Destruction, mass violence, and human remains
Résumé
The social fate of corpses in situations of mass violence has only become the subject of scientific interest rather late in the day, driven on the one hand by the advent of the “Forensic Turn” and, on the other, by the development of transitional justice, which has increasingly come to consider the humanitarian treatment of human remains and the dignified reburial of victims as an essential tool of resilience in societies scarred by extreme violence. The study of the practices surrounding the return of human remains to society shows that, in addition to its legal implications, this phenomenon also has consequences in the cultural and religious domain, in particular owing to the tension that it creates around issues linked to the funerary and patrimonial spheres.