Abstract

SCHIAFFINI, Hernán Horacio. Production and personification in the cattle cycle: Economy and Politics  in Mapuche communities in the Northwest of Chubut. Trab. soc. [online]. 2013, n.21, pp.21-32. ISSN 1514-6871.

We analyze the intervention of social and political processes on economic production through the path of a particular object: lamb meat. We take from Appadurai (1991) the idea of a "biography of the thing". Our empiric data comes from domestic production on mapuche families from northwestern Chubut, documented through an ethnographic approach. We propose that the call "meat chain" should be comprehended, moreover, as a network, where different social actors are involved. Due to this intervention, power local structures are created and consolidated, with significant consequences over local population.

Keywords : Mapuche; Lamb Meat Production; Biography of the Thing; Local Power Structures; Personification.