Paper short abstract:

In Argentina, the knowledge about the development of children from indigenous and rural communities in remote areas remains still incomplete and fragmented. This paper aims to discuss children´s development issues usually ignored by public policies and academic agenda based on ethnographic data

Paper long abstract:

In Argentina, the knowledge about the development of children from indigenous and rural communities remains still incomplete and fragmented. In those populations, the main concern is about infant mortality and morbidity, associated with endemic and infectious diseases, and barriers to access to health services. However, several problems affecting children’s daily lives are not enough studied and remain misunderstood, and their effects in the medium and long term are unknown. We aim to discuss children´s development issues usually ignored by public policies and academic agenda. We focus on “being asustado (frighten)” as a cultural category of illness in rural communities from Northwestern Argentina. From the local perspective, it has a crucial impact on children´s health, sociability, and success in school, leading to several disabilities and problems that compromise people´s life trajectories. Susto has been extensively studied in Latin American communities as a “folk illness”, even when some scholars have claimed an interdisciplinary approach. Our ethnographic research around this topic supports the need for a comprehensive and intersectional approach to their consequences in children’s development. We argue that these children are “invisible" to several public policies and lines of research that increase children’s inequalities.