Lecture in the framework of the parallel programme of the exhibition “Resistant Women”, at the Alcântara Library, in Lisbon. With Laura Muñoz-Encinar.

Arqueologia e repressão:

Violência contra as mulheres na guerra civil e o regime franquista

The Francoist repressive strategy unleashed after the coup d’état of 18 July 1936 developed complex mechanisms of physical and psychological punishment. Within Franco’s repressive system there was a specific procedure applied to Republican women. In this presentation, I provide an analysis of the repression suffered by women during the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship in Spain. For that purpose, I draw on stories of female victims, who suffered physical and psychological humiliation, and on mass graves with bodies of women. The research is based on a holistic study of material, oral and written sources from an archaeological, forensic, and historical perspective. It is argued that the different repressive strategies used against the female population by Spanish fascism was motivated by the perception of women as second-class citizens and therefore inferior to men. Their punishment followed criteria of exemplarity.

Laura Muñoz-Encinar is a specialist in the Archaeology of Contemporary Conflict and Forensic Anthropology, focusing on repression processes conducted in 20th-century wars in Spain and Europe and gender studies. Her research takes a holistic analysis of mass graves through an interdisciplinary approach combining history, archaeology, and forensic anthropology. This combination of disciplines provides an integrated analysis of the contexts of contemporary political violence, showing new approaches to the production of historical knowledge. Her research career has been centred on the exhumations of mass graves of victims of extrajudicial repression, from the perspective of forensic archaeology, with the aim of analysing the repressive strategies developed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and Franco’s dictatorship (1939-1975). Inside this approach, she has a special interest in analysing gendered violence in war and post-conflict scenarios. Moreover, she has examined the importance of scientific evidence for the interpretation of past events and the production of historical knowledge about contemporary political violence.