Anthropology of Violent Death Theoretical Foundations for Forensic Humanitarian Action

by Parra, Roberto C.; Ubelaker, Douglas H.

• ISBN13: 9781119806363
• ISBN10: 1119806364
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-02-13
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The first book to specifically focus on the theoretical foundations of humanitarian forensic science

Anthropology of Violent Death: Theoretical Foundations for Forensic Humanitarian Action consolidates the concepts and theories that are central to securing the posthumous dignity of the deceased, respecting their memories, and addressing the needs of the surviving populations affected. Focusing on the social and cultural significance of the deceased, this much-needed volume develops a theoretical framework that extends the role of humanitarian workers and specifically the actions of forensic scientists beyond an exclusively legal and technical approach.

Anthropology of Violent Death is designed to inspire and alerts the scientific community, authorities, and the justice systems to think and take actions to avoid the moral injury in society and cultures due to grave disrespect against humanity, its memories and reconciliation. Humanitarian forensic science faces the role of mediator between the deceased and those who are still alive to guarantee the respect and dignity of humanity. Contributions from renowned experts address post-mortem dignity, cultural perceptions of violent death and various mortuary sites, the forms and critical effects of the so-called forensic turn and humanitarian action, the treatment of violent death in post-conflict societies, respect for the dead under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Islamic law, the ethical management of the death of migrants, and much more.

• In an increasingly violent world, this volume, develops a theoretical component for death management in scenarios where humanitarian action is required
• Facilities better understanding between the social sciences, the forensic sciences, and justice systems in situations involving violent death
• Discusses the latest theories from leading scholars and practitioners to enhance the activities of forensic scientists and authorities who have the difficult responsibility of making decisions
• It provides a better understanding of the humanitarian and cultural dilemmas in the face of violent death episodes, and the unresolved needs of the dignity of the deceased during armed conflicts, disasters, migration crises, including everyday homicides

Anthropology of Violent Death: Theoretical Foundations for Forensic Humanitarian Action is an indispensable resource for forensic scientists, humanitarian workers, human rights defenders, and government and non-governmental officials.

Author Biography

Roberto C. Parra is a Peruvian forensic anthropologist and staff member of the technical assistance team of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). He has worked as an expert witness and as a strategic manager for the application of forensic sciences in various cases, and has over 20 years of professional experience, including victims of plane crashes and shipwrecks, human rights violations during armed conflicts and post-conflict, as well as in everyday cases of common crime. Since 2012, he has developed international missions in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) of the United Nations.

Douglas H. Ubelaker is a Curator and Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. He has been a Member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) since 1974, serving as its 2011-2012 President. He is a recipient of many honors, including the Anthropology Award of the Washington Academy of Sciences, the AAFS Lucas Medal, and the FBI Director's Award for Exceptional Public Service.

Table of Contents

About the editors

About the contributors

 

Foreword

Morris Tidball-Binz

Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

 

Preface

Sévane Garibian

University of Geneva

Faculty of Law

Département de droit pénal

Right to Truth, Truth(s) through Rights :

Mass Crimes Impunity and Transitional Justice 

 

Series preface

 

Acknowledgments

 

Chapter 1. Anthropology of violent death and treatment of the bodies: An introduction

Roberto C. Parra and Douglas H. Ubelaker

 

Chapter 2. The posthumous dignity of dead persons

Antoon De Baets

 

2.1 Introduction: generations and posthumous dignity

2.2 The dead and posthumous dignity

2.3 Evidence for posthumous dignity

2.4 Duties flowing from posthumous dignity

2.5 The nature of posthumous dignity

2.6 Semantic debates about posthumous dignity

2.7 Breaches of posthumous dignity

2.8 Restoration of posthumous dignity

2.9 Conclusion: The impact of posthumous dignity

 

Chapter 3. Continuing bonds and social death: absence-presence

Avril Maddrell

 

3.1 What are continuing bonds and how are they experienced and expressed?

3.2 Continuing bonds and the wellbeing of mourners

3.3 Implications for professional service providers

 

Chapter 4. The Archaeology of disappearance

Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal

 

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Disappearance and power: concealment, dispersal, virtualization       

4.3 Material disappearance, human disappearance

4.4 The disappearance of disappearance

4.5 Concluding remarks

 

Chapter 5. Bioarchaeology of violent death

Anna Osterholtz, Debra Martin and Ryan Harrod

 

5.1 Introduction and background

5.2 Categories of group-level violent death

5.2.1 Bioarchaeology of massacres

5.3 Case studies illustrating integrative approaches to massacres in the past

5.3.1 Sandby borg Massacre (1500 BCE)

5.3.2 Potočani, Croatia (6200 BCE)

5.3.3 Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

5.3.4 Kratophanous violence and ritualized death

5.3.4.1 Ritualized death

5.3.5. Kratophanous violence or witch execution

5.4. Differentiating between Kratophanous violence and ritualized death

5.4.1. Captives and the enslaved

5.4.2 Group-level conflict: Raiding and warfare

5.5 Conclusions

 

 

Chapter 6. Destruction, mass violence and human remains: dealing with dead bodies as a "total social phenomenon"

Elisabeth Anstett

 

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Understanding the forms taken by the Forensic Turn, and its effects

6.3 Understanding the genealogy of professional practices of disinterment

6.4 The blind spots of a total social phenomenon of great complexity

6.5 Conclusion

 

Chapter 7. Kill, kill again and destroy: when death is not enough

Roberto C. Parra, Digna M. Vigo-Corea, Pierre Perich

 

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Dehumanizing

7.3 When death is not enough

7.3.1 Violent death in a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) context

7.3.2 The Power of Symbols, Beliefs and Violent Death in Kasai

7.3.2.1 Symbolic significance of mass graves

7.4 Dismembering/mutilating: the perspective from culture

7.4.1 How to understand Kasai's violent events

7.5 Conclusions

 

Chapter 8. Mourning violent deaths and disappearances

Antonius CGM Robben

 

8.1. Introduction

8.2 The conflictive mourning of the dead and missing after the First World War

8.3 Enduring bonds of the living, the dead, and the disappeared in Argentina

8.4 Oscillatory mourning of the dead and the disappeared by the bereaved

8.5 Conclusion

 

Chapter 9. Whose humanitarianism, whose forensic anthropology?

Jaymelee Kim and Adam Rosenblatt

 

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Positionality of the authors

9.3 Reconceptualizing violent deaths

9.4 The dead as participants in forensic anthropology

9.4.1 The case of Acholiland, Uganda: Violent deaths and disturbing spirits

9.4.2 The case of c̓əsnaʔəm, British Columbia, Canada: Violence against the dead

9.4.3 The case of MetFern Cemetery, Massachusetts, USA: The violence of erasure and the forensics of disability

9.5 What’s missing from human rights

9.6 The continued expansion of forensic anthropology

 

Chapter 10. Battlefields and killed in action: Tomb of the unknown soldiers and commemoration

Laura Wittman

 

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Tomb of the Unknown soldier

10.2.1 We cannot then but ask

10.3 Mutilated victory

10.4 As an epilogue

 

Chapter 11. Mass grave protection and missing persons

Melanie Klinkner

 

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Missing persons in mass graves: A world-wide phenomenon

11.3 The legal framework for mass grave protection

11.3.1 Missing persons and international norms

11.3.2 Mass graves and international norms

11.3.2.1 The investigative duty

11.3.2.2 Identification

11.3.2.3 Return of human remains

11.3.2.4 Pursuit of justice

11.3.2.5 Commemoration

11.4 Practicalities of protection

11.5 Protection on a global scale

11.5.1 Mapping as a form of protection?

11.5.2 Understanding the ramifications of existing rights

11.6 Conclusion: the need to do better

 

Chapter 12. Respect for the dead under IHL and Islamic law: Considerations for humanitarian forensics

Ahmed Al-Dawoody and Alexandra J. Ortiz

 

12.1 Introduction

12.2 The legal framework

12.3 Search for, collect and evacuate the dead without adverse distinction

12.4 Identification and recording of information on the dead

12.5 Respecting the dead and dignified treatment

12.6 Respectful disposal of the dead

12.7 Gravesites and other locations of mortal remains

12.8 Exhumations

12.9 Return of human remains and personal effects of the dead

12.10 Conclusion

 

Chapter 13. Unmaking forgotten mass graves and honorable burial: Enganging with the Spanish Civil War legacy

Francisco Ferrandiz

 

13.1 Overture

13.2 On funerary militarism

13.3 Franco’s militarist imprint under siege

13.4 Unmaking the Generalissimo’s burial

13.5 Military disassemblage

 

Chapter 14. Dealing with bad death in post-conflict societies: Forensic devices, burials of exhumed remains, and mourning processes in Peru

Valérie Robin Azevedo

 

14.1 Models for dealing with death: Morphologies of "good death" and "bad death"

14.2 Contexts of mass violence through the lens of bad death

14.3 Transitional justice, the forensic turn, and the "dignified burial": Can we reverse bad death?

14.4 From the necropolitics to the necrogovernamentality of the Peruvian state

14.5 Exhumation of mass graves and the reactivation of bad death in the Andes

14.6 The task of identification or the process of rehumanization of ill-treated bodies

14.7 The uncertain dates and stretched time of bad death

14.8 Body substitutes in the absence of any trace of remains

14.9 Conclusion

 

Chapter 15. Migrant death and humanitarian forensic science: Envisioning an ethics of praxis at the US-Mexico border

Alyson O'Daniel, Krista Latham and Tanya Ramos

 

15.1 Introduction

15.2 Disciplinary ethics and social change: contextualizing forensic anthropology practices

15.3 Methods and Scope

15.4 Making the case for a more socially aware practice of forensic anthropology

15.5 Closing

 

Chapter 16. Bedeviling binaries: An integrated and dialectical approach to forensic Anthropology in Northern Uganda

Tricia Redeker Hepner and Dawnie Wolfe Steadman

 

16.1 Introduction

16.2 Restless spirits and human remains in Acholiland, Uganda

16.3 The integrated approach

16.4 To excavate or not to excavate?

16.5 Conclusion: From binary to dialectical relationships

 

Chapter 17. Guiding principles for the dignified management of the dead in humanitarian emergencies and to prevent them becoming missing persons

Stephen Cordner and Morris Tidball-Binz

 

17.1 Why the need for these Principles?

17.2 To whom are the principles addressed?

17.3 Setting the scene

17.4 The Preamble to the Guiding Principles

17.5 The guiding principles

17.6 The process of producing the Guiding Principles

17.7 Conclusion

 

Chapter 18. Epilogue: Anthropology of violent death and forensic humanitarian action

Douglas H. Ubelaker and Roberto C. Parra

 

18.1 Humanity and its less violent reactions?

18.2 Anthropology applied to forensic sciences and the notion of anthropology of violent death in the humanitarian context

18.2.1 The theoretical approach of forensic anthropology: beyond the classic empirical vision

18.2.2 Anthropology of violent death and humanitarian action