Committee:

Jeremy Adelman, adviser
Erika Milam
Deborah J. Yashar
Eden Medina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract:

This dissertation examines the emergence and development of forensic anthropology in Latin America as a response to mass violence, enforced disappearance, and the demands for justice in post-conflict societies. Focusing on Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Peru, it analyzes how scientific practices for the recovery and identification of human remains became central to transitional justice processes and memory-making. It traces the formation of national forensic anthropology teams, initially influenced by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) and the work of U.S. forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow, and explores how these groups adapted their methods to distinct political contexts, conflicts, and legal frameworks. In doing so, the dissertation follows the trajectories of the Chilean Forensic Anthropology Group (GAF), the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG), and the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), analyzing their formation, consolidation, and challenges across shifting institutional landscapes.

Through a comparative historical approach, the dissertation follows how exhumations and forensic investigations transformed not only legal and scientific understandings of state violence but also reshaped the ways societies reckon with the dead. The study highlights the political and ethical dimensions of reappearance—the moment when the disappeared are located, exhumed, and identified—and argues that such moments expose the tensions between mourning, evidence, classification, and justice. Special attention is given to the autonomy of forensic teams, their fraught relationships with state institutions, and the efforts of victims’ families and human rights organizations to mobilize forensic expertise in the search for truth.

Drawing on archival research, press analysis, and history interviews, the dissertation reconstructs how forensic anthropologists became central actors in the aftermath of political violence. It shows how their practices of scientific identification were shaped by questions of authority and expertise. Finally, the study situates Latin American forensic teams within broader transnational networks and reflects on their contributions to international protocols, post-conflict tribunals, and the consolidation of a distinct Latin American model of forensic practice. By foregrounding the dead and those who manage them, the dissertation offers a new perspective on the ethics of expertise, the temporalities of mourning, and the material construction of historical truth.

A copy of the dissertation will be available for review two weeks before the exam. Contact Lee Horinko for a copy of the dissertation and the Zoom meeting link and password.

All are welcome and encouraged to attend.