Paved with Good Intentions? The Road of the Humanitarian Project of DNA Identification of the Missing in Post-Conflict Cyprus

Abstract

Humanitarian projects of DNA identification of the missing in conflict zones have impacts on the professionals conducting them, the networks and families of the missing, and societies at large. This chapter engages the multiple uses of forensics and bioconstitutionalism to trace the humanitarian project in Cyprus. It notes the ambivalence toward, and sometimes the impossibility of, closure, even when science reaches its conclusions in a laboratory. Interviews with anthropologists, psychologists, and surviving networks and family members shed light on the social and political complexities inherent in the identification and symbolic “return” of lost family members.