Abstract

ORJUELA VILLANUEVA, Diana Camila. What do We do with All the Dead? Understanding Mass Killings in the Medio Atrato. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2020, vol.56, n.2, pp.51-78.  Epub Aug 05, 2020. ISSN 0486-6525.  https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472x.648.

The Bojaya massacre that occurred in 2002 in the middle basin of the Atrato River (Colombian Pacific) resulted in the massive, violent, and non ritualizaed death of approximately 98 people. For more than 18 years, their relatives and the Atrato community have sought that their loved ones, murdered in this crime against humanity, inhabit the world of the living as ancestors and protective angels. In doing so, they have reinvented and created ritual practices that involve the temporal expansion of their execution, the mortuary knowledge of local experts and dialogue and interpellation with foreign ritual practices. This article presents an ethnography of the interwoven ritual practices for the deceased to arrive at a safe harbor and rest in peace.

Keywords : Bojayà massacre; mala muerte; war; ritual practice.

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