"Family-ism" and "maternalism" have been key notions in legitimizing certain forms of public speech in post-dictatorship Argentina. During the 1976-1983 dictatorship, the military, as well as the human rights movement, used rhetoric of the family to interpret their place in public confrontation. Family-related definitions dominated human rights organizations ("Mothers", "Grandmothers", "Relatives", and so "Sons" and "Siblings"). On the other hand, DNA tests to identify children who had been kidnapped gave genetics a privileged role in demands based on victimhood. This process poses perturbing questions about the relation between these criteria and the forging of a more ample notion of citizens’ equality.
Family-ism; Maternalism; Political Repression Kidnapping of Children; Argentina; Human Rights