Nature and Memory: Accounts from sons and daughters of disappeared parents whose bodies were identified and restituted

Abstract

This paper analyzes a set of memorial processes linked to the phenomenon of forensic identification and restitution of the bodies of persons who disappeared during the last military dictatorship in Argentina, based on the accounts provided by sons and daughters who recovered their parents’ remains. I argue that one way of giving meaning to these processes is by resorting to a common topos: nature as a place of reunification. These findings are the outcome of a more extensive qualitative research project which has gathered a large corpus of interviews and documents.