Cold War Toys: Material Cultures of Childhood in Argentina

这个项目提供了冷战期间阿根廷玩具的文化、政治和情感历史，特别是在1946年(贝隆主义的出现)到1983年(阿根廷最后一次文武独裁统治结束)之间。它将分析它们作为物质玩具的生产、流通、消费、价值和意义。该项目超越了对美苏分歧的痴迷，特别是在流行文化和物质文化方面，旨在将我们的注意力转移到其他意识形态斗争领域，即童年的物质文化。研究问题包括：政治斗争如何影响冷战时期拉丁美洲玩具的设计、商业化、广告和消费？玩具在社会变革运动、民粹主义政府和威权政权中扮演了什么角色？今天，玩具、纪念品、工艺品和其他日常用品在阿根廷痛苦的过去的集体记忆中扮演着什么角色？该项目通过一系列公共活动将博物馆、纪念地、收藏家、策展人、教育工作者、从业人员和学者聚集在一起，包括在纪念公园举办展览--纪念1976年政变45周年(2021年)和恢复民主40周年(2023年)期间国家恐怖主义受害者纪念碑，在ESMA博物馆和纪念地与教师举办一系列讲习班，以及合著一本书。自第一个贝隆主义时代以来，阿根廷一直站在承认玩具在拉丁美洲的文化、政治和历史价值的前沿。这个南锥体国家还拥有该地区更进步的记忆政治之一。虽然学者们对玩具的研究在20世纪60年代随着当地玩具业的衰落而结束，但这个项目也将考虑在那十年后生产和消费的玩具和游戏，特别是在1976-1983年独裁统治期间和之后制造和玩耍的玩具和游戏。该项目以合作行动研究为基础，使用广泛的理论和概念框架，包括媒体考古学、记忆研究、政治哲学、艺术和文学的概念和方法，将涉及事实、工业和历史信息，以及与儿童物质文化有关的象征性、政治性甚至诗意的叙述。因此，冷战玩具将把玩具视为商业商品、有影响力的(跨)国家产业的产品，以及收藏品、历史文献、纪念品和叙事工具。玩具将智力和情感结合在一起，承载着意义和体验。他们是一种文化的传播者和镜子。玩具是孩子们最初掌握历史的媒介。它们象征着一个时代的精神，一个特定社会对其当下的愿景，以及儿童在其中所扮演的角色。玩具也告诉了我们很多关于我们与市场的关系，因为我们通过玩具学会了成为消费者。玩具的用途和价值表明，它们不仅是历史的表现，而且本身也是历史的一部分，从这个意义上说，它们具有相当大的文化重要性。该项目是及时的，因为冷战继续在美国和拉美关系紧张的背景下产生共鸣，尤其是在该地区继续应对唐纳德·特朗普回归“坏邻居”政策(2017-2021年)的影响之际。此外，在南美洲，独裁政权受害者的亲属继续抗议过去的暴行，挖掘坟墓，并积极推动对肇事者的法律索赔。该地区的国内玩具业也几乎消失了。该项目将关注的收藏品让我们想起了国家生产受到重视的时代。他们不仅谈到了玩具的历史和记忆，还谈到了这些国家的工业和该地区的设计历史。

This project provides a cultural, political and affective history of Argentine toys during the Cold War, specifically between 1946 (the emergence of Peronism) and 1983 (the end of the last civic-military dictatorship in Argentina). It will analyse their production, circulation, consumption, value and meaning as material playthings. Moving beyond the obsession with the US-USSR divide, particularly in terms of popular and material culture, the project aims to shift our attention to other spheres of ideological struggle, namely the material culture of childhood. Research questions include: How did political struggles influence the design, commercialisation, advertising and consumption of playthings in Cold War Latin America? What role did toys play in movements for social change, populist governments and authoritarian regimes? And what role do toys, souvenirs, crafts and other everyday objects play today in the collective remembrance of the Argentine traumatic past? The project brings together museums, sites of memory, collectors, curators, educators, practitioners and academics via a series of public engagment activities, including an exhibition at the Remembrance Park-Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism in the midst of events commemorating the 45th anniversary of the 1976 coup (2021) and the 40th anniversary of the return to democracy (2023), a series of workshops with teachers at the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, and a co-authored book. Since the first Peronist era, Argentina has been at the forefront of recognising the cultural, political and historical value of toys in Latin America. The Southern Cone country also has one of the region's more progressive memory politics. While scholars' research into toys ends in the 1960s with the decline of the local toy industry, this project will also consider toys and games produced and consumed after that decade, particularly those manufactured and played with during and after the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Based on collaborative action research and using a broad theoretical and conceptual framework that includes concepts and methods from media archaeology, memory studies, political philosophy, art and literature, the project will engage with factual, industrial and historical information as well as with the symbolic, political, and even poetic narratives attached to children's material cultures. Cold War Toys will thus consider toys as commercial goods, as the products of an influential (trans)national industry, and as collectors' items, historical documents, souvenirs and narrative devices. Toys bring together intellect and emotion, carrying meanings and experiences. They are objects of transmission and mirrors of a culture. Toys are the mediums through which children first grasp history. They symbolize the spirit of a time, the vision that a particular society has of its present, and the role that children play in it. Toys also tell us a great deal about our relationship with the market, for we learn to be consumers with toys. The uses and values of toys demonstrate that they are not only representations of history but are themselves part of history and, in that sense, they are of considerable cultural importance. The project is timely because the Cold War continues to resonate in the tense context of US/Latin America relations, not least as the regions continue to deal with the fallout of Donald Trump's return to a 'bad neighbor' policy (2017-2021). In South America, moreover, the relatives of the dictatorships' victims continue to protest past atrocities, exhume graves, and actively press legal claims against perpetrators. Domestic toy industries in the region have also all but disappeared. The collections the project will look at remind us of a time when national production was valued. They say a great deal not just about the history and memory of toys but also about the industries of these countries and the history of design in the region.