Trauma and sacrifice in divided communities: the sacralisation of the victims of terrorism in Spain
Fecha
2021Versión
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Tipo
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa
Impacto
|
10.3390/rel12020104
Resumen
This work aims to show that the sacrificial status of the victims of acts of terrorism, such
as the 2004 Madrid train bombings (“11-M”) and ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty) attacks in
Spain, is determined by how it is interpreted by the communities affected and the manner in which it
is ritually elaborated a posteriori by society and institutionalised by the state. We also explore the
way in ...
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This work aims to show that the sacrificial status of the victims of acts of terrorism, such
as the 2004 Madrid train bombings (“11-M”) and ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty) attacks in
Spain, is determined by how it is interpreted by the communities affected and the manner in which it
is ritually elaborated a posteriori by society and institutionalised by the state. We also explore the
way in which the sacralisation of the victim is used in socially and politically divided societies to
establish the limits of the pure and the impure in defining the “Us”, which is a subject of dispute. To
demonstrate this, we first describe two traumatic events of particular social and political significance
(the case of Miguel Ángel Blanco and the 2004 Madrid train bombings). Secondly, we analyse
different manifestations of the institutional discourse regarding victims in Spain, examining their
representation in legislation, in public demonstrations by associations of victims of terrorism and
in commemorative “performances” staged in Spain. We conclude that in societies such as Spain’s,
where there exists a polarisation of the definition of the “Us”, the success of cultural and institutional
performances oriented towards reparation of the terrorist trauma is precarious. Consequently, the
validity of the post-sacrificial narrative centring on the sacred value of human life is ephemeral
and thus fails to displace sacrificial narratives in which particularist definitions of the sacred Us
predominate. [--]
Materias
Sacrifice,
Cultural trauma,
Victims of terrorism,
Ritual,
Performance
Editor
MDPI
Publicado en
Religions 2021, 12, 104
Departamento
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Sociología y Trabajo Social /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Soziologia eta Gizarte Lana Saila /
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute for Advanced Social Research - ICOMMUNITAS