The Front and the Line: The Paradox of South American Frontiers Applied to the Bolivian Case
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14650040601031156
ISSN1557-3028
Autores Tópico(s)Migration, Education, Indigenous Social Dynamics
ResumoAbstract Dialectics between pioneer fronts and legal frontiers are not specific to South America. However, the coexistence of these two realities appears to be more problematic in this continent than elsewhere. In this article, the continent's double geopolitical heritage (a result of its 'discovery') is analysed in order to explain the permanent state of tensions between these fronts and frontiers; these tensions help to decipher the ongoing territorial dynamics in the countries of the continent. Using the example of Bolivia, the goal is to demonstrate that the specific Latin American territorial link between a society and its national territory is produced by the permanence and coincidence of American fronts and European frontiers. Both contribute equally to establishing a state and to building a nation upon its territory; however, they are antinomic (one is mobile, the other stable). The resolution of these dialectics is conjured up by integrating these two realities into a common symbolic territory, conferring on them the same power to semanticise space. Freezing boundaries, however, risks compromising the continent's integration process (and the opening of its borders), a goal to which all states aspire in the meantime. Notes 1. C. Bernand, Espaces américains: rêves, mythes, fictions (Communication in Colloque Espace(s), 6 May 1999, Toulouse, p. 3), available at http://web.archive.org/web/20040119174713/http://webast.ast.obsmip.fr/people/rieutord/IUF-conf/bernand/espace.rtf, accessed 17 November 2006. 2. S. S. Goes, Navegantes Bandeirantes Diplomatas: Aspectos da descoberta do continente da penetraçao do territorio brasileiro extra Tordesilhas e do estabelecimento das fronteiras da Amazonia (Brasilia: Instituto de Pesquisa deRelacoes internacionais (IPRI), Fundacao Alexandre de Gusmao, 1991) p. 72. 3. Goes (note 2); E. Reclus, Amérique du Sud: L'Amazone et La Plata, Guyanes, Brésil, Paraguay, Uruguay, République Argentine, Vol. XIX, Nouvelle Géographie universelle (Paris: Hachette 1894). 4. J. Lévy and M. Lussault, Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l'espace des sociétés (Paris: Belin 2003) p. 384. 5. P. Monbeig, Pionniers et planteurs de São Paulo (Paris: Armand Colin 1952). 6. H. Vianna, Historia do Brasil, 3rd ed., 2 Vols. (Sao Paulo: Edicoes Melhoramentos 1965 [1952]) p. 42. 7. H. Vazquez Machicado, Para una historia de los limites entre Bolivia y el Brasil, 2nd ed. (partial rev). (La Paz: Juventud 1990 [1988]). 8. Goes (note 2). 9. The adaptation of European myths to American lands is the same (the women of the Sauromatae people described by Herodotus become the Amazons; the new Jerusalem announced by John the Evangelist resembles the first accounts of the conquistadors; the marvels of Marco Polo are found on the American continent). See the introduction by Michel Lequenne in G. de Carvajal, Amazonie ventre de l'Amérique. Relation de la première descente de l'Amazone (L. Técher, French trans) (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon 1994). 10. P. Guichonnet and C. Raffestin, Géographie des frontières (Paris: PUF 1974) p. 122. 11. C. Arbaret-Schulz, A. Beyer, J.-L. Piermay, B. Reitel, C. Selimanoski, C. Sohn, and P. Zander, 'La frontière, un objet spatial en mutation', EspaceTemps.net (2004), available at , accessed 17 November 2006. 12. J. Soubin, Histoire de l'Amazonie (Paris: Payot 2000) p. 146. 13. The Portuguese were responsible for the critical innovation in South American cartography that occurred at the beginning of the eighteenth century. It was characterised by very exact surface measurements in the drawing of the continent, as illustrated by the world map drawn by Guillaume Delisle (1716). M. Droulers, 'L'espace et le développement au Brésil: de la géophagie à la géosophie?' Revue Tiers Monde 167 (2001) pp. 673–688. 14. J. Turner, 'The Significance of the Frontier in American History', Report of the American Historical Association (1893) pp. 199–227. 15. A palimpsest is a parchment manuscript in which the first text was erased so a new text could be written. 16. Turner (note 14). 17. B.-F. Gérard, 'La frontière n'a pas de limites', Cahier des Sciences Humaines 30/3 (1994) pp. 551–568. 18. J. Ancel, Géographie des Frontières (Paris: Gallimard 1938) p. 147. 19. J. Pilar Garcia, Cruz y arado, fusiles y discursos, la construccion de los Orientes en el Peru y Bolivia 1820 – 1940 (Lima: IFEA, IEP 2001); J. Pilar Garcia (coord.), La construccion de la Amazonia Andina, siglos XIX-XX (Quito: Abya-Yala 1994). 20. J.-C. Roux, La Bolivie orientale, confins inexplorés, battus aux Indiens et économie de pillage (Paris: L'Harmattan 2000). 21. From Bolivar to Sucre, Lima, 21 Febuary 1825. V. Lecuna, De Bolivar à Sucre: Selected Writings of Bolivar, Vol. II (New York: H. A. Bierck 1951) pp. 469–470. 22. M.-D. Demelas, Nationalisme sans nation? La Bolivie au XIX et XXème siècle (Toulouse: Centre régional de publication de Toulouse CNRS 1980) p. 15. 23. M. Baptista Gumucio (p. 125), in M. Baptista Gumucio and A. Saavedra Weise (eds.), Antologia Geopolitica de Bolivia (Cochabamba: Amigos del Libro La viabilidad de Bolivia 1978) p. 119–151. 24. A. Ostria Gutierrez, Una obra y un destino La politica internacional de Bolivia despues de la guerra del Chaco (Buenos Aires: Editorial Ayacucho 1946) p. 358. 25. A. Gumucio Dagron, Bolivie (Paris: Seuil 1981) p. 13. 26. J. Mendoza (p. 34), in M. Baptista Gumucio and A. Saavedra Weise (eds.), Antologia Geopolitica de Bolivia (La Paz: Los Amigos del Libros [Enciclopedia boliviana] El factor geografico en la nacionalidad boliviana 1978 [1925]) p. 31–55. 27. R. Pourtier, 'Espace et Nation en Afrique centrale: La dimension oubliée', Historiens et géographes 379 (2002) pp. 163–169 [p. 164]. 28. This popular upheaval degenerated in street fights between the army and protesters, leaving 85 dead on 17 October 2003. Gonzalo Sanchez Lozada, re-elected just a few months earlier, fled the country. 29. M. L. Bohan, Informe de la mission economica Bohan a Bolivia (La Paz: Bibliotheca del Congresso 1942 [unpublished, revised by L. F. Blanchard, La Paz, April 1942]) p. 29. 30. Gumucio Dagron (note 25) p. 10. 31. J. Mendoza, El factor geografico en la nacionalidad boliviana (Sucre: Imp. Bolivar 1925) p. 935. 32. J. Mendoza (note 26) p. 31. 33. J. Mendoza (note 26) p. 35. 34. The Bolivian-Brazilian border is the longest of the 10 Brazilian dyads. 35. Pilar Garcia, Cruz y arado (note 19) p. 251. 36. Consejo Supremo de defensa nacional, Politica de fronteras y asentamientos humanos (La Paz: CONASE 1988); Consejo Supremo de defensa nacional, Estudios de las politicas para el desarollo de fronteras (La Paz, unpublished [classified document ] 2001). 37. C. Bravo and M. Ballivian, La patria boliviana, estado geografico (La Paz: Imprenta La Paz 1894) p. 74. 38. J. M. Dalence, Bosquejo estadistico de Bolivia, 2nd ed. (La Paz: UMSA 1975 [1851]) p. 118. 39. Pilar Garcia, Cruz y arado (note 19) p. 254. 40. Interview, March 2003.
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