Abstract:
Mass graves indicate a society in major crisis – due to an epidemic, war or genocide. When they are the result of an atrocity, the perpetrators sometimes attempt to hide their handiwork. But the mass grave as spectacle is surprisingly common. The vicious, highly produced Internet videos released by Islamic State seem like a new phenomenon, but it’s not hard to read photographs from 1890 of the victims of the Wounded Knee massacre tumbled into a large pit as having the same intention: to advertise and reinforce the perpetrators’ narrative of relentless purpose and control. The sites themselves can have a similar function, as well-known reminders of the continuing power of genocidal groups, even after conditions change and even if the places of atrocity are not officially recognised. Such power blocs are often still present in a postcrisis society.
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