Introduction

This book questions the military of Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976–1983) from a unique, counter-hegemonic position. By approaching the military as families, it provides unprecedented ethnographic insights into their social lives, as well as into the human relationships and social structures that sustained systematic violence in the Seventies. Perpetrators Within? delves into the ordinary dynamics of political repression in the past, and it presents the ongoing process of bringing those responsible to justice from the point of view of military families. As a result, it fills a crucial gap in understanding Argentina’s violence, trauma and memory. The book ultimately challenges the stereotypes that shape social attitudes and academic studies of the military, broadening our understanding of political and State violence, as well as the social norms and meanings that have been constructed around it.