Read more
At the foot of the Argentine Andes, bulldozers are destroying forests and homes to create soy fields in an area already strewn with rubble from previous waves of destruction and violence. Based on ethnographic research in this region where the mountains give way to the Gran Chaco lowlands, Gastón R. Gordillo shows how geographic space is inseparable from the material, historical, and affective ruptures embodied in debris. His exploration of the significance of rubble encompasses lost cities, derelict train stations, overgrown Jesuit missions and Spanish forts, stranded steamships, mass graves, and razed forests. Examining the effects of these and other forms of debris on the people living on nearby ranches and farms, and in towns, Gordillo emphasizes that for the rural poor, the rubble left in the wake of capitalist and imperialist endeavors is not romanticized ruin but the material manifestation of the violence and dislocation that created it.
List of contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Constellations 1
Part One. Ghosts of Indians
1. A Haunted Frontier 31
2. On the Edge of the Void 53
Part Two. Lost Cities
The Destruction of Space 77
3. Land of Curses and Miracles 85
4. The Ruins of Ruins 111
Part Three. Residues of a Dream World
Treks across Fields of Rubble 125
5. Ships Stranded in the Forest 131
6. Bringing a Destroyed Place Back to Life 153
7. Railroads to Nowhere 169
Part Four. The Debris of Violence
Bright Objects 185
8. Topographies of Oblivion 191
9. Piles of Bones 209
10. The Return of the Indians 229
Conclusion: We Aren't Afraid of Ruins 253
Notes 271
References 287
Index 303
About the author
Gastón R. Gordillo
Summary
Based on ethnographic research in the foothills of the Argentine Andes, Gastón R. Gordillo reveals the spatial, historical, and affective ruptures embodied in debris. For the rural poor, the rubble left in the wake of capitalist and imperialist endeavors is not romanticized ruin but the material manifestation of the violence and dislocation that created it.
