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Separated in death : border deaths and agency of the dead on the Balkan migratory trail
ID Hameršak, Marijana (Author), ID Lipovec Čebron, Uršula (Author)

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Abstract
Over the last decade, border deaths have become a very present part of the migration landscape along the socalled Balkan route. Focusing on these deaths, this article shows how they involve striking separation of identity (name, biography) and body. Moreover, we argue that this separation is both a product of the migration politics and border regime and a product of the agency of the dead. On one side, due to the physical dis-tance, lack of information, and in some cases disappearances, relatives struggle to mourn the deceased without being in touch with the body. On the other side, due to the literal lack of name, when the deceased are unidentified, locals in places of death struggle with how to take care of and pay tribute to the deceased without knowing the name or the social being of the deceased. Based on our ethnographic research of border deaths along the socalled Balkan route from 2020 onwards, we analyze how the agency of the dead emerges from relatives, mourning while searching for the body, and locals paying tribute while searching for the name. This agency manifests through diverse acts—from identification and repatriation efforts or appeals to international bodies, to the develop-ment of burial protocols and commemorative practices. In this context, the border regime, through its racialised logic of division and hierarchization, produces and main-tains this split, intensifying the social disappearance of migrants. Yet paradoxically, this enforced separation also generates forms of resistance and increasing political consciousness among both relatives of the deceased and local witnesses to border deaths.

Language:English
Keywords:ethnology, social anthropology, Balkan route, European migration politics, border regime, border deaths, body, name, agency of dead, relatives, locals, Croatia, Slovenia
Typology:1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:FF - Faculty of Arts
Publication version:Version of Record
Publication date:01.01.2025
Year:2025
Number of pages:Str. 100-123
Numbering:Vol. 31, no. 2
PID:20.500.12556/RUL-175785 This link opens in a new window
UDC:314.15:39(4)
ISSN on article:2232-3716
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.17477561 This link opens in a new window
COBISS.SI-ID:256347395 This link opens in a new window
Publication date in RUL:07.11.2025
Views:94
Downloads:19
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Record is a part of a journal

Title:Anthropological notebooks
Publisher:Društvo antropologov Slovenije, = Slovene Anthropological Society
ISSN:2232-3716
COBISS.SI-ID:256898816 This link opens in a new window

Licences

License:CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Description:This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

Language:Slovenian
Abstract:
V migracijski krajini vzdolž tako imenovane balkanske poti je v zadnjem desetletju zelo veliko smrti na mejah. V članku se bova osredotočili na te smrti in pokazali, da je z njimi povezana presenetljiva ločitev identitete (v smislu imena in biografije) in telesa. Pri tem bova dokazovali, da je ta ločitev posledica migracijskih politik in mejnega režima, pa tudi delovanja umrlih. Na eni strani sorodniki zaradi fizične oddaljenosti, pomanjkanja informacij in v nekaterih primerih izginotij s težavo žalujejo za pokojnim, ne da bi imeli stik z njegovim oziroma njenim telesom. Na drugi strani pa lokalni prebivalci zaradi dejanske odsotnosti imena, ker pokojni niso identificirani, na krajih smrti težko ustrezno poskrbijo za pokojne in jim izkažejo spoštovanje, ne da bi poznali njihovo ime, njihov družbeni obstoj. Na podlagi etnografskega raziskovanja smrti na mejah vzdolž t. i. balkanske poti, ki se mu posvečava od 2020 dalje, analizirava, kako delovanje mrtvih izhaja iz prizadevanj žalujočih sorodnikov, ki iščejo telesa, in lokalnih prebivalcev, ki pri izkazovanju spoštovanja umrlemu iščejo njegovo ime. Delovanje umrlih se tako kaže na različne načine – od prizadevanj za identifikacijo in repatriacijo ter pritožb mednarodnim organom do oblikovanja protokolov pokopa in spominskih praks. Pri tem mejni režim s svojo rasizirano logiko ločevanja in hierarhičnosti ustvarja in ohranja to ločitev med imenom in telesom, s čimer se družbeno izginjanje migrantov še krepi. Paradoksalno pa ta prisilna ločitev ustvarja tudi oblike upora in širitve politične zavesti, tako med svojci umrlih kot tudi med lokalnimi pričami smrti na mejah.

Keywords:etnologija, socialna antropologija, balkanska migracijska pot, evropska migracijska politika, mejni režimi, smrti na mejah, telo, ime, delovanje mrtvih, sorodniki, lokalno prebivalstvo, Hrvaška, Slovenija

Projects

Funder:ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
Project number:P6-0187-2022
Name:Etnološke raziskave kulturnih znanj, praks in oblik socialnosti

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