Cold War Toys: Material Cultures of Childhood in Argentina

该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（庇隆主义的出现）和1983年（阿根廷最后一个公民军事独裁政权的结束）之间。它将分析它们的生产、流通、消费、价值和作为物质玩物的意义。超越对美苏分歧的痴迷，特别是在大众文化和物质文化方面，该项目旨在将我们的注意力转移到意识形态斗争的其他领域，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、民粹主义政府和专制政权的运动中扮演了什么角色？今天，玩具、纪念品、工艺品和其他日常用品在阿根廷创伤过去的集体记忆中发挥了什么作用？该项目通过一系列公共纪念活动，包括在纪念1976年政变45周年（2021年）和恢复民主40周年（2023年）期间在纪念公园-国家恐怖主义受害者纪念碑举办展览，将博物馆，记忆遗址，收藏家，策展人，教育工作者，从业人员和学者聚集在一起，与ESMA博物馆和记忆遗址的教师一起举办了一系列研讨会，并合著了一本书。自第一个庇隆主义时代以来，阿根廷一直站在承认拉丁美洲玩具的文化，政治和历史价值的最前沿。这个南锥体国家也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，但本项目也将考虑在这十年之后生产和消费的玩具和游戏，特别是那些在1976-1983年独裁统治期间和之后生产和玩的玩具和游戏。基于合作行动研究，并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，该项目将与事实，工业和历史信息以及与象征，政治，甚至是诗歌的叙述。因此，冷战玩具将玩具视为商品，作为一个有影响力的（跨）国家产业的产品，并作为收藏家的项目，历史文献，纪念品和叙事手段。玩具将智力和情感结合在一起，承载着意义和体验。它们是文化的传播对象和镜子。玩具是儿童第一次掌握历史的媒介。玩具象征着一个时代的精神，一个特定社会对现在的看法，以及儿童在其中扮演的角色。玩具还告诉我们很多关于我们与市场的关系，因为我们学会了成为玩具的消费者。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/拉丁美洲关系的紧张背景下产生共鸣，尤其是该地区继续应对唐纳德特朗普回归“坏邻居”政策（2017-2021）的影响。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，并积极对肇事者提出法律的索赔。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一个重视国家生产的时代。它们不仅讲述了玩具的历史和记忆，还讲述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.