The textures of silence: violence, memory and the limits of anthropological endeavours

What are the ethical dilemmas that conducting research on memory in South Africa poses to the student of conflict and violence? How do they shape the nature of the anthropological endeavor? In the specific context of "victim support groups" in South Africa, one of the most problematic issues is the one concerning the interactions between "trauma experts" and "victims." This paper points out that the violence of voicelessness may be re-inscribed through the intervention of these experts. This harm is crystallized in the tensions between voice and silence, and between historical recognition and invisibility. One of the effects of this amplification, which determines the limits and possibilities of any research on memory as it connects to violence, is a widespread reaction against the intervention of these experts, whose work, the production and dissemination of knowledge about trauma, is often perceived by survivors as being part of a broader economy of subtraction where their "experiences" and "volees" have become commodities. In this regard, silence can be viewed as a historical artifact.