Los museos ya son parte de nuestra vida cotidiana, en ellos uno puede llevar a su familia, a sus hijos, porque siempre encierran una forma de la realidad antes no contemplada. Lo que a lo largo de los años ha hecho del museo un lugar de entretenimiento y educación ha sido nuestra curiosidad, pero al margen de ella, existen factores económicos, sociales y políticos que vinculan al museo con la habilidad humana para hacer y rememorar la guerra o eventos inesperados (...) de un alto impacto para la sociedad (traumáticos) como ser desastres naturales. El museo, de alguna u otra parte,parece sublimar todas nuestras expectativas respecto a nuestra destructividad y a la presencia de la muerte. (shrink)

El día 30 de Diciembre de 2004 se desataba un incendio provocado por una bengala en un recital que el grupo de rock Callejeros llevaba a cabo en el local La República de Cromañón, ubicado en el barrio porteño de Once frente a la plaza Miserere; en este hecho morían trágicamente 194 personas. Después de la tragedia, se encuentra hoy un espacio en homenaje a esas víctimas, donde sus familiares y amigos tienen la oportunidad de expresar sus sentimientos más profundos. (...) ¿Es Cromañón un símbolo de religiosidad popular? ¿Qué particularidades presenta y cuales son sus ritos más característicos? ¿Qué elementos dan origen a esta expresión? El objetivo de esta investigación es precisar si estamos frente a un fenómeno de religiosidad popular, bajo qué contextos opera, cuáles son sus ritos más comunes y como se han originado. Para analizar la religiosidad popular, se toman cinco elementos presentes en estos fenómenos: la sacralización de los muertos, la idea de conflicto social, el sincretismo, las fechas conmemorativas, y la promesa como relación entre el devoto y el santo. Mediante entrevistas en profundidad y otras técnicas cualitativas pudimos establecer una relación entre esas categorías teóricas y los hechos empíricos.On December 30, 2004 there was surfaced an untied fire provoked by a flare in a recital that Callejeros group of rock This was leading to end in the place Cromañón's Republic, located in the neighborhood of once opposite to the Miserere Square; in this fact tragically 194 persons were dying. After the tragedy, one finds today a space in honoring to these victims, where their parents and friends have the opportunity to express their most deeper feelings. Is Cromañón a symbol of popular religiousness? What does points present and which are its more typical rites? What elements have given origin to this expression? This investigation is aimed to clarify if we are before a phenomenon of popular religiousness, under which contexts it operates and which are its own more common rites and since they have originated. To analyze the popular religiousness, five present elements take in these phenomena: the sacralization of murders, the idea of social conflict, the syncretism, the commemorative dates, and the promise as relation among the devout one and the saint. By means of interviews in depth and other qualitative methods we could establish a relation among these theoretical categories and the empirical facts. (shrink)

The modern companies incur in costs at time of forming their statistic departments and marketing. They are ahead to the future, like doctrinal form of getting a competitive success. These same organizations are predisposed to articulate an entire series of legal-rational mechanisms with arrangements to established objectives. Manuals are written and many experts dictated courses of how to use the preference and projection techniques. In spite of this, we find a great bibliographical gap with regard to the same social origin (...) of statistic. According to our perspective, statistics are bound directly to the magic . In this sense, the social and politic Anthropology is predisposed to be an useful discipline since provides practical cases that allow to draw a relationship between both phenomena. (shrink)

The present paper explores not only the psychological effects of 11 September in the political fields, but also connects with the risk of pre-emption in USinternational affairs. What is important to discuss in this work is the role played by the media in portraying news, and a pejorative image of Islam. This ancient religion is presented as being backward and barbaric in many senses. Beyond having an encompassing understanding of the history of Islam, the media dissuades public opinion the preventive (...) war is the only valid resource. The project of Enlightenment has been gone forever. It was replaced by modernity. As civilization West developed a technophile sentiment of superiority that fulfilled the gap given by secularization. It is hypothesized that 9/11 represents the encounter of two civilizations whose cultural values are at odds. This belief is oriented at creating a demonization of Islam. First and foremost, both religions, Islam and Christianity have coexisted in peace over centuries. Secondly, Arabs even supported Judaism in its attempts to achieve independence from Rome. This begs a striking question, to what groups these stereotypes are conducive? While demonization paves the ways to reduce the sentiment of culprit, preemption give a reason to act. (shrink)

Many scholars in recent years have focused their efforts on revealing the connection of philosophy and authority. Basically, from Nietzsche onwards, philosophyhas witnessed ongoing efforts for “will to power” by some philosophers and of course this motivated many philosophers to take part in politics. Nonetheless, thismoot point engendered a serious risk and not only contrasted with the Socratic contributions, but also paved the way for the advent of a new way of making politics where philosophy and scientific prestige are being (...) manipulated following certain interests. By comparing the US and Argentinian climates, this paper explores to what extent philosophy can and must remain independent of politics. Even though one might think of Heidegger as a clear example of this relationship, there are many other philosophers who were interested in politics and committed to political parties. One of the aspects that characterizes this new way of politics is the theatrification of reality, and philosophers are part of this process. To some extent, the prestige given to scholars for their contribution to society is being conferred to some privileged groups to gain more legitimacy, precisely in a world where the classical institutions are gradually declining. (shrink)

The Second World War symbolizes how a radical evil can be embodied in human minds. After holocaust many scholars tried to bond Frederic Nietzsche as the precursor of Nationalsocialism. Quite aside from such a fallacy, the present article not only intends to recover the thought of this outstanding philosopher but also trace on the roots of ancient Norse mythology in the inception of existentialism and capitalism. Echoing the contribution of a previous article written originally by Martin Jenkins, we put our (...) efforts in explaining the liaison between mythical archetype and the world of ideas. (shrink)

En el siguiente trabajo de revision no solo examinamos la ya clásica obra de Zizek, El Titere y el Enano, sino que tomamos su parte más polemica para establecer una nueva lectura no solo del cristianismo sino de lo que en otros abordajes Korstanje llamo el capitalismo mortuorio, o Thana Capitalism. Con la muerte de Cristo comienza una nueva face donde el sufrimiento humano se hace atractivo para Europa. Como un gran tentador para la humanidad, por medio de Lucifer, (...) el hombre cree en Dios y al hacerlo encuentra “la vida eterna”. En un mundo donde el hijo de Dios vive por siempre aferrándose a su creencia, la muerte de los hijos se vive como una imposibilidad. Creemos que esta concepción es superadora de las limitaciones que deja Zizek en su desarrollo, sobre todo en su texto Is God dead, unconsciouss, Evil, Impotent, Stupid… or just Counter-factual?, publicado en forma reciente en Int. Journal of Zizek Studies. En el Capitalismo Mortuorio, la imagen de un Dios muerto es de vital importancia pues exhibe el “sufrimiento extremo”, como forma de entretenimiento. En la actualidad, desde los espectáculos deportivos donde sólo uno se queda con todo, o los films, donde todos mueren menos uno, el tema del sufrimiento se encuentra presente en Talk Shows, media, TV, revistas, magazines o programas de periodismo por doquier. Insistentemente, la tragedia ajena se ha transformado en un commodity que asegura mayores inversores y ventas; hecho por el cual, entre otras cosas, es imposible desprenderse de la fascinación, temor y obsesión por el terrorismo moderno. (shrink)

This essay review discusses criticall the book the universal excemption of Slavoj Zizek. Just after finishing my two recent books: Tracing Spikes in Fear and Narcissism in Western Democracies Since 9/11 and The Challenges of Democracy in the War on Terror. While in the first work I traced back the limitations of Psychoanalysis as well as its complicities to legitimate the advance and expansion of capitalism, the latter focused on the role of torture –as a lesser evil- of contemporary government (...) in their war on terror. One of my arguments sounded polemically as though not only terrorism is the organization of labor by other means but psychoanalysis organized a specific ethics, which extracting its nature from ancient Greek philosophy, ascribed to the theory of scarcity which is the touchstone of capitalism. Secondly but most important, Occident carefully developed a doctrine of security, which the part may be sacrificed at the moment the body is in danger. Let me put the medical metaphor of cancer. While the medical gaze is programmed to look and eradicate the pathology, the illness, cancer derives from an anomaly of cell growth. Once some organs are affected, the medical gaze does not hesitate in extirpating the affected organ. The same allegory can be applied to the war on terror and the serious risks of ghettoization the Muslim community daily faces. (shrink)

Quien ya esté familiarizado con el legado y las contribuciones de Slavoj Zizek, y lea su último trabajo en español Problemas en el Paraíso se encontrara con conceptos repetidos, ideas ya conocidas en su argumentación pero que a pesar de ello y por la profundidad de su pensamiento valen la pena volver a leer. Como corolario positivo Zizek indaga en las representaciones capitalistas y sus efectos sobre las conductas del quehacer cotidiano. En otras palabras, nuestro filósofo esloveno ofrece un abordaje (...) holístico que explica no solo las asimetrías de clases sino la función primordial sobre la cual se inviste la ideología. Reducir una reseña a una simple descripción de capítulos como marca las normas internacionales es sintetizar a Zizek, reducirlo a una expresión que bordea la polémica y sesgar parte de sus tesis principales. (shrink)

In the hyper-mobile world of today, the industry of tourism and cultural entertainment, witnesses the multiplication of opportunities to travel. According to John Urry, we inhabit mobile cultures where being kind to strangers is a positive cultural value. This reality archives the bloody past of hospitality, which from the ideological fields facilitated, for instance, the conquest of the Americas. In the present discussion, I delve into the world of literature and explore Viaje a caballo por las provincias Argentinas [Journey on (...) horseback across the provinces of Argentine] a work originally written by William Mac Cann, a British businessman who visited the country between 1947 and 1948. His observations not only reveal the collective patterns of behaviour that have remained part of daily life up to date. The volume describes the attempts of an elite interested in creating a united, but subordinated, image of society, and illuminates the diverse mechanisms of imperial expansion. Hospitality plays a crucial role in the hierarchy of travellers presented in the book, with some belonging to the higher classes of society and others unnamed. (shrink)

Western societies characterize by promoting material well-being enrooted in legal-rational administration as a form of development. Although, the study of crime has been broadly studied in recent years, many scholars devoted attention in analysing the bridge between authority and penitentiaries. This paper obliges us to rethink the relationship between mythopoeia, punishment and crime. Social deviation is often represented as a taboo wherein offender is loathed. Each group in different ways legitimates their own ways of economical production. Our modern capitalist world (...) is provided with an impersonal logic based on imbalances of class and the exploitation of weaker workers. Inversely, the life in prison draws on solidarity considering violence and strength as a mechanism for social upward. From this point of view, everyone who abused of weakest in their crimes are subdued to the authority of all who are jailed due to crimes committed against strongest, the State or the Police. Not only the logic of civility is upheld, but also the prisoners trivialize the power of State in spite of rehearsed hardermethod of repression. Certainly, by understanding the nuances of this discourse in sites of imprisonment are a pathway to realize about the limitations of our own society and style of life. The otherness calls our difference questioning our proper way of constructing the reality. (shrink)

Centered in the analysis of discourse over films, the present work debates the general drawing of the film IRONMAN and its connection of Muslim terrorism. Ourmain thesis is that globalization plays a pervasive role since at a first glance homogenizes the domination of technology, economic linkages and rationalization while for the other side it entails a process of re-territorialization based on an elusive logic. Cynically, whether we accept that the doctrine of free-market postulates the exchange between developed and underdeveloped nations (...) physical and symbolic barriers to migration are erected from periphery to center. The poverty and lack of perspective pave the ways for the upsurge of national movements. Even though terrorism can be part of social discontent, some other alternatives within the law are possible. This discourse that nourished the American ethnocentrism in the last years can be viewed in several movies and the industry of entertainment. Muslim Terrorist as social construal has become in a social taboo, for one hand this generates fear but at the same time attraction. In terms of Eliade, Althusser, Wolf, Ricoeur and Zizek one might surmise that ideology works as something else than a dissuasive message. Ideology, and of course IRONMAN helps viewers to resolve the contradictions between nature and culture. (shrink)

Why do the United States reserve the right to be called “America” by conferring the “Americas” to the whole continent?, is that a clear sign of discrimination or supremacy or both? Ideologically, America refers to the United States of “America” excluding other regions such as Latin America, central or South America. This leads some scholars to explain convincingly that, beyond this subtle grammatical difference, the Anglo-ethnocentrism in the United States has been drawn to make their citizens believe they are unique, (...) outstanding, and special. Basically, this belief allowed not only to fight against the political enemies in Europe or in any other geographical point, but also to control the incipient worker union leaderships. What merits further attention, anyway, is the sentiment of exemplarity instilled by the founding parents of this nation. Fear was historically a mechanism of control employed by US governments at different stages in several ways. Our intention is not only to review how the fear disciplined by the claims of work-force, but also explain why the sentiment of exemplarity and fear are inextricably intertwined. (shrink)

After the Chernobyl’s and Three Miles’s accidents, the relation between technology and risk started to be questioned. Social scientist posited considerable criticism against technology and how its interventions may engender new dangers. However, these views ignored the fact that risks are not just a result of technology, but also depend upon the trust and knowledge. Any risk, first, should be defined as a narrative which is enrooted in a previous cultural and stereotyped framework. By itself, technology is only an instrument (...) employed in different directions. This essay review explores the limitations and approaches of two senior sociologists who delved in the study of risk and climate change, Cass Sunstein and Anthony Giddens. (shrink)