Mourning Violent Deaths and Disappearances

Abstract

This chapter provides a discussion of the mourning of dead and missing soldiers of the First World War to explain the differences and tensions between personal, social, and national mourning. It examines why people care for the dead and search for the missing. Forensic humanitarianism defines its mission as helping people to mourn their losses but narrowly interprets mourning as a process aimed at closure so that the mourners can get on with their lives, and nations are freed from the burdens of the past. Using illustrations from post-authoritarian Argentina, the chapter shows that this emphasis on care is important for humanitarian assistance but is insufficient as an explanation for people's care for the dead and the missing. It then demonstrates that mourning, at whichever level of social complexity, is directed at primary and secondary losses.