Abstract

RIOS, Lucía. The dead that speak. Ethnographic investigations and ethical reflections on deaths and corpses in Córdoba, Argentina. Rev. urug. Antropología y Etnografía [online]. 2024, vol.9, n.1, e103.  Epub June 01, 2024. ISSN 2393-7068.  https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v9i1.2139.

This article addresses ethical reflections in relation to ethnographically investigating deaths. These concerns arose during the completion of my doctorate in anthropological sciences -area of political anthropology-, focused on the construction of the figure of the “subversive”. I was particularly interested in the treatment of these “enemies” at the time of their death, specifically in Córdoba in 1975, a period where the murders of people related to the “subversion” became recurrent, since by then Córdoba was already the scene of repressive and clandestine practices which would later deepen with the arrival of the military dictatorship in March 1976. By treatment I mean both the administrative management of these bodies, as well as the meanings, descriptions and practices reflected in the writings that we currently have access to. Based on interviews, the absence of most of the “subjects involved” -already dead- and a series of experiences that I will share here, I was weaving certain questions around the position as a researcher regarding the work of recounting, investigating and objectifying death. These questions refer to: how do we write about the dead? What do the dead pose to us? What legitimacy exists in our work as researchers when talking about what is absent? Are any ethics of care exercised in inquiry and writing about the dead in research processes? I will share these questions throughout this writing, open to debate and reflection, in the interrelation between the anthropological discipline and philosophical reflection.

Keywords : corpse; death; ethnography; writing; ethics.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )