Approximately 8,000 boys and men were killed in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. The victims were disappeared, killed and buried in secret mass graves. In this article, I examine how forensic anthropologists, demographers and forensic geneticists produced technolegal knowledge about the number of victims in the wake of the genocide; how those numbers were validated in legal proceedings against those held responsible; and, finally, how some have tried to destabilize the numbers in attempts to deny that a genocide was committed. While numbers, and the larger category of knowledge, take centre stage in the discussion, I use Srebrenica’s aftermath to introduce the concept of ontologically dirty knots, which is an analytical and methodological innovation that enables us to produce scholarly accounts of events, such as the Srebrenica genocide, that are characterized partly by secrecy, partly by controversy and partly by materiality. It ties together meaning and materiality, signals a process that continues to evolve, and suggests that narratives about what happened are the results of entanglements, action and friction that can be undone. In these respects, the article addresses current discussions on actor-network theory within critical security studies.

中文翻译：

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本体论肮脏的结：斯雷布雷尼察种族灭绝后数字的产生

大约 8,000 名男孩和男子在 1995 年斯雷布雷尼察种族灭绝中丧生。受害者失踪、被杀害并被埋在秘密的乱葬坑中。在这篇文章中，我研究了法医人类学家、人口统计学家和法医遗传学家如何产生关于种族灭绝之后受害者人数的技术法律知识；这些数字如何在针对责任人的法律诉讼中得到验证；最后，有些人如何试图破坏数字的稳定以试图否认发生了种族灭绝。虽然数字和更大的知识类别在讨论中占据中心位置，但我使用 Srebrenica 的后果来介绍本体论脏结的概念，这是一种分析和方法论创新，使我们能够对事件进行学术解释，例如斯雷布雷尼察种族灭绝 部分以保密为特征，部分以争议为特征，部分以实质性为特征。它将意义和物质性联系在一起，标志着一个不断发展的过程，并表明对所发生事件的叙述是可以撤消的纠缠、行动和摩擦的结果。在这些方面，本文讨论了当前在关键安全研究中对参与者网络理论的讨论。