The exposed vulnerability of the body. Records of antipersonnel mine victimization in Colombia

Abstract

The tragedy of people affected by anti-personnel landmines and explosive remnants of war reveals fundamental dimensions of the victimization experience. They have to face a new relation with their vulnerable body, the indirect victimization of their families and the socio-cul-tural processes of exclusion that arise around of their victimized bodies. This paper is the outcome of a work of historical memory reconstruction carried out in three Colombian municipalities with members of associations of anti-personnel landmines and explosive remnants of war victims. The article concludes that the victimization produced by these weapons is not reduced to the direct affectation of the victim’s body, that the dimension of the victimization processes in linked with the local social characteristics and gender understandings, and that the vulnerable body public exposition implies a new setting of the affective dynamics of social recognition.