Nothingness as the dark side of social representations: The remembering of the ?Argentine Conquest of the Desert?.

BARREIRO, ALICIA; CASTORINA, JOSÉ ANTONIO

Marsella

Conferencia; 13ª Conferência Internacional sobre Representações Sociais ? CIRS; 2016

The main objective of this presentation is to analyze how individuals acquire knowledge about the past of their group. In the frame of Social Representation Theory, remembering follows a particular group?s perspective in the attempt to sustain a positive identity. Then, It is analyzed how power conflicts between social groups intervene in configuring versions of the past that can legitimize or question certain positions of the social group in the present, illustrated by the remembering of the controversial Argentine Conquest of the Desert?. This historical process was a military campaign waged by the Argentine government against the indigenous population during the late 19th century. This period of national organization and territorial expansion involved killing, torturing and enslaving the indigenous populations who inhabited the conquered territory. The coexistence of and the struggle between different representations of a same historical process is argued to constitute ?cognitive polyphasia?, but also, given social asymmetries, some might prevail while other possible representations become ?nothingness?, that is, the presence of an absence. We consider this absence, in some cases, as result of a constructive process to collectively cope with uncanny social objects. We also claim that to consider nothingness in the collective construction of social representations allows repositioning the individual?s subjectivity within this process, a pending problem of Social Representations Theory.