Speaker: Dr Layla Renshaw (Kingston University)
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DNA testing is being used with increasing frequency to identify the war dead of 20th Century conflicts. This technology shapes our relationship the past in important ways. DNA testing requires advanced technical capabilities. Devoting these resources to the historic dead is a political decision and has a symbolic dimension, as an expression of postmortem care. DNA identification matches a sample from the dead to one from a living descendant, placing family relationships at the centre of identity. However, it is a highly technical process that relatives may experience as remote or exclusionary. Identification challenges existing commemorative forms of unnamed burials and group monuments, creating disparities in treatment between identified and unidentified bodies. The capability to store DNA samples over the long term unsettles our notion of ‘living memory’. This paper will consider these challenges in relation to the recovery of dead from the Spanish Civil War and World War I.