From biometrics to predictive policing, contemporary security relies on sophisticated scientific evidence-gathering and knowledge-making focused on the human body. Bringing together new anthropological perspectives on the complexities of security in the present moment, the contributors to Bodies as Evidence reveal how bodies have become critical sources of evidence that is organized and deployed to classify, recognize, and manage human life. Through global case studies that explore biometric identification, border control, forensics, predictive policing, and counterterrorism, the contributors show how security discourses and practices that target the body contribute to new configurations of knowledge and power. At the same time, margins of error, unreliable technologies, and a growing suspicion of scientific evidence in a "post-truth" era contribute to growing insecurity, especially among marginalized populations.
Contributors. Carolina Alonso-Bejarano, Gregory Feldman, Francisco J. Ferrándiz, Daniel M. Goldstein, Ieva Jusionyte, Amade M'charek, Mark Maguire, Joseph P. Masco, Ursula Rao, Antonius C. G. M. Robben, Joseba Zulaika, Nils Zurawski

Introduction: Bodies as Evidence / Mark Maguire and Ursula Rao  1
1. The Truth of the Error: Making Identity and Security through Biometric Discrimination / Elida Jacobsen and Ursula Rao  24
2. Injured by the Border: Security Buildup, Migrant Bodies, and Emergency Response in Southern Arizona / Ieva Jusionyte  43
3. E-Terrify: Securitized Immigration and Biometric Surveillance in the Workplace / Daniel M. Goldstein and Carolina Alonso-Bejarano  62
4. "Dead-Bodies-at-the-Border": Distributed Evidence and Emerging Forensic Infrastructure for Identificiation / Amade M'charek  89
5. The Transitional Lives of Crimes against Humanity: Forensic Evidence under Changing Political Circumstances / Antonius C. G. M. Robben and Francisco J. Ferrándiz  110
6. Policing Future Crimes / Mark Maguire  137
7. "Intelligence" and "Evidence": Sovereign Authority and the Differences that Words Make / Gregory Feldman  159
8. The Secrecy/Threat Matrix / Joseph P. Masco  175
9. What Do Your Want? Evidence and Fantasy in the War on Terror / Joseba Zulaika  201
Conclusion: Discontinuities and Diversity / Mark Maguire and Ursula Rao  228
Contributors  237
Index  241

Mark Maguire is Senior Lecturer of Anthropology and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Maynooth University.

Ursula Rao is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Leipzig.

Nils Zurawski is Senior Researcher and Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg.

Maguire and Zurawski are coeditors of The Anthropology of Security: Perspectives from the Frontline of Policing, Counterterrorism, and Border Control. Rao is author of News as Culture: Journalistic Practices and the Remaking of Indian Leadership Traditions.