ABSTRACT
The social protests, consisting of street manifestations, public declarations, scientific investigations, and court cases, had been organized through regular asamblea meetings since 2004. This chapter examines the Argentinean asamblea as an assemblage, drawing on ethnographic research carried out in the last decade. Assemblage theory builds on a realist and materialist ontology and forms part of what is currently labeled the post-humanist, ontological, or material turn. Inspired by recent anthropological work on social protest and grassroots mobilization, the chapter analyzes how the assembling process takes place at asamblea meetings. Much time at the asamblea meetings is dedicated to discuss how to create legitimacy for illegal and legal actions alike. The chapter depicts how asamblea meetings are heterogeneous configurations, assembling different people and groups of people, regardless of whether they are affected directly or indirectly, or if they are 'authentic' victims of an event.
