Transformaciones de la heteronormatividad en contextos violentos y de pacificación. El cuerpo como campo de lucha en la región de Los Montes de María

Abstract

This doctoral thesis proposes, in general terms, an approach to the historical construction, implementation and transformation of the heteronormative system in an ethnically diverse, highly racialized, socially marginalized, economically impoverished, and endemically violent context. In particular, it addresses the genealogical-historical analysis of heteronormativity in Los Montes de María, a region of the Colombian Caribbean, characterized by its racialized construction, with Afro-descendant, indigenous and “libres de todos los colores" populations; a weak and late presence of state and ecclesiastical institutions; for being an economic enclave with a deeply impoverished population; and with a continuum of extraordinary violence that, until today, has positioned it as one of the most violent regions of the country.
In this context, and from a theoretical approach resulting from the encounter between European critical theory, the classical school of Latin American social though and southern feminisms, heteronormativity is analyzed as a modern system of arrangement of pleasures and erotic desire that intercepts with other systems of arrangement present in racialized contexts and coloniality, such as this one. From this contextual and conceptual framework, this research reconstructs the historical development of heteronormativity in Los Montes de María, its interceptions with race and class, as well as its links with ordinary and extraordinary violence. It also analyzes the genealogical development of the inhabitants of the region as dangerous and abject subjects, and of the territory as an endemic place of violence; finally, it identifies the relationships built between heteronormativity and recent violence framed in the current armed conflict.
For this purpose, a combination of tools from historical anthropology, ethnographic method and critical documentary analysis was used, which allowed to approach in a central way the last three centuries of the historical development of heteronormativity in the region. From this, it is possible to demonstrate that heteronormativity is a social device implemented in the region since the late eighteenth century; that it has a violent nature that has allowed the construction of the great inequalities and violence that have characterized the Montes de María; and that it is at the basis of the extraordinary violence of the current armed conflict.

Date of Award	22 Apr 2022
Original language	Spanish
Awarding Institution	Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Supervisor	Antonio Giménez Merino (Director) & Rocío Medina Martín (Director)