“We Live with Maybes”: Searching for Missing Relatives in Post-War Azerbaijan

Anthropologist Leyla Jafarova captures the experience of the families of soldiers gone missing during the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan (1988-1994). Having never been able to find out whether their loved ones are still living or dead.   Stuck in a devastating in-between after endless years of futile efforts, the relatives of those gone missing devise and deploy their own strategies to begin to make sense of the past. A rich network of meaning and affect reveals the significance of rituals in the face of death and loss, and its ‘mystical’ place in our lives.