Beyond the `Desert`: Indigenous Genocide as a Structuring Event in Northern Patagonia

DELRIO, WALTER; PÉREZ, PILAR

The Conquest of the Desert: History and Memory, Culture and Politics.

New Mexico University Press

Lugar: Albuquerque; Año: 2020; p. 122 - 145

This article deals with state policies, governmental mechanisms, and various social agencies involved within the process of state consolidation and the subjugation and incorporation of indigenous people in northern Patagonia. The period focuses on the military occupation known as the ?Conquest of the Desert? ?1878 to 1885- as well asits short and long-term effects once the campaigns ended. The aim of this work is to balance the conceptual scope and limits of analyzing this complex process in terms of war, assimilation, or genocide. At the same time, it seeks to contribute to historical knowledge about the social structure of the National Territories ?the Patagonia and Chaco territories were incorporated with subaltern status within the national territory from 1884 to 1950s-. Thus, a second part of the article will attempt to periodizeindigenousgenocide bearing in mind the different steps that led to genocide as well as the outcome of this event. Finally, we will acknowledge theparticularities of the Argentinean experience in the construction of subalternity within the state-nation-territory matrix.