Disappearance, Mourning and the Politics of Memory

The chapter is a study of the phenomenon of the disappeared, especially referring to the Argentinean case, but considering also the case of Chile. Aim of the work is to analyse the forms of mourning in the absence of the body and the interactions between grieving, memory and politics. Disappearance profoundly alters the normal dynamics of life and death: funeral rituals mark the natural ending of life and create a symbolic separation between livings and dead. With disappearance, this order also disappears. The author's hypothesis is that the impossibility of performing the usual rituals of mourning that occurs with desaparecidos has produced alternative rituals, which have helped to construct a social and collective community, giving rise to a new politics of memory which transformed private memories into a public fight for justice and democracy.