Guanacos and the Uncertainties of Commodification in Patagonia, 1870–2010

This paper will examine the history of people and guanacos (Lama guanicoe) in Patagonia in order to trace processes of commodification and de-commodification of guanaco-derived products in Argentina and Chile during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  In some regards, the guanaco’s history represents a classic example of an animal’s meaning shifting from use value (indigenous Tehuelche followed seasonal migrations of guanacos whose bodies they transformed into a wide range of food, clothing, tools, and other materials) to a commodity exchanged via sprawling trade networks. Particularly prized was the leather of chulengos (juvenile animals) that was used to make quillangos (capes).

When the Chilean and Argentine states began to promote the colonization of Patagonia in earnest by auctioning off immense tracts of land for sheep ranches, the uses and meanings of guanacos shifted.  Hunting continued (and may have even increased) during the early and mid-twentieth century as guanacos came to be perceived as a threat to the wellbeing of sheep flocks.  In the 1950s, traders in Argentina annually exported tens of thousands of guanaco fur articles.  However, by the late 1980s, international conservationists raised concerns about declining guanaco populations leading to a drastic reduction in exports from Argentina in the 1990s. More recently, small-scale initiatives have been taken to shear guanacos and market their wool.

Inspired in part by Polanyi’s notion of fictitious commodities, this paper intends to use the history of guanacos to examine the instability of commodification, a process that is sometimes portrayed as relentless and unidirectional.