Genetic Testing, Forensic Practice, and Changing Cultures of War Dead Commemoration

萨拉·瓦格纳博士(北卡罗来纳大学格林斯伯勒分校)将从事改变法医实践和纪念战争死难者的研究。这项研究将在美国进行。在上个世纪的战争中，约有8.8万名士兵失踪，美国在遣返遗体和确认失踪的军人身份方面独树一帜。军方致力于这一任务的法医人类学实验室是世界上最大的此类设施。开发的DNA提取和分析程序将个人名字与未命名的美国士兵遗骸重新联系在一起，这导致了全球法医遗传学的进步。简而言之，这些努力是史无前例和无与伦比的。研究人员将研究为什么如此非凡的资源被用于找回和确认美国战争死难者，以及反过来，拥有这样的物质和智力资源如何影响美国人哀悼阵亡士兵的方式。具体地说，该项目重点关注失踪人员统计能力的提高如何影响政府与失踪人员家属、军人和公众之间的社会契约，以及围绕死亡和战争的纪念符号的社会构建。数据将通过对幸存的亲属、退伍军人和负责对失踪人员进行全面统计的三个政府机构进行深入的人种学研究来收集：战俘/失踪人员联合核算司令部、武装部队DNA鉴定实验室和国防战俘/失踪人员办公室。将使用文化共识程序进行比较认知建模。该项目还将通过档案研究和参与者观察，分析与纪念美国战争死难者相关的重大事件和空间，包括阿灵顿国家公墓的无名之墓和华盛顿特区的越南退伍军人纪念碑。研究人员将记录和分析程序、DNA测试、此类努力的历史、家庭期望和公众纪念活动。这项研究很重要，因为它将是第一次对法医实践，特别是遗传科学对失踪士兵身份识别产生的广泛影响进行人种学研究。这将有助于从一个新的重要角度对技术、文化和社会之间的关系进行理论化。这项研究将进一步加深公众对新的法医实践的理解，以及官方对家庭和公众的期望及其原因的理解。

Dr. Sarah E. Wagner (University of North Carolina, Greensboro) will undertake research on changing forensic practice and the commemoration of war dead. The research will be carried out in the United States. With some 88,000 missing soldiers from the previous century's wars, the United States stands alone in its pursuit of repatriating remains and identifying its missing men and women of uniform. The military's forensic anthropology laboratory dedicated to this task is the largest facility of its kind in the world. The DNA extraction and analysis procedures developed to reattach individual names to unnamed remains of American soldiers have led to advancements in forensic genetics across the globe. The efforts, simply put, are unprecedented and unparalleled.The researcher will examine why such extraordinary resources have been brought to bear to recover and identify American war dead and, in turn, how having such material and intellectual resources has affected the ways in which Americans mourn lost soldiers. Specifically, the project focuses on how the increased capacity to account for the missing influences the social contracts between the government and families of the missing, members of the military, and the general public; and the social construction of commemorative symbols around death and war.Data will be gathered through in-depth ethnographic research among surviving relatives, veterans, and the three governmental agencies responsible for "full accounting" of the missing: the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command; the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory; and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. Comparative cognitive modeling will be carried out using cultural consensus procedures. The project will also analyze, through archival research and participant observation, major events and spaces associated with memorializing US war dead, including the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The researcher will document and analyze procedures, DNA testing, the history of such efforts, family expectations, and public commemorations. The research is important because it will be the first ethnographic account of the wide-ranging influence that forensic practice, specifically genetic science, has had on the identification of missing soldiers. This will contribute to theorizing the relationship between technology, culture, and society, from a new and important perspective. The research will further public understanding of new forensic practices, as well as official understanding of what families and the public expect, and why.