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Landscapes Of Freedom And Inequality: Environmental Histories Of The Pacific And Caribbean Coasts Of Colombia, Shawn Van Ausdal
Landscapes Of Freedom And Inequality: Environmental Histories Of The Pacific And Caribbean Coasts Of Colombia, Shawn Van Ausdal
Shawn Van Ausdal
In this comparative environmental history, we examine the divergent trajectories of Colombia’s coastal forests since the mid-19th century. In the Pacific lowlands, natural resource extraction by a black peasantry altered the forested landscape but did not transform it completely. Left by the white, merchant elite in charge of the extractive process, this post-emancipation society maintained their territorial independence and avoided significant internal differentiation. Racial divisions, however, signaled the continuation of disparities that had their origin in slavery and colonialism. In the Caribbean, by contrast, the expansion of cattle ranching better integrated the region into the nation, but at the expense …
The Logic Of Livestock: An Historical Geography Of Cattle Ranching In Colombia, 1850-1950, Shawn Van Ausdal
The Logic Of Livestock: An Historical Geography Of Cattle Ranching In Colombia, 1850-1950, Shawn Van Ausdal
Shawn Van Ausdal
This dissertation examines a significant yet little understood economic activity in modern Colombian history: cattle ranching. The importance of cattle stem from their role in the settlement of the country’s lowlands, the conflicts around property rights, and the proportion of capital dedicated to ranching. Because scholars have paid it little heed, most reproduce a common misconception about the logic of livestock: that it was principally driven by a range of ulterior motives – from satisfying cultural status to a source of political power; and from establishing territorial control to either a speculative investment or a hedge against risk – rather …