Someone working in the Cemetery learns what life is: subjectification and objectification processes of human remains in San Vicente Cemetery, Córdoba, Argentina

procesos de subjetivación y objetivación de restos humanos en el Cementerio San Vicente, Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

This article brings together the main lines of research that culminated in my Final Degree Project in Anthropology. The work was carried out between 2018 and 2020 and sought to investigate the processes of "subjectification" and "objectification" of human remains, by the employees of the San Vicente Cemetery, who manipulate human remains from their entry to their burial., exhumation, reduction and cremation. The focus, attentive to the representations and emotionalities of these agents, allowed me to understand other aspects of attitudes towards death. The position that the employees occupy, as intermediaries between the world of the living and the dead, based on direct treatment with the human remains that enter the necropolis, was fertile for me to investigate these processes.