ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issue from the perspective of the relatives of the disappeared who are stuck in liminality. Over the years, the relatives of missing people have organized themselves into committees, demanding the respect of their right to know. They form the communitas in liminality. They are waiting for the issue to be resolved - and to pass from one state to the other - while the latter seems blocked by a host of factors. The chapter starts by outlining how the issue of the disappeared in Lebanon is a true multidimensional issue that affects people and places in different ways, and impacts multiple realms of society. Then, we get to know the communitas in liminality, and to follow their constitution. The chapter shows how through their attributes of waiting, victimhood, and motherhood/womanhood they have been sliding from a temporary state to one that risks becoming permanent. Also, it shows how they enact this liminality through social drama and the turning of their rite of passage into an annual ritual.
