Tattered Textures of Kinship: The Effects of Torture Among Iraqi Families in Denmark

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

  • Lotte Buch Segal
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Denmark, primarily among Iraqi women and secondarily among Iraqi men who are either direct or indirect victims of torture, I explore how the memories of torture are distributed in the everyday lives of Danish families originating from Iraq. I argue that torture is folded into kin histories and the everyday work of bearing and resisting painful memories. Consequently, torture affects not only the mental and physical health of the singular survivor, but also the entire texture of kin relatedness around him or her, to the extent that kinship normativity may be disrupted. Leaning on the metaphor of a rugged cloth, I conclude by arguing that the way in which torture makes and unmakes kin relatedness congeals in what I term tattered textures of kinship.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftMedical Anthropology
Vol/bind37
Udgave nummer7
Sider (fra-til)553-567
ISSN0145-9740
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2018

ID: 181307533