Territories, Commodities and Knowledges
Latin American Environmental Histories in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
9781900039574
Distributed for University of London Press
Territories, Commodities and Knowledges
Latin American Environmental Histories in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
This book examines emerging methodologies and conceptual debates within the environmental history of Latin America. Issues addressed include the territorial expansion of the state and its impact on environmental resources and indigenous populations; environmental transformation (lake-drainage projects in central Mexico, the expansion of sugar-cane production in Cuba, and soil-sedimentation issues); and landscape "improvements" brought about by technological change (banana-breeding schemes, the breeding of Zebu cattle in central Brazil, and the introduction of plants to South America). This volume places the specific case-studies within the field’s main themes, and relates them to similar historic environmental developments in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Contributors include Stephen Bell (UCLA, USA), Reinaldo Funes Monzote (Fundacion Antonio Nunez Jimenez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Cuba), Stefania Gallini (Universidad Nacional, Colombia), Nikolas Kozloff (CUNY Brooklyn College, USA), Karl Offen (University of Oklahoma, USA), John Soluri (Carnegie-Mellon University, USA), Alejandro Tortolero Villasenor (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico), and Robert W. Wilcox (Northern Kentucky University, USA).
Contributors include Stephen Bell (UCLA, USA), Reinaldo Funes Monzote (Fundacion Antonio Nunez Jimenez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Cuba), Stefania Gallini (Universidad Nacional, Colombia), Nikolas Kozloff (CUNY Brooklyn College, USA), Karl Offen (University of Oklahoma, USA), John Soluri (Carnegie-Mellon University, USA), Alejandro Tortolero Villasenor (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico), and Robert W. Wilcox (Northern Kentucky University, USA).
340 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2004
Institute of Latin American Studies
Biological Sciences: Conservation
History: General History
Political Science: Public Policy
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements vii List of Contributors ix List of Figures xi List of Tables xiii An Introduction to Latin American Environmental History Christian Brannstrom and Stefania Gallini 1 Part I: Territories: States, People, Environments Chapter 1 A Maya Mam Agro-ecosystem in Guatemala’s Coffee Revolution: Costa Cuca, 1830s - 1880s Stefania Gallini 23 Chapter 2 The Geographical Imagination, Resource Economies and Nicaraguan Incorporation of the Mosquitia, 1838 - 1909 Karl H. Offen 50 Chapter 3 From Lakeshore Village to Oil Boom Town: Lagunillas under Venezuelan Dictator Juan Vicente Gomez, 1908 - 1935* Nikolas Kozloff 90 Part II: Commodities: Export Booms and the Environment Chapter 4 Transforming the Central Mexican Waterscape: Lake Drainage and its Consequences during the Porfiriato (1877 - 1911) Alejandro Tortolero Villasenor 121 Chapter 5 Deforestation and Sugar in Cuba’s Centre-East: The Case of Camaguey, 1898 - 1926 Reinaldo Funes Monzote 148 Chapter 6 Talking to Sediments: Reading Environmental History from Post-Settlement Alluvium in Western Sao Paulo, Brazil Christian Brannstrom 171 Part III: Knowledges: New Technologies and Organisms Chapter 7 Bananas, Biodiversity and the Paradox of Commodification John Soluri 195 Chapter 8 Zebu’s Elbows: Cattle Breeding and the Environment in Central Brazil, 1890 - 1960 Robert W. Wilcox 218 Chapter 9 Individual Agency and Ecological Imperialism: Aime Bonpland in Southern South America Stephen Bell 247 Bibliography 273