Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface: The Dead, the State, and the People in Timor-Leste
- Introduction: Martyrs, Ancestors and Heroes: The Multiple Lives of Dead Bodies in Independent Timor-Leste
- Part I Ancestors, Martyrs and Heroes
- Part II The Dead in Everyday Life
- PART III The Dead and the Nation-State
- Index
8 - Working for the Living and the Dead: Challenges Associated with Personal Identification from Skeletal Remains in Timor-Leste
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface: The Dead, the State, and the People in Timor-Leste
- Introduction: Martyrs, Ancestors and Heroes: The Multiple Lives of Dead Bodies in Independent Timor-Leste
- Part I Ancestors, Martyrs and Heroes
- Part II The Dead in Everyday Life
- PART III The Dead and the Nation-State
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Forensic science and medicine play a critical role in human identification, with the underlying premise being that ‘the truth’ can be empirically and objectively obtained. This chapter explores some of the approaches to exhumation and identification undertaken in Timor-Leste and discusses some of the complexities associated with scientific reason and the notion of the construction of ‘forensic truth’. The difficulty of establishing personal identification from skeletal remains in Timor-Leste is discussed in the context of large numbers of missing persons, the fact that atrocities took place in multiple locations over a 24-year period, and the fact that there is limited local forensic capacity. In addition, the ways in which the process of identification is understood is discussed in light of different notions of ‘truth’, highlighting the political, social, and ethical complexities at play.
Keywords: human identification, skeletal remains, forensic science and medicine, exhumations, mass graves, missing persons
[F]orensic knowledge is not simply making an ‘objective’ contribution to an array of practices upon which humanitarianism is predicated, but is also, and sometimes unwittingly, making powerful and unpredictable incursions into social and political life.
– Moon 2013, 151Are two objects ‘the same’ or ‘different’?
That depends on your frame of reference.
– Cole 2009, 242Introduction: human identification and the role of forensic science and medicine
The identification of a deceased person involves attributing a correct name to the body. Individual identification is important not only because it contributes to restoring some dignity to the dead, but also because it is usually required by surviving family and friends (the living) to initiate mourning and traditional death rituals, and ultimately to facilitate acceptance of the loss. In many contexts, formal identification is also a legal obligation necessary to facilitate, for example, settlement of estate and/or inheritance, or the right of the remaining partner to re-marry. Identification may also be required to aid in effective investigation of the death, including prosecution.
Forensic science and medicine play a critical role in human identification. The application of scientific and medical knowledge and methodology to the resolution of legal problems is based on the premise that the truth can (sometimes) be empirically and objectively obtained.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste , pp. 197 - 216Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020