Landscapes of Devils: Tensions of Place and Memory in the Argentinean Chaco

by Gaston R. Gordillo

Book Overview

Landscapes of Devils is a rich, historically grounded ethnography of the western Toba, an indigenous people in northern Argentina's Gran Chaco region. In the early twentieth century, the Toba were defeated by the Argentinean army, incorporated into the seasonal labor force of distant sugar plantations, and proselytized by British Anglicans. Gast n R. Gordillo reveals how the Toba's memory of these processes is embedded in their experience of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822333910
• ISBN13: 9780822333913
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Like pieces of a puzzle

Gordillo's work is an excellent example of how feelings about a place are always constructed ("made, unmade, and remade") in opposition to other places and are a result of the memories of those various places. His descriptions of the Toba landscapes leave the reader with an incredible desire to be sitting under the same trees drinking maté while listening to stories of the cane farms. His argument is well laid out with each chapter being almost like one more piece of the puzzle so that by the end, the reader can almost SEE the argument as though it were a painting. It illuminates aspects of Toba life but goes beyond this by looking at how people in general deal with their memories of places. Anyone who has ever traveled out of their comfort zone and had conflicting memories about the experience needs to read this book. An all around enjoyable and enlightening read.