ABSTRACT
The events of September 11, 2001 carry indelible images, seared into the collective consciousness of all those who watched the events, either in person or on TV. Watching these images created an "imagined community of mourners" who participated in these events via these images of ultimate horror. Almost half of the bodies of those who died on September 11, 2001 were never found. The search to come to terms with the missing bodies of the dead remains a central concern, not only for those directly involved, but also for collective mourning. This chapter discusses why the missing present such a challenge to the work of mourning in terms of good/bad death distinction using comparative ethnographic material. The fate of the missing dead may be understood in terms of this good/bad death distinction and elaborated by using comparative ethnographic illustrations, including the author's own fieldwork among the Betsimisaraka of Nosy Boraha, in Eastern Madagascar.
