The engeneering of genocide; The material culture of disappearance in Argentina

ANDRÉS ZARANKIN; MELISA A. SALERNO

Bodies and Things Confined: Method and Theory in Archaeologies of Internment

Springer

Lugar: New York; Año: 2009;

Dictatorships and state terrorism were sociopolitical realities shared by most Latin American countries from 1960 to 1980. These regimes pursued the persecution and extermination of ideas and people considered to be “dangerous”. The history of political repression in Latin America was frequently silenced by official discourses. Archaeology represents an alternative way to learn more about the 1960-1980 period of violence. In this work, we will discuss the role played by certain material devices in the identification and punishment of political opponents. We will take the most recent dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983) as our case study, and we will focus on two different but interrelated expressions of material culture: architecture and dress. Both of them were fundamental in the engineering of genocide, as they were used in the definition and denial of victims’ identities.