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After 1994, the social sciences quickly incorporated Rwanda’s Tutsi genocide into their programme of study. This article questions whether the urge to compare the Rwandan genocide with other mass killings was entirely justified. Certain elements of the Rwandan genocide do not fit neatly into the framework provided by these kinds of studies. This article highlights three characteristics that resist easy classification in a social science analysis: the role of middlemen played by neighbours and families in the massacre; the specifically religious dimension of its extreme violence; and the phenomenon of “traumatic crises” during memorial ceremonies.