图将尊严作为这个新的冲突后国家的核心特征。与此同时，国家利用遗产地，特别是种族灭绝纪念碑，来确立国家的历史和身份。本文着眼于尊严的必要性和种族灭绝遗产对国家建设的价值的交叉点，通过对 Nyamata 种族灭绝纪念馆的卢旺达 - 美国联合保护倡议的研究，研究了尊严的动员。此类纪念碑对于 RPF 的国家建设项目至关重要，而种族灭绝受害者遗骸的尊严与重建卢旺达人和新国家的尊严密切相关。本文探讨了尊严如何在历史上塑造了关于种族灭绝受害者和文物的埋葬和展示的选择，以及 Nyamata 的保护工作如何遇到这些持续问题的新表现形式。鉴于尊严对国家的重要性以及种族灭绝与新国家身份之间的联系，关于保护的关键但复杂的决定是关键民族特征根源的关键物质参与。本文追溯了种族灭绝后卢旺达国家基本抽象的实际转变，表明国家对纪念馆尊严的承诺是基于对种族灭绝遗迹的代理概念，一种具有强大影响的理解。但尽管如此，尽管国家坚持尊严对新国家的重要性，