Honouring, commemorating, compensating: state and civil society in response to victims of the armed conflict in the Ixil region (Guatemala)

Duterme, Clara

doi:10.7227/hrv.2.2.2

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Forensic scientists and the communities that are exhuming remains from acts of genocide may also be useful for thinking about the public rights and engagement, notably when the identification of human remains becomes a path to healing families and communities (Duterme 2016). Sense-making, in this context, encompasses 'making sense' of disparate pieces of knowledge, which can potentially include the senses of the communities from which they originate thus creating novel convergence between constituencies with a range of sociotechnical and political imaginaries and sets of expertise.…”

Section: Codamentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic Apophenia: Sensing the Bioinformation Archive

Gonzalez-Polledo¹,

Posocco²

2022

Anthropological Quarterly

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These wider questions about the relevance of pertinent, if unusual, lines of enquiry are lost in a procurement model of forensic provision which aims to cut costs and lead times, and provide enforcement teams with a promise of certainty which can only be sustained through the fragmentation of the questions to be asked of evidence. The field of forensics entails articulations of what Susan Lepselter has described as 'apophenia', that is, the experiential dimensions and capacities tied to the perception of 'connections between random and unrelated objects' (Lepselter 2016:3). In forensics, this capacity connects knowledge to method and technique as much as to perception. It engages scientific apparatuses and the senses and is explicitly articulated through the analogies of trace and signal. Forensic practitioners describe their activities as the production of information out of inchoate traces, clues or signals, following 19 th century pioneer of forensic science Edmond Locard's maxim, 'every contact leaves a trace' (Petherick et al. 2010). The forensic scientists we met in the course of our research had extensive expertise in a range of subfields of technical specialization, having led high-profile investigations such as the one of the five Ipswich murders. Their accounts of forensic practice reflected on their quest to make sense of the multiplicity of elements which appeared at first sight haphazard or fortuitous. Forensic practice was also unequivocally tied to the cultivation of a haptic and practical capacity to sense in order to then 'make sense' out of multiple, fragmentary and contingent traces.Our interlocutors referred to specific examples, notably blood spatter analysis and fiber identification, to illustrate how, through technoscientific practices of observation and the application of methods of classification and comparison, they were able to 'make sense'. In this article, we consider how forensic experts' accounts of their professional practice and their descriptions of the technoscientific and sensory operations tied to deciphering, for example, blood stains or traces of fabric, may be said to directly connect to Lepselter's (2016) conceptual analysis of apophenia as a sensory and analytical operation to establish relations among disparate, otherwise unconnected elements.Forensic practitioners described 'making sense' in forensics as more than 'the scientific practices of upholding or rejecting a given hypothesis in view of the evidence' -a senior forensic scientist explained to us. In our conversation, they noted the seemingly paradoxical discrepancy between the large data outputs produced in forensic labs vis-àvis the relatively small number of cases that eventually make it to court. They wondered

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Section: Codamentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic Apophenia: Sensing the Bioinformation Archive

Gonzalez-Polledo¹,

Posocco²

2022

Anthropological Quarterly

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“…Knowing has thus become an important feature of global, institutionally-led, transitional and criminal justice endeavours -and of their critiques, which have advocated more place-specifi c approaches to addressing the demands of 'truth, justice and reparation' of survivors of mass violence in diff erent contexts (Shaw et al 2010). It has also been an intrinsic part of the citizen-led investigations conducted by civil society and family groups in the face of ongoing impunity for, and denial of, mass crimes in some countries (Ferrándiz 2013(Ferrándiz , 2014Aragüete-Toribio 2017;Duterme 2016). Pressing eff orts to inquire into crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in democratising societies have triggered collaborative encounters between experts, witnesses, judges, relatives, lawyers and activists (Teitel 2014: 108) in state-and non-state-driven human rights investigations.…”

Section: Accounting For Mass Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction

Aragüete-Toribio

2022

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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English Abstract: In recent (post-)conflict scenarios, the diversity and complexity of mass violence, including acts of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial or summary executions, have transformed how knowledge about such crimes is performed and produced socially. In inquiries into human rights violations, the search for, exhumation and identification of missing bodies often buried in mass graves have led distinct applications of forensic work to emerge. These have some differences from traditional crime scene investigation approaches. Novel interactions between forensic science practitioners and the communities where they operate have given place to unprecedented sociocultural, affective and scientific understandings of evidencing mass crimes. Drawing on different ethnographic experiences of unearthing human remains around the world, this collection considers how, in its judicial but also its extrajudicial application, forensic expertise has been transformed in connection to other epistemologies, collective and individual mourning, kinship, memory and a new politics and ethics of care in distinct state- and civil society-led pursuits to account for the dead and missing.French Abstract: Dans les scénarios récents de (post-)conflit, la diversité et la complexité de la violence de masse (y compris les actes de disparition forcée et les exécutions extrajudiciaires ou sommaires) ont transformé la manière dont la connaissance de ces crimes est acquise et produite socialement. Dans le cadre des enquêtes sur les violations des droits de l’homme, la recherche, l’exhumation et l’identification des corps disparus, souvent enterrés dans des fosses communes, ont suscité l’émergence d’applications distinctes du travail médico-légal. Celles-ci diffèrent des approches traditionnelles des enquêtes sur les scènes de crime. Les nouvelles interactions entre les praticiens de la médecine légale et les communautés où ils opèrent ont donné lieu à des compréhensions de la mise en évidence des crimes de masse socioculturelles, affectives et scientifiques sans précédent. En s’appuyant sur différentes expériences ethnographiques de mise au jour de restes humains à travers le monde, cette collection examine comment, dans son application judiciaire mais aussi extrajudiciaire, l’expertise médico-légale a été transformée en relation avec d’autres épistémologies, le deuil collectif et individuel, la parenté, la mémoire, ainsi qu’une nouvelle politique et une nouvelle éthique de la prise en charge dans le cadre des efforts distincts menés par l’État et la société civile pour rendre compte des morts et des disparus.

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A political dimension of grief: Individual and social healing after conflict

Duterme

2020

Death Studies

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Honouring, commemorating, compensating: state and civil society in response to victims of the armed conflict in the Ixil region (Guatemala)

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

Forensic Apophenia: Sensing the Bioinformation Archive

Forensic Apophenia: Sensing the Bioinformation Archive

Introduction

A political dimension of grief: Individual and social healing after conflict

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