Historical trajectory of peasant livestock territoriality in western provincia de Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

This essay analyzes the peasant strategy for goat livestock management at the west of the Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina, and the appropriation of ecosystem services in Chaco Ãrido, within the framework of the process of social and historical construction of the territory. Three processes of territoriality are identified in that zone: i) peasant livestock territoriality: originated in the Colony and directed at the local production and consumption of goats based on extensive grazing of fodder provided by the native forest vegetation; ii) extractivist territoriality: with the advance of capitalism in the territory, the introduction of railroads at the beginning of the 20th Century, the exploitation of forest resources, the proletarianization of peasant labor and the commodification of products from domestic economies; and iii) entrepreneurial livestock territoriality: with the intensification of cattle production in the first decade of the 21st Century and the concentration of land in detriment of the interests and productive activities of peasants. It is concluded that, with ruptures and continuities, the three territorialities are valid in the space, and they explain the conflicts between peasants and other social actors with diverging interests over the appropriation of ecosystem services.