Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

New Perspectives on an Old Problem and the Same Source: The Gaucho and the Rural History of the Colonial Río de la Plata

1989; Duke University Press; Volume: 69; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-69.4.715

1527-1900

Jorge Gelman,

Indigenous Cultures and History

W X 7HILE doing some research on the rural world of the Rio de la Plata of the late colonial period, centered in the region of Colonia, Vibora, and Santo Domingo of the Banda Oriental, I received the issue of HAHR that contains an article by Ricardo Salvatore and Jonathan Brown about the so-called de las Vacas of the same region, based on some exceptionally rich materials, that I had been analyzing too.' As I read this article, I was confronted with a growing paradox, for in spite of having used the same sourcea very specific, rich, and detailed source-with a common problem as a starting point, my analysis led me to an interpretation noticeably different from that offered by these authors. Beyond the historiographical curiosity of this paradox, I want to present some of the viewpoints I have arrived at because I believe they open new approaches to the study of Platine rural society at the end of the colonial period.2 After examining the sources of the Estancia de las Vacas, Salvatore and Brown arrive at an important conclusion that I can agree with: the work force of the estancia was very unstable and the majority of the peons