An Ethnography of Textile Preservation: Caring for the Wardrobe of a Missing Person (short academic article)
Abstract: When someone disappears without a trace, what remains are their possessions – objects that become anchors for memory and vessels for unresolved grief. The human urge to collect and preserve objects, what Jacques Derrida calls ‘archive fever', takes on special significance when there is no body to bury, no grave to visit. This ethnography explores one such case of preservation: my grandmother’s decades-long stewardship of my grandfather’s wardrobe after his disappearance in the 1974 conflict in Cyprus. Through this intimate portrait, I discuss how objects can evoke a personal and intense care fever because of the people they stand in for.
Published in Anthropology News (2025).