Between domestication and ferality: cattle-human relationships in the making of post-colonial South-American society

Introduction

Starting with Columbus’ third trip to the Caribbean, Iberian cattle accompanied humans in the colonization of the South American continent. Since then, the cattle population has grown exponentially all over the region, adapting to a variety of local ecologies, being exported all over the world, and leading to the cattle industry’s “spectacular” historical trajectory and economic success.

Negative Consequences

Nevertheless, the increase in beef and dairy cattle production brought along negative consequences such as:

• Deforestation
• Climate change
• Social inequality

Research Background

Although the influence of cattle-human relationships on society has been an object of study since the beginnings of the anthropological discipline, the study of their entanglement with colonial ideologies and their influence on South American society is just starting to take shape.

Project Objectives

In order to highlight cultural and historical trajectories and create a new framework of analysis, Cow-Dom will compare different forms of human-cattle relationships by focusing on opposing relational configurations of the domestication process:

1. Feral cattle on the one hand
2. The so-called racially "improved" cattle on the other

This comparison will take place in some of the South American countries with the most intensive cattle production: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay.

Key Questions

What values and ideologies, frictions and dilemmas, and what new socio-ecological systems did cattle’s presence enable both at the center and at the margins of society?

Methodology

In order to answer these questions, Cow-Dom will rely on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in cattle fairs and in areas with feral and semi-feral cattle. The fieldwork will be carried out by interdisciplinary teams formed by zoologists and anthropologists.

Theoretical Framework

The project will establish an innovative theoretical framework to analyze cattle-human relationships in a post-colonial context and incorporate experimental research tools such as video making and collaboration with a contemporary art museum in South America.