The Slow Conquest of the Argentine Frontier: From the Subversive Gaucho through the Erasure of First Peoples to the Cold War Military Triumph over Antarctica
This article assesses the shifting character of the Argentine frontier. Over time, Argentines have altered their understanding of the concept of a frontier. Two constants over the past century and a half, however, have been the popular notion of the conquest of Indigenous peoples as balefully incomp...
| Published in: | Journal of the Canadian Historical Association |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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The Canadian Historical Association / La Société historique du Canada
2021
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.7202/1083627ar http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1083627ar |
| Summary: | This article assesses the shifting character of the Argentine frontier. Over time, Argentines have altered their understanding of the concept of a frontier. Two constants over the past century and a half, however, have been the popular notion of the conquest of Indigenous peoples as balefully incomplete, and the associated idea of a racially compromised frontier. These have contrasted sharply with settler myths of the destruction of First Peoples as a steppingstone to early nation building. During the mid-twentieth century, the influence of US American cowboy culture helped confirm the erasure of Indigenous Argentines in popular culture. At the same time, there was a southward shift of the imagined frontier in cultural, territorial, and military claims to Malvinas and Antarctica, territories that, unlike northern Argentine provinces, held no Indigenous populations. Cet article évalue le caractère changeant de la frontière argentine. Au fil du temps, les Argentins ont modifié leur compréhension du concept de frontière. Cependant, deux constantes se sont maintenues au cours du dernier siècle et demi : la notion populaire de la conquête des peuples indigènes comme étant incomplète, et l’idée qui lui est associée d’une frontière racialement compromise. Ces idées ont fortement contrasté avec les mythes du colonisateur qui voyaient dans la destruction des peuples autochtones un tremplin pour la construction de la nation. Au milieu du XXe siècle, l’influence de la culture des cowboys américains a contribué à confirmer l’effacement des indigènes argentins dans la culture populaire. En même temps, on a assisté à un déplacement de la frontière imaginaire vers le sud dans les réclamations culturelles, territoriales et militaires des Malouines et de l’Antarctique, des territoires qui, contrairement aux provinces du nord de l’Argentine, n’abritaient pas de populations autochtones. |
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