The Intersection of Cultural and Forensic Anthropology Regarding Human Rights

          The role of a forensic anthropologist in investigating human rights violations pertains to mass grave exhumation, skeletal analysis, and identification, the latter often consisting of DNA testing or dental examinations (Fleischman, 2016). Excavating a mass grave usually requires methods borrowed from archaeology, like mapping a pre-determined ground area, digging with a backhoe or trowel by soil layer until the remains are revealed, and recording the location, position, and preservation of the bones. After proper documentation, the bones are transported to a laboratory for thorough investigation using labeled boxes and bags. Once they arrive, the bones are reassembled into anatomical positions and closely observed to classify what trauma has occurred, where on the body it is, and what the damage suggests. Forensic anthropologists are capable of distinguishing between antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem trauma, as well as malnourishment, disease, and skeletal disorders. To begin the identification process, which can be impossible if there are not enough of the remains present, anthropologists build a biological profile, in which they employ multiple techniques to estimate age-at-death, sex, stature, and population affinity. This can also be completed if DNA is present, through fingerprints, or if previous dental scans are available for comparison. From just the skeleton, the identity and injuries of a person killed from political violence can be learned and brought to light to provide the evidence needed for reparations and justice.

          Sometimes, the bones are too poorly preserved, or DNA and dental databases are not well established, as is frequently the case in war-torn regions. In the event that skeletal identification is difficult or requires more supplies and money than the forensic team has available, cultural anthropology delivers a plethora of techniques to achieve identification. In fact, these methods should be employed alongside forensic ones to gain a better understanding of the life and social identity of the deceased. In Alexa Hagerty’s Still Life With Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains, she joins Clyde Snow’s EAAF (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense, or the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team) to document the human rights abuses in Guatemala and Argentina, focusing specifically on “Los Desaparecidos” between the 1970s and 1990s, depending on the genocide in each country. As a social anthropologist, when Hagerty was not in the laboratory with the remains, she was interviewing family members of the disappeared and surviving victims, gathering ethnographic data to figure out where people went missing, when, and what archival data can tell about the whereabouts of a person. A mother can say to an anthropologist that her child broke their arm falling off a bike five years before they had disappeared, which would be present on the skeleton and provide supplemental evidence of identification. Someone may have an identification card in their pocket still preserved enough to suggest identity. The dictatorship kept extensive archives of who they were targeting with information on their living status, how they were executed, or where they were killed. Even receiving pictures and accounts about the life of a disappeared individual connects the anthropologist with the community and gives insight into how there was a life behind the bones. This form of antemortem data collection is essential for estimating age, sex, stature, and identity, while also emphasizing the horrors of genocide that this population has undergone.

          Hagerty asked important questions about surviving grief in the aftermath of a genocide. Because 30,000 people in Argentina had disappeared and up to 200,000 people in Guatemala were killed, it is impossible to locate every victim (Holocaust Museum, International Commission on Missing Persons). How can the community move on without closure of what happened to their loved ones in a religion where the body is important in mourning? What about the people who have only a few bones returned to them? How can they see their parent or child in a single vertebra? Exhumation can wound just as powerfully as it can heal The author speaks of a theory of ambiguous loss that “defies closure” and causes “endless melancholy” (2023:160-161). From here, how does a religion and culture morph to include this grief, and what does this say about the country and its people? How does the new government support this grief in its legislation, politics, and interactions with the public? People cannot be expected to “move on” from extreme violence if they are not given the space to come to terms with it.

          An important aspect of anthropological work concerning genocide and government-sponsored violence reaches further than an analysis of the human remains themselves. Genocide is defined as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Cultural anthropology allows for a more holistic understanding of genocide studies because how a population is targeted is not solely through brute physical violence. Politically motivated laws, extreme forms of surveillance, and distrust of neighbors all perpetuate and prolong genocide, letting tyranny rule for decades and destroy all faith a community can have in any form of institution. In Argentina, being related to the “disappeared” meant that they must have done something wrong and should therefore be avoided. This was done out of fear of becoming disappeared themselves because instilling intense fear is a successful tactic for suppressing the public. Hagerty likens this to being “abandoned in their grief” and “marked” (2023:155). This fear outlasted La Violencia and was carried to the next generation, existing now within the children and grandchildren of the directly affected.

          Several forensic methods should undoubtedly involve cultural anthropology and would arguably be unethical without a cultural perspective. To begin, a human rights investigation cannot be performed correctly if the government in power is actively hindering it, regardless of what international law dictates. It is important to be aware of cultural practices and behaviors, both in everyday life and concerning burial to make sure local customs are not being violated. Next, because locating mass graves filled with victims of genocide is very personal for the entire population, involving community members throughout the entire process is imperative for deconstructing power imbalances and protecting the community from further exploitation or trauma. Hagerty found conflicting views from the locals in both Argentina and Guatemala, as some felt that disturbing the resting places of the victims would disrupt their path to Heaven and bring new emotional distress to the friends and family members of the deceased. While exhumation is extremely mentally draining for loved ones, many agreed that the search for truth and justice would provide closure regarding the disappeared and allow for proper burial rituals to be performed. Some felt that a person could not rest easy until their religious or cultural customs were performed, thus requiring forensic action to achieve eternal peace. Once human remains had been documented and identified, they were returned to their closest family to be honored as they wished.

          Forensic work relies on a substantial grasp of cultural norms from before, during, and after the human rights abuses that are gathered by conducting cultural anthropological research. Hagerty is a prime example of how a social anthropologist’s perspective improved the work of the EAAF. After forensic data from a human rights investigation are collected, it is taken to both international and domestic courts of law to acquire truth, justice, and reparations for the victims. Part of this includes legislation to punish perpetrators and protect new generations from undergoing the same violence. A forensic anthropologist well versed in cultural anthropology provides cultural evidence to their testimony. They work in the field to excavate mass graves all while striving in the legal courts to prevent them (2023:228). There are other vessels of human rights abuses other than the body, such as surveillance technology, government policy, oppressive militant groups, and emotional violence that all need to be investigated. An affected population has a unique victim identity that deserves to be seen and heard to protect them, and others like them.