What is the cadaver? A question of translation in forensic thanatology
Boursier, Léa
What is the cadaver? A question of translation in forensic thanatology - 2023.
72
Thanatological forensic medicine is practiced within the Medical-Legal Institutes (MLI) in which forensic doctors and technical agents handle corpses during autopsies that have been subject to a forensic obstacle. This article is based on doctoral research into psychodynamics at work, which involved conducting an ethnographic investigation within an MLI. The corpse resists a strict definition, particularly when it comes to how to use it. The author proposes to abandon the term “status”—characteristic of the law—in favor of the concept of translation, which makes it possible to document and analyze the languages addressed, or not, with regard to the corpse, according to what the professionals have to do with it and the meaning they place on their work. The numerous verbatims proposed demonstrate the existence of unprecedented defensive strategies and a moral division of labor.
What is the cadaver? A question of translation in forensic thanatology - 2023.
72
Thanatological forensic medicine is practiced within the Medical-Legal Institutes (MLI) in which forensic doctors and technical agents handle corpses during autopsies that have been subject to a forensic obstacle. This article is based on doctoral research into psychodynamics at work, which involved conducting an ethnographic investigation within an MLI. The corpse resists a strict definition, particularly when it comes to how to use it. The author proposes to abandon the term “status”—characteristic of the law—in favor of the concept of translation, which makes it possible to document and analyze the languages addressed, or not, with regard to the corpse, according to what the professionals have to do with it and the meaning they place on their work. The numerous verbatims proposed demonstrate the existence of unprecedented defensive strategies and a moral division of labor.
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