Territorializing Capital: Moreno’s Gift and the Political Economy of Nature in Argentine Patagonia

Abstract

This chapter examines the political economy of nature and the legacy of Francisco Moreno, scientist and explorer, within ArgentinePatagonia. Moreno is institutionally recognized for a land donation he made to the federalgovernment in 1903, which is celebrated for inaugurating the national park conservation movement. This Moreno-centric official history, however, has rendered invisible state violence and Indigenous dispossession as preconditions of national conservation. Moving beyond this official history of conservation, the discussion highlights two histories of capitalist territorialization. The first focuses on the clearing-out strategy pursued by the Argentine government to open Patagonia for colonization and agrarian capitalism. The second attends to the re-territorialization of space through the creation of national parks and the promotion of leisure capitalism. Using the concept of “the gift” to assess Moreno’s legacy, this chapter shows that the “spirit of the gift”—heralded by the Argentine federal government—is chained to these two projects of capitalist territorialization. These territorialization histories challenge the halcyon representation of Moreno’s gift promoted by the state. Drawing upon scholarship in politicalecology, this study is a contribution to an emerging critical assessment of “the gift” within Patagonian conservation.