Necroheritage
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.30820Keywords:
cultural-natural heritage, environment, exhumates, necroheritage, mass graves, necrocide, postanthropocentric ethics, remains, transdisciplinary approachAbstract
This theoretical article outlines the main ideas and concepts of “necroheritage”, focusing particularly on remains, artefacts, mass graves, clandestine burial sites and killing sites as a specific type of cultural-natural heritage. It introduces the concept of “necrocide” in the context of mass killings and genocides to refer to the mechanical and chemical destruction of remains and graves intended to conceal mass crimes and obstruct or at least impede the identification of victims. The project highlights also the importance of “exhumates”, meaning artefacts and ecofacts extracted from graves during exhumations that serve as evidence of crimes and provide deep insights into the past lives of humans and environmental changes caused by human intervention. The article further considers postanthropocentric ethics, to address artefacts, ecofacts and various nonhuman entities that participate in or bear witness to processes of destruction and decomposition. By integrating heritage, forensics and ecological studies, necroheritage addresses historical, social, ecological and ethical considerations, providing critical insights into the ontology of human and nonhuman remains and things; the ecology of (mass) graves; religious and spiritual aspects of remains and sites; and memory. It proposes future-oriented strategies for contemplating, researching, managing and commemorating mass killing sites.
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