Bodies of evidence : burial, memory and the recovery of missing persons in Cyprus

Abstract

This book is about how representations of the past continue to influence contemporary realities in Cyprus. It deals with the case of some 2000 disappeared

people and the resulting traumas that have affected the lives of the relatives. Its main aim is to demonstrate how memory can be seen as both a political plan used by state authorities and political leaders, and as a political act on the personal and local level against the very authorities that have employed it. Its main theme is the political economy of memory: its production, consumption, distribution and exchange – for memories too are produced socially, traded, countered, and used to obtain or purchase other ‘goods’. It deals with interrupted mourning, trauma, attitudes to loss of memory, the ineffectiveness of traditional religious symbols in dealing with massive social dislocation and personal traumas, and how a whole

category of people – the disappeared – have come to represent the political fantasies, fears, and aspirations of social groups, and their representatives.