Landscapes of Devils : Tensions of Place and Memory in the Argentinean Chaco

__Landscapes of Devils__ is a rich, historically grounded ethnography of the western Toba, an indigenous people in northern Argentina&;s Gran Chaco region. In the early twentieth century, the Toba were defeated by the Argentinean army, incorporated into the seasonal labor force of distant sugar plantations, and proselytized by British Anglicans. Gastón R. Gordillo reveals how the Toba&;s memory of these processes is embedded in their experience of &;the bush&; that dominates the Chaco landscape. __As Gordillo explains, the bush is the result of social, cultural, and political processes that intertwine this place with other geographies. Labor exploitation, state violence, encroachment by settlers, and the demands of Anglican missionaries all transformed this land. The Toba&;s lives have been torn between alienating work in sugar plantations and relative freedom in the bush, between moments of domination and autonomy, abundance and poverty, terror and healing. Part of this contradictory experience is culturally expressed in devils, evil spirits that acquire different features in different places. The devils are sources of death and disease in the plantations, but in the bush they are entities that connect with humans as providers of bush food and healing power. Enacted through memory, the experiences of the Toba have produced a tense and shifting geography. Combining extensive fieldwork conducted over a decade, historical research, and critical theory, Gordillo offers a nuanced analysis of the Toba&;s social memory and a powerful argument that geographic places are not only objective entities but also the subjective outcome of historical forces.__ Landscapes of Devils is a rich, historically grounded ethnography of the western Toba, an indigenous people in northern Argentina&;s Gran Chaco region. In the early twentieth century, the Toba were defeated by the Argentinean army, incorporated into the seasonal labor force of distant sugar plantations, and proselytized by British Anglicans. Gastón R. Gordillo reveals how the Toba&;s memory of these processes is embedded in their experience of &;the bush&; that dominates the Chaco landscape. As Gordillo explains, the bush is the result of social, cultural, and political processes that intertwine this place with other geographies. Labor exploitation, state violence, encroachment by settlers, and the demands of Anglican missionaries all transformed this land. The Toba&;s lives have been torn between alienating work in sugar plantations and relative freedom in the bush, between moments of domination and autonomy, abundance and poverty, terror and healing. Part of this contradictory experience is culturally expressed in devils, evil spirits that acquire different features in different places. The devils are sources of death and disease in the plantations, but in the bush they are entities that connect with humans as providers of bush food and healing power. Enacted through memory, the experiences of the Toba have produced a tense and shifting geography. Combining extensive fieldwork conducted over a decade, historical research, and critical theory, Gordillo offers a nuanced analysis of the Toba&;s social memory and a powerful argument that geographic places are not only objective entities but also the subjective outcome of historical forces. Annotation Landscapes of Devils is a rich, historically grounded ethnography of the western Toba, an indigenous people in northern Argentina's Gran Chaco region. In the early twentieth century, the Toba were defeated by the Argentinean army, incorporated into the seasonal labor force of distant sugar plantations, and proselytized by British Anglicans. Gaston R. Gordillo reveals how the Toba's memory of these processes is embedded in their experience of "the bush" that dominates the Chaco landscape. As Gordillo explains, the bush is the result of social, cultural, and political processes that intertwine this place with other geographies. Labor exploitation, state violence, encroachment by settlers, and the demands of Anglican missionaries all transformed this land. The Toba's lives have been torn between alienating work in sugar plantations and relative freedom in the bush, between moments of domination and autonomy, abundance and poverty, terror and healing. Part of this contradictory experience is culturally expressed in devils, evil spirits that acquire different features in different places. The devils are sources of death and disease in the plantations, but in the bush they are entities that connect with humans as providers of bush food and healing power. Enacted through memory, these experiences have produced a tense and shifting geography. Combining extensive fieldwork conducted over a decade, historical research, and critical theory, Gordillo offers a nuanced analysis of the Toba's social memory and a powerful argument that geographic places are not only objective entities but also the subjective outcome of historical forces Contents 10 List of Illustrations 12 Acknowledgments 16 Introduction 22 I The Making of the Bush 34 1. Landmarks of Memory 36 2. Heaven and Hell 61 3. Places of Violence 74 4. Searching for Our Fathers 91 5. A Kind of Sanctuary 99 6. ‘‘In the Bush, You Can Do Anything’’ 109 II Bones in the Cane Fields 122 7. The Promised Land 124 8. ‘‘It Seemed Like We Lived There’’ 130 9. The Breath of the Devils 144 10. ‘‘We Returned Rich’’ 160 11. ‘‘Dancing, Dancing, Dancing’’ 170 12. ‘‘We Didn’t Go on Strike’’ 179 III Foraging Until the End of the World 188 13. ‘‘We’re Not Going to Die’’ 190 14. The Production of Local Knowledge 204 15. ‘‘With the Fish,We’re Rich’’ 219 16. Journeys to Strange Lands 230 17. Locations of Contention and Hegemony 244 18. The Other Side 260 Conclusions 274 Glossary 282 Notes 286 References 302 Index 318 Gastón R. Gordillo. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [281]-296) And Index.