Representaciones sociales del pasado: la dictadura militar argentina en la memoria colectiva

Abstract

This study is focused on the collective memory (CM) of the Argentine military putsch and the social representations of the past in a sample of adults in Jujuy (N = 452). The military dictatorship and related violence is a central event in collective memory, eliciting helplessness, sadness and anger. Participants did not share the social representation of Two Evils or that the putsch was a justified answer to a war situation between the guerrilla and the Army. However, representations justifying the putsch are shared both by right wing participants and by those not affected by collective violence. Politically centrist and secondary victimised participants explain collective violence through irrationality. Cluster analysis show that free or open answers and closed or rating responses converge on types of responses that are congruently related to proximity to violence and political ideology. Social representation of the dictatorship as genocide, attributes the responsibility to the institutions, not to victims, is associated to negative emotions, and is dominant in left wing participants and among direct victims, being marginal in right wing participants. © 2012 by Fundación Infancia y Aprendizaje.