LOS VESTIGIOS DE LA REVOLUCIÓN Y LA CONTRAINSURGENCIA: RUINACIÓN DE ARMAS Y MONUMENTALIZACIÓN EN PROCESOS DE PAZ EN COLOMBIA

For anthropology, materiality is part of the configuration and mediation of social relations. Material objects can be endowed with different meanings and symbolic values through human praxis. However, they can also be understood as non-human agents that affect the subjectivity and affectivity of people even through their destruction. In this text, based on two transitional contexts in Colombia, one between the government and the M19 guerrilla (1990) and the other with paramilitary groups (2003-2006), I analyse the processes of laying down arms and the social life of the social life of the weapons melted down after the demobilisation of the combatants. To this end, I use documents, press material and audiovisual records to reconstruct both processes and the metamorphosis of weapons in the transition from war to peace. The product of the foundry, presented as a vestige of war and an emblem of peace, is understood here as a powerful memorial vehicle for analysing different transitional processes.