DeepSummary
In this episode, Dr. John Soluri discusses his new book 'Creatures of Fashion: Animals, Global Markets, and the Transformation of Patagonia' which examines how the exploitation of animals in Patagonia, both terrestrial and marine, was central to the region's transformation from indigenous lands to the national territories of Argentina and Chile. He explores the rise of commercial hunting in the 19th century, the expansion of sheep ranching in the 20th century, and the shift towards conservation-based tourism in recent times.
Soluri delves into the environmental, social, and economic impacts of these activities, shedding light on the struggles between indigenous communities, migrant workers, and commercial interests over the control and production of animal commodities like fur, wool, and meat. He highlights the role of fashion markets in driving these transformations and the entanglement of human and animal lives.
The episode also examines the challenges of writing animal histories, the diversity of actors involved in the wool trade, and the conceptual shift from perceiving Patagonia as a site of resource extraction to a pristine wilderness destination. Soluri emphasizes the importance of understanding these histories to comprehend contemporary conflicts over consumption, biodiversity conservation, and environmental justice.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The exploitation of animals, both terrestrial and marine, was central to the transformation of Patagonia from indigenous lands to the national territories of Argentina and Chile.
- Commercial hunting, sheep ranching, and conservation-based tourism played significant roles in shaping the region's social, economic, and environmental landscapes.
- The rise of global fashion markets and the demand for fur, wool, and other animal-based products drove the expansion of resource extraction activities in Patagonia.
- The introduction of sheep ranching had profound impacts on indigenous communities, displacing them from their lands and disrupting their traditional relationships with animals.
- The conceptual shift from perceiving Patagonia as a site of resource extraction to a pristine wilderness destination has obscured the region's history of intense animal exploitation and violence against indigenous peoples.
- Writing animal histories presents methodological and epistemological challenges, including the complexities of understanding animal perspectives and avoiding anthropomorphism.
- The transformation of wool into a commodity involved a labor-intensive process involving various specialized workers and technologies.
- Understanding the histories of animal exploitation, global markets, and socio-environmental transformations is crucial for comprehending contemporary conflicts over mass consumption, biodiversity conservation, and environmental justice in Patagonia and beyond.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Wool turning an animal fiber into a textile was both something. In the case of wool, it wasn't so easy to create a fungible commodity. I want to argue there's a certain amount of labor and technology involved in that.“ by Ryan Reynolds
- “So there's all kinds of social ecological transformations that happen, particularly in charitable, most, perhaps noticeably or most sort of strikingly in Charlotte Fuego, a similar process is going to happen in the mainland with the Iona kenk, partly because the ionokank, as I mentioned, they had had more contact, right?“ by Ryan Reynolds
- “But at the same time, it's accompanied by this conceptual shift in Patagonia in which this kind of history of intense sheep raising, history of intense violence toward indigenous people is, you know, maybe erased is too strong of a word, but it certainly is kind of back burnt. Right? It's kind of put in the background.“ by Ryan Reynolds
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Episode Information
New Books in Environmental Studies
Marshall Poe
7/3/24
Today, the mention of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego conjures images of idyllic landscapes untouched by globalisation. Creatures of Fashion: Animals, Global Markets, and the Transformation of Patagonia (University of North Carolina Press, 2024) by Dr. John Soluri upends this, revealing how the exploitation of animals—terrestrial and marine, domesticated and wild, living and dead—was central to the region's transformation from Indigenous lands into the national territories of Argentina and Chile. Drawing on evidence from archives and digital repositories, Dr, Soluri traces the circulation of furs and fibers to explore how the power of fashion stretched far beyond Europe’s houses of haute couture to entangle the fates of Indigenous hunters, migrant workers, and textile manufacturers with those of fur seals, guanacos, and sheep at the "end of the world."
From the nineteenth-century rise of commercial hunting to twentieth-century sheep ranching to contemporary conservation-based tourism, Dr, Soluri's narrative explains how struggles for control over the production of commodities and the reproduction of animals drove the social and environmental changes that tied Patagonia to global markets, empires, and wildlife conservation movements. By exposing seams in national territories and global markets knit together by force, this book provides perspectives and analyses vital for understanding contemporary conflicts over mass consumption, the conservation of biodiversity, and struggles for environmental justice in Patagonia and beyond.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
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