Huesos que hablan, estudiantes que escuchan. Etnografía del aprendizaje de habilidades de identificación en antropología biológica

Abstract

This thesis is about the formation of identification skills in bone remains within a biological anthropology laboratory at a university in Colombia. This paper is based on the phrase "bones speak and the anthropologist in training learns to listen" to inquire how it is then that bones speak and what skills do the anthropologist need to allow them to speak. This document records how in this process students learn to affect and be affected by dead bodies, instruments that carry a different and complex type of life. Thus, it is possible to see how affective skills arise in constant technical interaction, since they are sensorial, emotional, caring / self-care and ethic. This document contains an emergent conceptualization of affect and its relation with the production of knowledge, corporality and care practices is carried out. From all this, we can think about possible ways to rethink the contents of classes and technical training in academic spaces. We can also blur the idea that technical practices in biological anthropology, such as human identification, are impersonal or far from ethical training in practice.