Cortarse. Un análisis antropológico de las autolesiones en cárceles uruguayas

Abstract

We propose to analyze the representations and meanings around self-harm inflicted by persons deprived of their liberty in Uruguay, based on the results of investigations in prisons for men and women in Montevideo and the Metropolitan area between 2015 and 2022. Although the ethnographies in such issue did not necessarily have among its objectives to investigate the meanings body and wounds, this subject emerged from encountering the results of them. The methodological approach in these investigations  included interviews and participant observation, and in some of them, the application of surveys, workshops and systematization of secondary data.

This article describes the meanings given to self-inflicted injuries by persons deprived of liberty and the dimensions that arise from the analysis of their speeches, delving into three of them. What is their place in their experience in prison? On the other hand, considering that the investigations have had men, women, foreigners and non-foreigners as interlocutors, it is worth asking ourselves: are there specificities in these senses between men and women deprived of liberty? And finally, considering that gender is not the only element that marks difference and inequality, do distinctive elements appear in the discourse of non-Uruguayan prisoners about these practices?