Private Narratives and Infant Views: Iconizing 1970s Militancy in Contemporary Argentine Cinema

This is the author's accepted manuscript, made available with the permission of the publisher.This article analyses the connections between the subjective turn in the representation of militancy, iconicity, and historical examination in Infancia clandestina, a recent Argentine film that portrays the 1970s armed struggle through a child’s lens. Breaking with the leading interpretation that praises the movie because of its original exposition of left-leaning violence, I contend that this coming-of-age story fits within a version of militancy that originated in the mid-1990s and that has become quite common since the advent of the Kirchner administration in 2003. This particular version relies on a privatized and archaic image of activism that is at the core of the global iconization of 1970s militancy. An analysis of the filmic use of an infant perspective and of anime-style cartoons illuminates how contemporary Argentine cinema both registers and participates in this iconizing process

Imagined races : from environmental determinism to geographical authenticity in twentieth‐century Argentina

This article explores how Argentine intellectuals incorporated the natural environment into their accounts of the racial, cultural and political features of the nation. In the late nineteenth century environmental determinism, based on the assumption of a cause–effect relationship between geographical and racial factors, entered Argentina through three main routes: Lamarckism, Darwinism and Spencerianism. By the mid twentieth century, however, anti‐positivist philosophies had been fully incorporated into a body of work that analysed Argentina's socio‐historical foundations. This article examines the shift that occurred during the first half of the twentieth century in how those seeking to define race incorporated the environment into their arguments. The raza was commonly taken to be synonymous with nation. Selected works by sociologist and legal scholar Carlos Octavio Bunge (1875‐1918) and by writer and ensayista Bernardo Canal Feijóo (1897‐1982) will be analysed as influential yet overlooked examples of how ‘the problem of Argentine culture’ could not be separated from the question of nature understood in terms of both physical and human geography. The goal will be to reveal, firstly, the extent to which the notion of the interior as geographical and anthropological desert deeply informed the political vision of the early national period in relation to race and nation and, secondly, how later interpretations of the nation recast American nature as a foundational element of cultural authenticity based on a sentiment of geographical belonging

Genetic variability among Commelina weed species from the states of Paraná and São Paulo, Brazil Variabilidade genética entre espécies de plantas daninhas do gênero Commelina provenientes dos estados do Paraná e São Paulo, Brasil

This work aims to carry out a comparative analysis using RAPD molecular markers in four Commelina weed species from the state of Paraná and C. benghalensis populations from the states of Paraná and São Paulo, Brazil. The genomic plant DNA sample was extracted from the leaves, separated, randomly fragmented and amplified by PCR. Random amplified polymorphic DNA fragments (RAPD markers) were analyzed by using POPGENE statistical program. Eighty-five primer sequences were tested but only three were suitable as molecular markers producing 37 DNA polymorphic fragments for comparisons among four Commelina species and 22 polymorphic fragments for comparisons among C. benghalensis populations. The results showed that there were inter-specific and intra-specific genetic variabilities among Commelina plant genera. Genetic diversity analysis between species indicated four mono-specific clusters and it was suggested to keep C. villosa as one species. Regarding the intra-specific genetic variability of C. benghalensis alone, three groups were verified, although there were 13 populations from two geographical areas. However, these clusters do not correspond to the distinct characteristics verified.<br>O presente trabalho procurou analisar a variabilidade genética, utilizando-se de marcadores RAPD, comparando quatro espécies de Commelina procedentes do Estado do Paraná e entre populações de C. benghalensis procedentes dos Estados do Paraná e São Paulo. Foi amostrado o DNA genômico extraído das folhas, o qual foi separado, fragmentado aleatoriamente e amplificado por PCR. Os fragmentos polimórficos de DNA (marcadores RAPD) foram analisados pelo programa estatístico POPGENE. Oitenta e cinco primers foram testados, mas somente três sequências foram consideradas marcadores moleculares, produzindo 37 bandas de DNA polimórfico para comparação entre as quatro espécies de Commelina e outras 22 para comparação entre as populações de C. benghalensis. Os resultados mostraram que há variabilidade genética inter e intraespecífica nas plantas do gênero Commelina. A análise da diversidade genética entre as espécies indicou quatro agrupamentos monoespecíficos, e isso sugere manter C. villosa como uma espécie. Considerando a variabilidade genética intraespecífica somente de C. benghalensis, apesar das 13 populações provenientes de dois Estados geográficos, três grupos foram identificados. Entretanto, esses agrupamentos não correspondem às características morfológicas distintas observadas

Writing and Methodology : Literary Texts as Ethnographic Datra and Creative Writing as a Means oif Investigation

The chapter will discuss the relation between writing and ethnography from two radically different perspectives. Firstly, writing as method. In academic research, the writing process is often regarded as merely a means of conveying results, and ”good writing” is even met with suspicion. Drawing from my own experience of both literary, journalistic and academic writing I will discuss the interrelations between these three writing practices, with specific focus on creative forms of academic writing and even the deployment of fictional elements in ethnographic research. Examples will be taken from the extensive discussion on the relation between Literature and Anthropology after Anthropology’s “literary turn” in the 1980s, which has implications for many other disciplines, not least Media and Communication studies. I will argue that writing itself constitutes a methodology that is under-researched in the context of Communication for Development. The second part of the chapter will ”turn the tables” and look at literary texts (books, films or other formats) as ethnographic data. Again, primarily founding my argument on my research in South Africa and Argentina, I will claim that literature may hold key information about processes of development and social change that cannot be assessed by other means. I will specifically focus on the notion of the conceptual repertoire (Appadurai) and fiction’s role in the production of collective memory and self-understanding