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The Eastern Andean Frontier (Bolivia and Argentina) and Latin American Frontiers: Comparative Contexts (19th and 20th Centuries)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Erick D. Langer*
Affiliation:
School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Extract

The epic struggles between Mexicans and the Apaches and Comanches in the far northern reaches of the Spanish empire and the conflict between gauchos and Araucanians in the pampas in the far south are the images the mind conjures up when thinking of Latin American frontiers. We must now add for the twentieth century the dense Amazon jungle as one of the last frontiers in popular (and scholarly) minds. However, these images ignore the eastern Andean and Chaco frontier area, one of the most vital and important frontier regions in Latin America since colonial times, today divided up into three different countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay) in the heart of the South American continent. This frontier region has not received sufficient attention from scholars despite its importance in at least three different aspects: First, the indigenous peoples were able to remain independent of the Creole states much longer than elsewhere other than the Amazon. Secondly, indigenous labor proved to be vitally important to the economic development along the fringes, and thirdly, a disastrous war was fought over the region in the 1930s by Bolivia and Paraguay. This essay provides an overview based on primary and secondary sources of the history of the eastern Andean frontier and compares it to other frontiers in Latin America. It thus endeavors to contribute to frontier studies by creating categories of analysis that make possible the comparisons between different frontiers in Latin America and placing within the scholarly discussion the eastern Andean region during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2002

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Footnotes

*

I want to thank the members of the Washington Area Society of Historians of Latin America (WASHLA) who provided comments on an early draft of this essay. I also am greatly indebted to the three anonymous reviewers and Judith Ewell, who helped improve it greatly through their generous comments.

References

1 The eastern Andean frontier encompasses the region from Cordillera province in Santa Cruz department, Bolivia, to the southern-most border of Salta province. It encompasses what today are Formosa and Chaco Provinces in Argentina, but until the very end of the period under discussion these regions were not under national (Argentine) control. Although today a large part of the Chaco is Paraguayan territory, Asunción only gained jurisdiction as a result of the Chaco War (1932–35).

2 Turner, Frederick Jackson, The Frontier in American History (New York: Dover, 1996), pp. 138.Google Scholar See Alistair Hennessy's influential essay on the effect of Turner, Frederick Jackson on the conceptualization of Latin American frontiers in his, “The Turner Thesis in Latin America,The Frontier in Latin American History (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1977), pp. 627.Google Scholar The new definitions of the frontier are prominently discussed in Guy, Donna J. and Sheridan, Thomas E., eds., Contested Ground: Comparative Frontiers on the Northern and Southern Edges of the Spanish Empire (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998), pp. 712;Google Scholar White, Richard, The Middle Ground: Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Weber, David J. and Rausch, Jane, eds., Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1994).Google Scholar

3 For a recent discussion of many of these facets, see Langer, Erick D. & Jackson, Robert H., The New Latin American Mission History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).Google Scholar

4 Baretta, Silvio Duncan and Markoff, John, “Civilization and Barbarism: Cattle Frontiers in Latin America,Comparative Studies in Society and History 20:4 (1978), pp. 587620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also see the interesting attempt by Sergio Villalobos to show warfare was not as important as thought on the Araucanian frontier in southern Chile. Villalobos, Sergio, “Guerra y paz en la Araucanía,Araucanía: Temas de historia fronteriza (Temuco: Ediciones Universidad de la Frontera, 1989), pp. 732 Google Scholar and Solis, Leonardo León, Maloqueros y conchavadores en Araucanía y las Pampas, 1700–1800 (Temuco: Ediciones Universidad de la Frontera, 1990).Google Scholar

5 See Nordenskiöld, Erland, “The Guaraní Invasion of the Inca Empire in the Sixteenth Century: An Historical Indian Migration,Geographical Review 4 (1917), pp. 103121;CrossRefGoogle Scholar also Combés, Isabelle and Saignes, Thierry, Alter Ego: Naissance de l'identité chiriguano (Paris: Ecoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1991).Google Scholar The latter book also discusses the term “Chiriguano,” which recently has become controversial. I use this term rather than “Chiriguanaes” or “Ava-Guaraní” because it is the most common term used in the documentation and has only since the 1970s become controversial because of Hernando Sanabria Fernández's erroneous etymology, asserting that the word came from Quechua and was imposed by the Incas rather than being a native term. In any case, in the recent past the Chiriguano have referred to themselves as ava, which loosely translates as “men” or “human beings.” I am not speaking here of the people in the Izozo, who claim that they are the original Guaraní. The Izoceños were located in a region far beyond the nineteenth-century frontier where only some ranchers penetrated by the end of that century. For the Izoceños, see Hirsch, Silvia M., “Political Organization Among the Izoceño Indians of Bolivia,” Ph.D. Diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1991)Google Scholar and The Capitanía of the Izozo: the Struggle for Political Autonomy Among the Guaraní Indians of Eastern Bolivia,Peoples of the Gran Chaco, Miller, Elmer S., ed. (Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1999), pp. 6180.Google Scholar The whole issue of who can be called Guaraní and the authenticity of these claims is a controversial topic in Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

6 For an optimistic estimate of Chiriguano population, see Pifarré, Francisco, Los Guaraní-Chiriguano: Historia de un pueblo (La Paz: CIPCA, 1989),Google Scholar passim. The Chanés have not yet found their historian. We have virtually no demographic figures, though the best studies remain those of Erland Nordenskiöld from the turn of the twentieth century. See for example The Changes in the Material Culture of Two Indian Tribes under the Influence of New Surroundings (Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebo-lag, 1920).

7 Not much has been written about the history of the Tobas for the republican period. They came from the Guaicuruan group of peoples, recently studied by Saeger, James S. in The Chaco Mission Frontier: The Guaycuruan Experience (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2000), especially pp. 166179.Google Scholar Also see Braunstein, José and Miller, Elmer S., “Ethnohistorical Introduction,” in Miller, , ed., Peoples of the Gran Chaco, pp. 122,Google Scholar as well as Karsten, Rafael, The Toba Indians of the Bolivian Gran Chaco, Acta Academiae Aboensis Humaniora 4, (Abo, Finland: Abo Akademi, 1923).Google Scholar

8 Branislava Susnik, taking up on Angélico Martarelli's assertion, that the colonization was done not so much by Creoles in the frontier region, but by cattle. She saw that the frontier expansion at the expense of the Chiriguanos was characterized by the conflict between “cows and corn.” See Chiriguanos I (Asunción: Museo Etnográfico “Andrés Barbero,” 1968).

9 See Métraux, Alfred, “Ethnography of the Gran Chaco,Handbook of South American Indians, 1, ed. Steward, Julian, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1948), pp. 198223.Google Scholar

10 See White, The Middle Ground, passim.

11 For central Peru, see Stern's, Steve excellent essay “The Age of Andean Insurrection, 1742–182: A Reappraisal,Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th Centuries, ed. Stern, Steve J. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), pp. 3493,Google Scholar as well as Sala i Vila, Núria, “Cusco y su proyección en el Oriente amazónico, 1800–1929,Fronteras, colonización mano de obra indígena en la Amazonia Andina (Siglos XIX-XX), ed. Jordán, Pilar García (Lima: PUCP/UB, 1998), pp. 402408.Google Scholar Also see Husson, P., De la guerra a la rebelión (Huanta, siglo XIX) (Lima: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos ‘Bartolomé de las Casas,’ 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For California, see Jackson, Robert H., From Savages to Subjects: Missions in the History of the American Southwest (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2000).Google Scholar

12 For an explanation of the Jesuit failure, see Saignes, Thierry, “Jesuites et Franciscains Face Aux Chiriguano: Les Ambiguites de la Reduction Missionaire,Eglise et Politique en Amèrique Hispanique (Bordeux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeuax, 1984), pp. 133159.Google Scholar

13 See Corrado, Alejandro, El Colegio Franciscano de Tarija y sus misiones, 2. ed., vol. 2 (Tarija: Editorial Offset Franciscana, 1990 [1880]), pp. 279290.Google Scholar

14 For the initial troubles, see for example Domingo de Iriarte to Govor. Intendte, Miraflores, n.d.; Iriarte to Gobernador, Miraflores, Sept. 10, 1811;Nov. 11, 1811;Dec. 11, 1811; all Carpeta de Gobierno 1811; No. 109, Salta, May 28, 1813; Carpeta de Gobierno 1813. On the regulation of the reducciones, see M.A.G. to Comisario Mayor de Guerra del Exto. Auxr del Interior, Salta, Dec. 12, 1814, Carpeta de Gobierno 1814. All from Archivo y Biblioteca Históricos de la Provincia de Salta [hereinafter ABHS]. My thanks to Edith Morillo, who as my research assistant found much of this documentation in the ABHS.

15 de López, Sara Mata, ‘“Tierras en armas’: Salta en la revolución,Persistencia y cambios: Salta y el Noroeste argentino 1770–1840, comp. de López, Sara Mata (Rosario: Prohistoria/Manuel Súarez, 1999), pp. 149175.Google Scholar

16 Gerónimo López to Govor Intendte, Salta, May 8, 1813, Carpeta de Gobierno 1813, June, ABHS. Sara Mata de López has shown that the Partidarios since colonial times had been largely made up of prisoners. See “Tierras en armas,” p. 157.

17 See Saignes, Thierry, Ava y karai: Ensayos sobre la frontera chiriguano (siglos XVI-XX) (La Paz: HISBOL, 1990), pp. 127162;Google Scholar Arenales, José, Noticias históricas y descriptivas sobre el gran país del Chaco y Río Bermejo (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Hallet y CA, 1833), p. 242.Google Scholar Presumably, an expedition was sent from Salta to the Bermejo River in the Chaco in 1810, but it is unclear what it accomplished. See Arenales, pp. 241–242. For a similar view of Creole-Indian relations for the Chaco frontier farther south, see Saeger, , The Chaco Mission Frontier, pp. 166168.Google Scholar

18 See for example Pifarré, Los Guaraní-Chiriguan, pp. 280–283.

19 See for example Hu-DeHart, Evelyn, Yaqui Resistance and Survival: The Struggle for Land and Autonomy 1821–1910 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), pp. 5693 Google Scholar and Vecsey, Christopher, On the Padres’ Trail (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996), pp. 150158.Google Scholar This included a loosening grip of the Church, which had difficulty staffing these out-of-the-way places. Vecsey is especially good on the cultural processes during this period, when the indigenous peoples were able to fashion their own synchretic religion with little interference by Europeans. For an argument of the relative strength of indigenous groups in northern Mexico during most of the nineteenth century, also see the classic by Spicer, Edward H., Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians od the Southwest, 1533–1960 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1962).Google Scholar

20 John Tutino coined the term decompression; see his From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence 1750–1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 215–241. He has since broadened his analysis for other parts of Spanish America in “Comunidad, independencia y nación: Las participaciones populares en las historias de México, Guatemala y Perú,” Los retos de la etnicidad en los estados-nación del siglo XXI, ed. Leticia Reina, (Mexico City: C1ESAS/INI/Ed. Miguel Angel Porrúa, 2000), pp. 125–151.

21 Jones, Kristine L., “Warfare, Reorganization, and Readaptation at the Margins of Spanish Rule: The Southern Margin (1573–1882),The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas: South America Vol. 3, Part 2, eds. Solomon, Frank and Schwartz, Stuart B. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 173175.Google Scholar Also see Ratto, Silvia, “El ‘negocio pacífico de los indios’: La frontera bonaerense durante el gobierno de Rosas,Siglo XIX: Revista de Historia, 15 (1994), pp. 2547.Google Scholar Also see Bechis, Martha A., “Interethnic Relations During the Period of Nation-State Formation in Chile and Argentina: From Sovereign to Ethnic” (Ph.D. Diss., 1984)Google Scholar and Socolow, Susan, “Spanish Captives in Indian Societies: Cultural Contact Along the Argentine Frontier, 1600–1835,Hispanic American Historical Review [hereinafter HAHR] 72:1 (1992), pp. 73100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 For an elaboration of this argument, see Langer, Erick D., “Gifts, Theft, Tribute, and Commerce: Types of Indian-White Exchange in Nineteenth-Century South America,Indians, State and Frontier in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, ed. Langer, Erick D. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar

23 The most recent discussions have focused on the settlers’ ability to resist the Mexican state. See Alonso, Ana María, Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution, and Gender in Mexico's Northern Frontier (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995)Google Scholar and Nugent, Daniel, Spent Cartridges of Revolution: An Anthropological History of Namiquipa, Chihuahua (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).Google Scholar However, see Spicer, Cycles.

24 See his “Spanish Military Strategy and Ideology,” in Contested Ground, pp. 83–96. This is not to say that the colonial governments did not pay frontier groups; this was the case in virtually all frontiers at some point in time. These payments often reflected Spanish weakness, but they just as often were either necessary largesse to remain seen as being resourceful enough to mediate between groups, or was a tactic to encourage frontier groups to assimilate. For the latter, see León, , Maloqueros y conchavadores, pp. 143188.Google Scholar For the concept of gifts as important mediating tools for European-Indian relations, see White, The Middle Ground.

25 Manuel Carrasco to Minister of War [hereinafter MG], Padilla, Aug. 5, 1842; Pomabamba, Aug. 17, 1842; Padilla, Sept. 19, 1842; Padilla, Sept. 19, 1842, MG t. 147 no. 85; Mariano Estrada to MG, Piray, Dec. 31, 1842, MG t. 147 no. 85, Correspondencia Oficial, Archivo Nacional de Bolivia [hereinafter ANB].

26 “Diario de la navegación y reconocimiento del Rio Pilcomayo por el Jeneral Manuel Rodríguez Magariños,” ms, No. 478, Colección Rück, ANB. Documents relating to this expedition are also transcribed in Langer, Erick D. and de Ruiz, Zulema Bass Werner, eds., Historia de Tarija: Corpus Documental, 5 (Tarija: Universidad “Juan Misael Saracho,1988), pp. 208212, 257–259, 281–288.Google Scholar Also see Greever, Janet Groff, José Ballivián y el oriente boliviano, tr. Roca, J.L. (La Paz: Editorial Siglo, 1987), pp. 129165.Google Scholar

27 José Antonio Fern. Cornejo to José Ignacio Gorriti, Salta, Oct. 9, 1823; Gorriti to Governor of Salta, Miraflores, May 5, 1824; Vizte Media to Governor, Orán, January 14, 1825; Gordaliza to Governor of Salta, Tarija, Jul. 10. 1826; S. de Bustamante to M.H.C. Junta Permanente de R.R. de la Provin-cia, Salta, May 13, 1825; ali Carpetas de Gobierno, ABHS.

28 See Arenales, , Noticias, pp. 252–9.Google Scholar For patterns in expeditions to the Chaco, see Langer, Erick D., “Indígenas y exploradores en el Gran Chaco: Relaciones indio-blancas en la Bolivia del siglo XIX,Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia Anuario 1996, ed. Aguirre, René Arze (Sucre: Editorial Túpac Katari, 1997), pp. 309330.Google Scholar

29 For the Chulupies and the Matacos, see José Antonio Teran Cornejo to Governor, San Isidro, May 23, 1826 and August 9, 1826. For the gaucho rebellion, see Juan Franco Pastor to Teodoro Sanchez de Bustamante, Humahuaca, December 16, 1826, all Carpetas de Gobierno, ABHS. Much has been written about the beginning of the civil wars in early-republican Argentina. For a good summary, see Bazán, Armando Raúl, Historia del Noroeste argentino (Buenos Aires: Plus Ultra, 1986), pp. 277293.Google Scholar

30 The examples are too numerous to mention. I have examined all the military correspondence for Bolivia from 1825 to the 1860s, as well as all correspondence for Salta from 1810 to 1830; the assertion holds in both cases.

31 Tercerolas were short carbines use mainly by cavalry. Otherwise, most Creoles had only old muskets left over from the independence wars. There is no evidence that troops used steel-tipped lances as was the case farther south in Argentina.

32 Chapter 1 of Taking Pears from the Elm Tree: A History of the Franciscan Missions Among the Chiriguanos, 1840–1949, unpublished ms.

33 See for example Rivero, Victorino, Cuestión de límites entre las provincias de Cordillera i Azero en los departamentos de Santa Cruz y Chuquisaca (Santa Cruz: Imprenta de Cayetano H. Daza, 1882).Google Scholar

34 Langer, Erick D., “Foreign Cloth in the Lowland Frontier: Commerce and Consumption of Textiles in Bolivia, 1830–1930,The Allure of the Foreign: The Role of Imports in Post-Colonial Latin America, ed. Orlove, Benjamin S. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp. 93–112.Google Scholar

35 Saignes, , Ava y karai, p. 179 Google Scholar. Government records after 1866 become spotty. In fact, Saignes did not find all the tribute payments and did not take into account that landlords were paying additional sums, so the amounts were considerably larger than those that he could document. It is likely that tribute payments ended in 1874, when the Huacaya War broke out. After an intense four-year fight, the Bolivian army and militias were finally able to break the back of the Chiriguanos’ military might despite their alliance with some Toba groups.

36 For northern Mexico, see for example Cerutti, Mario, ed., Monterrey, Nuevo León, el Noroeste: Siete estudios históricos (Monterrey: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAL, 1987)Google Scholar and Wasserman, Mark, Capitalists, Caciques and Revolution: The Native Elite and Foreign Enterprise in Chihuahua, Mexico, 1854–1911 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984);Google Scholar for the pampas see Giberti, Horacio C.E., Historia económica de la ganadería argentina, 2. ed. (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Solar, 1970)Google Scholar and Sàbato, Hilda, Agrarian Capitalism and the World Market: Buenos Aires in the Pastoral Age, 1840–1890 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990).Google Scholar For the rubber boom, see for example Stanfield, Michael, Red Rubber, Bleeding Trees: Violence, Slavery, and Empire in Northwest Amazonia, 1850–1933 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998)Google Scholar and Weinstein, Barbara, The Amazon Rubber Boom, 1850–1920 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

37 See Langer, Erick D., “Liberal Policy and Frontier Missions: Bolivia and Argentina Compared,Andes: Antropología é Historia 9 (1998), pp. 197213.Google Scholar For Salta, see the excellent dissertation by Teruel, Ana, “La frontera occidental del Chaco en el siglo XIX: Misiones, economía y sociedad,” (Ph.D. Diss., Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de La Plata, 1999)Google Scholar, and by the same author, Misioneros e Indígenas del Chaco salteño en el siglo XIX,Pasado y presente de un mundo postergado, Teruel, Ana and Jerez, Omar, comps. (San Salvador de Jujuy: Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, 1998), pp. 103133.Google Scholar

38 When fishing season was over, most of the Matacos went back into the forest, leaving only young children and their mothers behind, as well as those too old or sick to leave. Thus, the Chaco missions were often seasonal missions, for during the summer months there were few residents.

39 Martarelli, Angélico, El Colegio Franciscano de Potosí y sus misiones, 2. ed. (La Paz: Talleres Gráficos Marinoni, 1918), p. 303.Google Scholar

40 See Langer, Erick D., Economie Change and Rural Resistance in Southern Bolivia, 1880–1930 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), pp. 128130.Google Scholar

41 See Lagos, Marcelo A., “Conformación del mercado laboral en la etapa del despegue de los ingenios azacareros jujeños (1880–1920),Estudios sobre la historia de la industria azucarera argentina, v. 2, Daniel Campi, comp. (Tucumán: UNT/UNJu, 1992), pp. 5190.Google Scholar

42 von Nordenskiöld, Erland, lndianerleben: El Gran Chaco (Südamerika) (Leipzig: Georg Merse-burger, 1913), p. 161.Google Scholar

43 Teruel, , “La frontera occidental,” pp. 176183.Google Scholar

44 Langer, , Economie Change, pp. 127131.Google Scholar

45 Nordenskiöld, , Indianerleben, p. 161.Google Scholar

46 Turner, “The Frontier,” passim. The new emphasis on discourse is bringing about a revival of this topic. See Lagos, Marcelo, La cuestión indígena enei Estado y la sociedad nacional: Gran Chaco 1870–1920 (San Salvador de Jujuy: Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, 2000).Google Scholar

47 Langer, , Economie Change, pp. 123155.Google Scholar

48 Teruel, Ana, “El borde occidental del Chaco argentino: Las políticas de sojuzgamiento de los indígenas y los intentos de integración al Estado-Nación. Segunda mitad del siglo XIX,” unpublished ms.; Campos, Daniel, De Tarija a Asunción: Expedición boliviana de 1883. Informe del Doctor Daniel Campos (Buenos Aires, 1888), pp. 67236;Google Scholar Fernández, Hernando Sanabria, Apiaguaiqui Tumpa (La Paz: Los Amigos del Libro, 1972).Google Scholar

49 For land grants to Argentines, see El Antoniano (Tarija), Año XVI, No. 303, September. 12, 1912, pp. 1–4.

50 Hu-DeHart, Evelyn, Missionaries, Miners and Indians: Spanish Contact With the Yaqui Nation of Northwestern New Spain 1533–1820 (Tucson: University Of Arizona Press, 1981), pp. 87103.Google Scholar

51 Conti, Viviana, Lagos, Marcelo and de Lagos, Ana Teruel, “Mano de obra indígena en los ingenios de Jujuy a principios de siglo,Conflictos y procesos de la historia argentina contemporánea, 17 (Buenos Aires: Centro de Editor de América Latina, 1988),Google Scholar Carrera, Nicolas Iñigo, “La violencia como potencia económica: Chaco 1870–1940,Conflictos y procesos de la historia argentina contemporánea 11 (Buenos Aires: Centro de Editor de América Latina, 1988).Google Scholar

52 Lagos, “Conformación” and Langer, Erick D., “Mandeponay: Chiriguano Indian Chief on a Franciscan Mission,The Human Tradition in Latin America: The Nineteenth Century, eds. Ewell, Judith and Beezley, William H. (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1989), pp. 280295.Google Scholar

53 See General Villegas to Ministro de Guerra y Colonización, Caiza, September. 30, 1914, pp. 488–489, “Copiador del 24 de Mayo a 4 de Novbre (1914),”Archivo de la Casa de la Cultura de Villamontes.

54 Bialet, Juan y Massé, , El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo (Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 1968 [repr. 1904]), p. 83.Google Scholar

55 Langer, , Economie Change, pp. 136142.Google Scholar

56 For an overview of the recent status of the peoples along the former eastern Andean frontier and the Chaco, see Miller, Peoples of the Gran Chaco.

57 In this case, although native peoples controlled vastly more territory, the special nature of the indigenous herding economy provided for low population densities. This meant that the Argentine national society was already more numerous than the Indians of the pampas and Patagonia during the nineteenth century. This, however, is the exception and the calculus depends on how one defines the frontier territory. In Argentina, despite the commercial emphasis on ranching, Creole agriculture was mixed from the beginning and thus, at least close to urban centers, maintained a much denser population. This is not to say that the Indians were not agriculturists as well; however, their agriculture was much less intense than that of the Creoles.

58 Guy, and Sheridan, , Contested Ground, pp. 1012.Google Scholar

59 Hennessy, The Frontier in Latin American History, especially Chapter 3.

60 Karasch, Mary, “Interethnic Conflict and Resistance on the Brazilian Frontier of Goiás, 1750–1890,Contested Ground, pp. 115134;Google Scholar Griffen, passim; Sala i Vila.

61 For a view of the municipal governments as the (rather weak) foundations of the Latin American nation-states after independence, see Chiaramonte, José Carlos, “Fundamentos iusnaturalistas de los movimientos de independencia,” Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr. Emilio Ravignani,” 3. Series, No. 22 (2000), pp. 3371.Google Scholar

62 However, they did not exist on every frontier and the Colombian and Venezuelan llanos frontiers for example distinguish themselves by not having missions until the very last part of the century, if at all. See Rausch, Jane M., The Llanos Frontier in Colombian History, 1830–1930 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993).Google Scholar

63 Mansilla, Lucio V., A Visit to the Ranquel Indians, tr. Gillies, Eva (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), passim.Google Scholar

64 Jones, , “Calfucará and Namuncurá,” p. 181.Google Scholar

65 Langer, Erick D. and Jackson, Robert H., “Colonial and Republican Missions Compared: The Cases of Alta California and Southeastern Bolivia,Comparative Studies in Society and History 30:2 (April 1988), p. 300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

66 Jones, Kristine L., “Comparative Raiding Economies: North and South,Contested Ground, pp. 97114.Google Scholar For the eastern Andes, see Langer, Erick D., “Foreign Cloth,” p. 101.Google Scholar

67 Wells, Allen and Joseph, Gilbert M., Summer of Discontent, Seasons of Upheaval: Elite Politic and Rural Insurgency in Yucatán, 1876–1915 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 155.Google Scholar

68 Langer, , Economic Change, pp. 146155.Google Scholar

69 See Stanfield, Red Rubber, Bleeding Trees.