Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: June 30, 2021 at 3:45:26 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Picone on Larson, 'The Conquest of the > Desert: Argentina's Indigenous Peoples and the Battle for History' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Carolyne R. Larson, ed. The Conquest of the Desert: Argentina's > Indigenous Peoples and the Battle for History. Diálogos Series. > Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press, 2020. Illustrations. > 256 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8263-6207-0. > > Reviewed by María de los Ángeles Picone (Boston College) > Published on H-LatAm (June, 2021) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > In 1879, the government of Argentina unleashed a military campaign to > northern Patagonia, known at the time as the "Conquest of the > Desert." What was the desert? For the Sarmientine generation, it was > the vast lands that surrounded economic centers, unproductive, > uninhabited, and usually beyond state control. Of course, the desert > was far from empty. In fact, the raid of 1879 sought disarticulate > indigenous chiefdoms in present-day Río Negro, Neuquén, and La > Pampa. Behind the soldiers came authorities surveying, dividing, > planning, and selling lands to whomever was willing to move to the > "new" territories. This was the official story. > > _The Conquest of the Desert_ joins a vast literature that challenges > the official narrative of the Argentina military raid of 1879.[1] By > shifting the attention to the experiences of Mapuche and Tehuelche > living in northern Patagonia, this volume highlights the > kaleidoscopic impacts of the violent removal of indigenous peoples > from their territories during the raid and its aftermath. The volume > brings together scholars from Argentina, the United States, and > Canada in different stages of their careers and from different > disciplines. It successfully weaves a multifaceted approach to the > study of a single moment in a single space, benefiting from a wealth > of sources and disciplinary frameworks. Additionally, the editors > sagely decided to permit either footnotes or in-text citations, > according to the disciplinary practice from each scholar. In an > introduction and nine chapters, this ambitious project examines the > relationship between the Argentine state and indigenous communities > of northern Patagonia during and after a military raid carried out > between 1879 and 1884. > > The introduction provides a synthesis of the history of indigenous > people of northern Patagonia. Additionally, Carolyne R. Larson, the > book's editor, in chapter 1 provides a more detailed account on the > motivations of military men and authorities to undertake the military > campaign. While it might seem counterintuitive to begin with the > official narrative, Larson presents it as the object that all > remaining chapters scrutinize. > > In chapter 2, Julio Vezub and Mark Healey begin the task of > dismantling the simplified version of columns and expeditions present > in the publications from the Ministry of War. Using extensive > correspondence and reports from the national archives (at a time when > archives are closed due to COVID-19, they make us miss archival > research!), the authors paint a vivid picture of frontier relations > from the caciques' perspective, especially _longkos _Valentín > Saygüeque and Manuel Namuncurá. Additionally, they incorporate the > always-fascinating testimony of Ignacio Cañiumir, a handwritten > document that mixes facts and fiction he allegedly sent to a > professor in 1899. > > Rob Christensen's chapter pushes against the trope of technological > superiority of the military raid by providing evidence that weather > and disease (smallpox) favored Argentine forces. The El Niño > Oscillation of 1877 caused unprecedented precipitations followed by > droughts, disrupting trading circuits. Additionally, the > consolidation of confederacies facilitated the spread of disease. As > extreme weather undermined Mapuche subsistence, so did their ability > to fight disease. Finally, the mobile nature of the war and the > imprisonment of indigenous soldiers made the Mapuche susceptible to > disease. > > In a focal shift from the military trail to the aftermath of the > campaign, Ricardo Salvatore studies the lives of Inacayal and Foyel, > two Mapuche caciques captured by the Argentine military and taken > with their families to the Museum of Natural History in the city of > La Plata. Drawing on multiple reports from people working in the > museum, the author confronts the experiences of the indigenous > families in its halls with the rationale behind exhibits of crania > and bones. In doing so, he joins a body of literature that has argued > that by filling the museum walls and showcases, scientists > symbolically filled the desert, advancing Argentine "civilization" to > northern Patagonia.[2] > > In the first four chapters, however, we lack the problematization of > the "Conquest of the Desert" as a historical construct, which > scholars in Argentina have done for decades. In chapter 5, Walter > Delrio and Pilar Pérez introduce this literature to the > English-speaking audience and reconceptualize the "Conquest of the > Desert" as a war that sought to disappear by assimilation, > subjugation, or annihilation the indigenous presence in northern > Patagonia. The authors aptly highlight the internal disparateness > within state forces and policies, resulting in equally diverse > response. While the authors have been working on such themes for > nearly a decade, the chapter at hand explains how narratives of a > victorious, finished, homogenous moment (a "conquest") still loom > large in present-day conversations of indigenous claims to land and > reparations.[3] > > In chapter 6, Jennie Daniels analyzes literary representations of the > desert in Argentine literature. The author effectively synthesizes > major works in four chronologies, concluding that the figure of the > desert provided writers with a symbolic space to mark difference > (civilization/barbarism, urban/rural, white/nonwhite). At heart, the > figure of the desert remains a liminal space in literary production > that revealed structures central to elites' ideas of the Argentine > nation, a paradox that Ernesto Livon-Grosman has also pointed out in > his examination of travel literature, _Geografías imaginarias: El > relato de viaje y la construcción del espacio patagónico_ (2003). > > In chapter 7, David Sheinin asks how the memory of the conquest > underpinned military policy toward indigenous people, especially > during the last dictatorship (1976-83). Multiple celebrations > commemorated the centennial of the conquest, accompanied by > publications that exalted the campaign of 1879. Sheinin purposely > brings to the fore the frontier as a space that escaped modernization > and where the government sought to advance the civilizing mission it > perceived to have begun a hundred years earlier. Fellow Latin > Americanists of dictatorship will recognize similar anxieties in > other countries as well. > > An experienced ethnographer, Ana Ramos, continues the examination of > memory of the conquest in chapter 8, but this time through the lens > of Mapuche oral tradition and collective texts (_nütram_). Nütram > are not only their contents but also their performance. Ramos argues > that these traditions were disappeared from the national narrative of > the conquest, silencing the experiences of captivity, enslavement, > torture, and death. However, the nütram have survived for > generations and informed present-day Mapuche political philosophies. > > In the last chapter, Sarah Warren asks how the memory of the military > campaign of 1879 appears in present-day Mapuche spatial > epistemologies. To that end, she analyzes three maps of Mapuche > territory (_Wallmapu_) published by Mapuche organizations. In these > cartographic materials Warren recognizes toponymic and geographical > markers that further revitalize Mapuche culture as a means to > strengthen their territorial claims. > > The volume has a clear unifying thread. However, its contributions as > a whole and in each individual chapter seem more fragmented. While > the introduction states that "this book adds meaningfully to > scholarship on frontier, borderlands, and settler colonialism," each > chapter engages differently with these analytical lenses, if they do > (p. 12). Particularly, I found puzzling the uneven use of "Conquest > of the Desert" both as a shorthand periodization and as the title of > the book, especially since it represents the narrative these authors > sought to dismantle. As these chapters show, the "Conquest of the > Desert" was not a conquest, and the desert was not empty. > > Overall, this volume provides a good transdisciplinary introduction > to the history of the genocide of 1879-85. In bringing this diversity > of approaches to the same table of contents, Larson enables a > conversation beyond the traditional chronological boundaries that > typify Argentine scholarship. Additionally, each chapter provides > succinct historical context, which undergraduates or anyone reading > about northern Patagonia for the first time will find accessible. > > Notes > > [1]. Miguel Alberto Bartolomé, "Los pobladores del 'desierto': > Genocidio, etnocidio y etnogénesis en la Argentina," _Cuadernos de > Antropología Social_, no. 17 (2003): > https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/1809/180913909009.pdf; Pedro Navarro > Floria, ed., _Paisajes del Progeso: La resignificación de la > Patagonia Norte, 1880-1916_ (Neuquén: Educo, 2007); Claudia Briones > and Walter Delrio, "La 'Conquista del Desierto' desde perspetivas > hegemónicas y subalternas," _RUNA, archivo para las ciencias del > hombre_ 27 (2007): 23-48; Diego Escolar, Celia Claudia Salomon > Tarquini, and Julio Esteban Vezub, "La 'Campaña del Desierto' > (1870-1890): Notas para una crítica historiográfica," in _Guerras > de la Historia Argentina_, ed. Federico Lorenz (Buenos Aires: Ariel, > 2015), 223-47; and Pilar María Victoria Pérez, "La Conquista del > desierto y los estudios sobre genocidio: Recorridos, preguntas y > debates," _La Conquista del desierto y los estudios sobre genocidio: > Recorridos, preguntas y debates_ 27, no. 2 (2019): 24-51. > > [2]. Irina Podgorny and Maria Margaret Lopes, _El desierto en una > vitrina: Museos e historia natural en la Argentina, 1810-1890_ > (Mexico City: Limusa, 2008); and Álvaro Fernández Bravo, _El museo > vacío: Acumulación primitiva, patrimonio cultural e identidades > colectivas; Argentina y Brasil, 1880-1945_ (Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, > 2016). > > [3]. Walter Delrio and Pilar Pérez, "Territorializaciones y > prácticas estatales: Percepciones del espacio social luego de la > Conquista del Desierto," in _Cultura y espacio: > Araucanía-Norpatagonia_, ed. Pedro Navarro Floria and Walter Delrio > (S. C. de Bariloche: Universidad Nacional de Río Negro - Instituto > de Investigaciones en Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio, > 2011), 237-52. > > Citation: María de los Ángeles Picone. Review of Larson, Carolyne > R., ed., _The Conquest of the Desert: Argentina's Indigenous Peoples > and the Battle for History_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. June, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55740 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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