Ethnicity and policy concerning the treatment of human remains

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide some reflection from the field of social anthropology to the discussion concerning the treatment of human remains of archaeological and bioanthropological interest. This is the result a long-term research project based on the observation of the present socio-cultural dynamics of indigenous peoples, their presence, their demands, their knowledge, learning and utopias. These reflections are the product of a dialogue with the field theory itself and also with the contributions made by indigenous people as well as by specialists, which whom we have shared a number of events, both academic and extra-academic. Research started addressing and, therefore, establishing it as its object of analysis, the different presences of indigenous people –in the plural, as a way of recognizing the multiplicity of forms which these embody– in the cities; something denied in an Argentina that thought itself as white, almost European and coming “from the ships”. To this end, it was necessary to take into account both the transformation processes that indigenous peoples have experienced and those involving society as a whole. It was also necessary to reassess the past from a present viewpoint and to question some ideas that hinder and even prevent the possibility of recognizing ethnicity as a political expression in socioanthropological terms. Indigenous peoples confront us with alternate forms of existence that not only call for the need of historical reparation but also demand that we act in such a way as to overcome the inequalities and injustices that characterize a hegemonic order.

Keywords indigenous peoples; public policies; racism