Paper short abstract

In this paper, I examine the kinship relationship between mothers and daughters in southern Chile through what I conceptualize as “violent care.” These forms of care are significant insofar as they are activated when daughters confront situations of violence in adulthood.

Paper long abstract

This paper seeks to complicate and move beyond the dichotomy that frames gender violence research in terms of a female victim versus a male perpetrator. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in southern Chile, I analyze the relationship constructed between women identified as victims of gender-based violence and their mothers. Within a sociocultural context marked by impoverishment, racialization, and persistently tense gender relations, mothers and their daughters creatively weave and unweave their kinship ties. Among the main findings, I argue that the continuity of various forms of violence operating at the social level can be transformed into “violent care” practices enacted by mothers toward their daughters. These “violent care” practices—or their lingering effects—are reactivated in daughters’ adult lives, playing a crucial role when they confront gender-based violence and evaluate how to position themselves and how to act in response to these experiences.