Missing Persons, Political Landscapes and Cultural Practices : Violent Absences, Haunting Presences / Laura Huttunen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Huttunen, Laura, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Missing persons--Investigation.

Missing persons.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 186 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2025.

Summary:

This book examines human disappearances in various contexts, ranging from enforced disappearances under oppressive governments and during armed conflicts to disappearing undocumented migrants and, finally, to people who go missing under more everyday circumstances in the Global North. The book argues that a missing person is always an anomaly in relation to the social and cultural order, and every disappeared person disturbs the normal flow of social life in families and communities, often also the smooth working of state bureaucracies. The book analyses both the circumstances that make some people disappear and the variety of responses that disappearances give rise to; the latter include projects focused on searching for the missing and identifying unidentified dead bodies, as well as political projects that call for accountability for disappearances. Moreover, the book examines more symbolic forms or reappearance, including museums, memorials, artworks, ghosts and spirits. Empirical examples range from Argentina to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Mediterranean, Finland, Poland and beyond. Departing from this diversity, the book provides a theoretical frame within which to think about disappearances across cultural, political and geographical variety.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Dedication

Contents

List of figures

Acknowledgments

Abbreviation

Introduction: Towards the anthropology of disappearance

Chapter 1: Enforced disappearance: Politics of terror and paralysing uncertainties

Chapter 2: Disappearing en route: Missing migrants, ambiguous absences and exposure to death

Chapter 3: 'Individual' missing persons: Private agonies and ambiguities of citizenship

Chapter 4: Material reappearances: Dead bodies and mortal remains

Chapter 5: Symbolic reappearances: Photographs, memorials and ghosts

Conclusion: Violent absences, haunting presences

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Creative Commons * https://creativecommons.org/licenses/*

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781526177049

1526177048

9781526177025

1526177021

Access Restriction:

Unrestricted online access