Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at forensic work in Somalia and Peru. I argue that the lack of sensitivity toward the particularities of dealing with death in different local communities, undermines the often publicly stated humanitarian intensions of forensic anthropologist.

Paper long abstract:

Forensic anthropology has become part of endeavors to deal with the violent past in Latin America (since the 1980s) and, more recently, in Africa. My presentation looks at forensic work in northern Somalia and the highlands of Peru. From a social anthropological perspective, it looks at forensic specialists and their claim that their work is also 'humanitarian'. Forensics in my field sites argued that their work would bring peace to mind of the relatives of the dead. They saw their work also as serving the 'rights of the dead' (e.g., to a dignified burial). During field research, I found that many locals viewed forensic anthropological work with suspicion. The culturally embedded notion of death and hereafter in combination with the economic and political realities of long-term marginalized communities in both locales created tensions with the humanitarian approach of forensic specialists. Additionally, forensic anthropological endeavors are often politicized. This was certainly the case in northern Somalia, which again put the humanitarian claims related to the work there into doubt. I argue that the lack of sensitivity toward the particularities of dealing with death (including mourning, conceptions of justice and eventually also forgetting the dead) in different local communities, undermines the often publicly stated intensions of forensic anthropologist to 'reunite the living and the dead' and bring 'peace of mind' to local communities.