When the Gods Arrived: Wilderness in Latin America
| Autor: | Peter Beardsell |
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| Rok vydání: | 2011 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Romance Studies. 29:108-119 |
| ISSN: | 1745-8153 0263-9904 |
| Popis: | After their liberation from imperial control based in Europe, the young republics of Latin America addressed social, political, economic, and cultural issues raised by the proximity of the wilderness — deserts, forests, mountains, vast plains — which seemed at times hostile to the European way of life. Politicians and writers developed a theory of confrontation, which they often expressed as civilization versus barbarism. Several political programmes and military campaigns were based on the premise that for people to have a European lifestyle and culture it was essential for cities to expand and the wilderness to be tamed. What this ignores, of course, is the fact that people had been living successfully in those wild areas for many centuries before the Europeans arrived. They had civilizations and cultures in which humans were adjusted to those environments that seemed hostile to the newcomers. Wilderness for them sometimes has a remarkable similarity to the view held by Europeans, but ultimately... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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