Abstract

PAIARO, Melisa  and  SANCHEZ, Ana. Documentary Traces of the (Dis)appearance of Bodies: Irregular Burials and Forensic Anthropology in a Public Cemetery in Córdoba. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2024, n.55, pp.89-113.  Epub Apr 19, 2024. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda55.2024.04.

This article reflects on the extensive use of irregular burials in public cemeteries as a method of disappearance/elimination of bodies during the last civic-military dictatorship in Argentina. Drawing on a historical-anthropological perspective, it investigates a paradigmatic case: the discovery of one of the largest mass graves in Latin America, located in the San Vicente Cemetery in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. The underlying assumption guiding the analysis is that irregular burial involved the intervention of bureaucratic-administrative instances linked to the regular handling of corpses-hospitals, morgues, and public cemeteries-resulting in the existence of documentary traces that currently account for its use and extent. The article begins with the description of a letter written in 1980 by morgue workers and a newspaper article about the first identification in Córdoba, serving as temporal markers of a lengthy search process. The geographical and historical reconstruction of San Vicente and its burial practices configure it as a territory of marginalities and impurities, as a receiver of bodies of the sick, the poor, and also “subversive delinquents.” Analyzed as cultural artifacts, the morgue's entry books and the 1980 letter reveal different aspects of the irregular burial practice and how the bodies of the murdered were incorporated into the routines of state agencies. Such records were crucial in the forensic anthropological work of searching for and locating the large mass grave. The article is framed among studies focusing on the “legal” and “administrative” forms of state repression and terror. It seeks to highlight the importance of preliminary investigation and interdisciplinarity in the application of forensic anthropology, not only in the analyzed geographical area but also in clarifying the multiple violences that permeate the region.

Keywords : Argentine dictatorship; bureaucratic documents; burials; cemetery; disappearance methods; forensic anthropology; preliminary investigation.

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