Cited by 7Death, Funerary Practices, and MourningConflict, Peace, and Violence in ColombiaMemory, violence, and history

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 12 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 15 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

¿Qué hacemos con tanto muerto junto? Tratar la muerte violenta y masiva en el Medio Atrato

Open access
Orjuela Villanueva, Diana Camila·2020·Revista Colombiana de Antropología

Abstract

La masacre de Bojayá ocurrió en el 2002 en la cuenca media del río Atrato (Pacífico colombiano) y produjo la muerte masiva, violenta y privada de ritual de aproximadamente 98 personas. Por más de 18 años los familiares y la comunidad atrateña han buscado que sus seres queridos fallecidos a causa de este crimen de lesa humanidad habiten la vida de los vivos como ancestros y ángeles protectores. Para ello realizaron, reinventaron y crearon prácticas rituales que han supuesto la expansión temporal de su ejecución, la agencia del saber mortuorio de los expertos locales y el diálogo e interpelación con prácticas rituales foráneas. Este artículo presenta una etnografía sobre el entretejido ritual agenciado para que esos difuntos lleguen a puerto seguro y puedan descansar en paz.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This ethnographic article examines how Afro-Atrato communities in Colombia treated the dead of the 2002 Bojayá massacre, arguing that mass violent death did not sever relations between the living and the dead but activated and transformed mortuary rituals. It shows how local ritual experts expanded collective mourning cycles beyond Catholic and transitional-justice calendars while negotiating with forensic and state actors.

Key findings

  • The 2002 massacre—caused by a gas cylinder explosion in the Bellavista church on 2 May 2002, with deaths between April and May 2002 and more than eighty people killed—was treated as “mala muerte,” yet communities maintained relations with the dead through alabaos, gualíes, rosaries, novenas, dreams, and offerings, making the dead ancestors and protective angels.
  • A second forensic exhumation began on 3 May 2017; the final burial and related forensic and ritual procedures occurred between 11 and 27 November 2019, while the first exhumation had occurred fifteen years earlier, in 2002, leaving many dead “perdidos” and later called “desaparecidos.”
  • Annual commemorations expanded the ritual cycle: the 2012 tenth anniversary included the first gualí for the dead children; in 2014 a “ritual de cuerpo presente” was held in the church; in 2016 cantadoras at the peace accord insisted “al muerto no se le corta el alabao” and sang for more than three minutes. Not omitting the annual commemoration became the “nuevo precepto.”
  • Tensions with external actors appeared: during the 2017 exhumation of Ubertina Martínez, the fiscal accused participants of disrespect for laughing and joking, while local mortuary practice uses jokes, rummy, dominó, and controlled “bulla” as accompaniment; in 2013 a marble Book sculpture was placed in the plaza rather than the cemetery and later removed for a park.

Methods

  • Ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation in the Medio Atrato—especially Bellavista, Vigía del Fuerte, and Pogue—during commemorations, exhumations, and mortuary rituals, with field notes dated from 2012 to 2018.
  • Qualitative analysis of ritual practices, local narratives, and interactions among community members, cantadoras, rezanderos, leaders, the Catholic Church, forensic teams, and transitional-justice actors.
  • Interpretation draws on secondary ethnographies of Afro-Chocoano death rituals (Velásquez, Losonczy, Arocha et al., Ayala, Quiceno, among others) to frame good death, bad death, and ancestral relations.

Limitations

  • Stated: the “ritual de cuerpo presente” requires further exploration and analysis in the Medio Atrato, and the study of relations between indigenous and Afro mortuary practices could add a needed element.
  • Stated as a gap in existing literature: Millán’s reflection on death in the church and morning excludes deaths in Napipí, Puerto Conto, and Vigía del Fuerte, as well as people affected physically and emotionally by shrapnel.
  • Evident: the analysis is situated in one massacre and region and relies on field notes and local testimonies, without systematic comparison or generalizable quantitative data.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.22380/2539472x.648

Cites

12 of 13 references verified0 citation errors · 1 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

Image 1
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Image 2
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Image 3
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Image 4
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Figura 1. Tumba que hizo parte del ritual de cuerpo presente en la iglesia San Pablo Apóstol (Bellavista Viejo)
Figura 1. Tumba que hizo parte del ritual de cuerpo presente en la iglesia San Pablo Apóstol (Bellavista Viejo)CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Figura 2. Oración en el hoyo en el cual los cuerpos de los muertos estuvieron hasta la exhumación realizada por la Fiscalía y Medicina Legal en el 2002
Figura 2. Oración en el hoyo en el cual los cuerpos de los muertos estuvieron hasta la exhumación realizada por la Fiscalía y Medicina Legal en el 2002CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Figura 3. Cementerio de Bellavista. El Fuerte
Figura 3. Cementerio de Bellavista. El FuerteCC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Figura 4. Libro del presente o Libro de mármol
Figura 4. Libro del presente o Libro de mármolCC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Figura 5. Libro del presente o Libro de mármol y bandera de la paz
Figura 5. Libro del presente o Libro de mármol y bandera de la pazCC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Image 10
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Image 11
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
Image 12
CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF

Verification

Claims the paper makes

27 Own interpretation · 10 No basis given · 8 Sources not found · 6 Own result · 3 Not checked yet · 1 No full text of the sources

Show all 29 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 7
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 25
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 5
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Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

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Metadata

Authors
Orjuela Villanueva, D. C.
Venue
Revista Colombiana de Antropología
Published
2020-07-01
Volume
56
Issue
2
Pages
51-78
ISSN
  • 0486-6525 (ISSN-L)
  • 2539-472X
OpenAlex
W3044578521
Cited by
7
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
FWCI
2.69
Type
journal article
Language
es
Open access
Locations
  • Revista Colombiana de Antropología (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) (submittedVersion)
  • Greater South Information System
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Conflict, Peace, and Violence in Colombia
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Memory, violence, and history
Keywords
Bojayá massacre, Atrato River, ritual, ancestor veneration, violent death, mass mortality, ritual agency

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