A new aesthetic to fight malnutrition: anthropological views on child care interventions in the province of Salta, Argentina

Abstract

In the province of Salta (Argentina), child malnutrition is a public health problem that particularly affects children in indigenous communities. The provincial government’s Primary Health Care programme has been implementing socio-health actions for children since the 1980s, while in recent years several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been working on the prevention and treatment of nutritional deficiencies. In this scenario, anthropological research was carried out in rural areas of the departments of Orán, Rivadavia and Capital with the aim of investigating the ways of managing the care of the child population. Through the analysis of original ethnographic records and secondary sources, we describe the actions implemented in the fight against malnutrition, as well as the meanings surrounding care, childhood and the “novelty” involved in the interventions of certain NGOs. From both spaces, we find technologies of government that are inscribed in neoliberal governmentality and similar meanings around child care; however, the ethnographic perspective allows us to find tensions around the ways of understanding cultural otherness and differences between those who implement the interventions.