Mourning Remains by Isaias Rojas-Perez

Author:Isaias Rojas-Perez [Rojas-Perez, Isaias]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9781503602632
Google: pUUkDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2017-08-01T05:26:58+00:00

6

Talking Soul

Reclaiming Death as Human Experience

Why do I think that if there are human souls the human body is the only fitting locale for them?

—Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason (1982)

ONE MORNING IN early March 2007, soon after we had arrived at the site for another day of observing the development of the forensic excavation, Mama Natividad began to talk about the chiririnka—the dark blue fly that Quechua-speaking people associate with death.1 At this point, the archaeologists had already uncovered crucial evidence demonstrating that La Hoyada had been a site for killing disappeared terrorism suspects and that industrial-style disposal ovens had been used to dispose of their bodies without a trace. They had found the foundations of a blast furnace and exposed combustible pipes that connected an oil tank with the blast furnace, as well as electrical wiring that connected the blast furnace with the military base’s main barracks. They had also uncovered traces of human remains associated with the furnace’s foundations—a crucial finding since it provided hard evidence to show that the furnace had in fact been used to burn human bodies. Yet they had not found any other complete bodies since 2005. All they had been able to recover were more heaps of ashes and fragments of charred human bones.

At first, nobody responded to Mama Natividad’s comments about the chiririnka. But she repeated her comment despite this initial silence, and eventually Margarita, who was standing beside her, felt compelled to respond. This is how the dialogue unfolded:

Mama Natividad: Even the chiririnka is hovering around.

(Silence)

Mama Natividad: (More loudly) Even the chiririnka is hovering around very nicely.

Margarita: Is it hovering around you, mamaya?

Mama Natividad: Mmm. Don’t you hear it, mamita?

Margarita: No, I don’t [Manam.]

Mama Natividad: It is buzzing nicely.

The initial manam of Margarita did not discourage Mama Natividad. A couple of minutes later, she brought up the topic again, seeking to involve others in the conversation. Margarita said she did hear the fly this time, and other relatives said so too. The discussion continued:

Mama Natividad: The little chiririnka, the little chiririnka . . . see?

Margarita: Oh yes, the little chiririnka; who knows which of our relatives it is.

Mama Natividad: See, see. It is me that it is hovering around. It has been hovering around me since the other day.

Sonia: It is a soul, isn’t it?

Victoria: Surely, it must be a soul.

Margarita: There it is; it is coming back again.

Animated by Mama Natividad’s insistence, other mothers eventually acknowledged the presence of the chiririnka at the excavation site that morning. They listened to its cadenced buzzing, but nobody actually saw it. Mama Natividad’s use of the Spanish verb ve (to see) did not refer to the actual seeing of it, but to the hearing of it, of sensing it being there. She wanted to confirm that her interlocutors could hear the buzzing of the chiririnka as she could.

Mama Natividad went on to tell the story of how, several years earlier, a chiririnka had announced the death of her older brother. She recalled

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