La vida póstuma del cuerpo muerto o sobre los afectos, la imaginación y los cuidados

Abstract

The context of homicides and disappearing, that goes through Mexico since 2006, has grown more and more, and has brought the worst so cial consequences. In this situation where the ‘bad death” (as so called by Hertz) remains, I shall refer to some narrations and practices which, coming from the spiritual and the extraordinary, bring out the posthumous life of dead bodies. These stories talk about dreamlike visions and explain the cares with which the relatives treat the bodies of their beloved ones, as a way to give them back their dignity. In this paper I present some of my own stories, which were offered to me during my fieldwork with a victim’s relative, and I think about the posthumous life of the dead body. Finally, I propose to think this phenomenon as a result of the shocking affects that the dead body has on his living relative.