‘The Indian’ and ‘Politics’. Transgressive Indigeneities in Political Activism before and after State Terrorism in Argentina

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article we investigate the modes in which transgressive Indigeneities folded in the so-called indio político (the figure of the Indian as activist) inhabit the politicisation of the Indigenous in Argentina. For this purpose we dwell on the circumstances and effects of self-recognition, recognition and misrecognition of the indio político along the curve of indigenous politicisation that goes from the seventies to the present. In particular, we focus on the discourse of an indigenous political organisation during the conjuncture of social and political mobilisation that preceded the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983), on one hand, and on the discourses and performances during the trials of State terrorism (ongoing since 2003) in a context characterised by de-indigeneisation, on the other. We conclude with some remarks on the contextual modalisations of the transgressive subjectivities we call indio político.