Fathers on the Frontier: Rape, Fatherhood, and State Power in Northern Patagonia

This paper examines the constructions of fatherhood on the northern Patagonian Rio Negro Valley, arguing that overlapping (and sometimes contradictory) articulations of patriarchy and manhood worked to strengthen the Argentine state’s control over the region, while also constraining its efficacy. This paper is centered on the failed police investigations into the rape of two children twenty years apart. The investigations revealed the desperate arrangements impoverished parents relied on to keep their children alive, the risk to the children of poor settlers living in homes of prominent neighbors, the urgency of the investigators when allegations were made, and the limits of the state’s coercive apparatus. Ultimately these investigations reveal the flexible understanding of the role of fathers on frontiers, the ways in which multiple "fatherhoods" (both symbolic and personal) were mobilized by settlers in order to make appeals to authorities, and how family tragedies and national projects came into conflict on the frontier.