Genetic Analysis Aimed at the Identification of Appropriated Children: Political and Scientific Construction of “Nature” and Kinship

Abstract

This article deals with the genetic analysis aimed at the identification of children appropriated during the last Argentine military dictatorship. For this purpose, the discussions on the nature-culture dichotomy are considered, with an approach to kinship as a political construction from the searching action of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers), promoting scientific techniques for the “discovery” of the biological bond. In this sense, the forms of legal construction of families connected to the identification; the subsequent constitution of family relationships, as well as certain social effects that transcend them are also studied. In this way, it will be argued that even in cases in which kinship seems to come to an end in the blood bond, the biological aspect does not exist beyond the social and symbolic practices.