Black geographies of rice in the Colombian Caribbean: gleaning and body-territory in the cracks of agrarian modernization
Topics: Black Geographies
, Latin America
, Feminist Geographies
Keywords: black geographies, body-territory, feminist geography, agrarian modernization, black rice, Colombian Caribbean
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 81
Authors:
Eloisa Berman-Arevalo, Universidad del Norte-Colombia
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Abstract
Rice has shaped Afro-diasporic cultures, identities and geographies in the Americas (Carney 2001). In the Colombian Caribbean, agrarian modernization throughout the 20th century re-configured black geographies of rice by transforming agrarian landscapes and disavowing black people´s agricultural knowledges and practices. This article analyzes tongueo, a form of rice harvesting that became widespread during the 1970s and 1980s in the municipality of Marialabaja, a historic afro-campesino territory. Tongueo involved women and children collecting and pounding the rice that was left after mechanized harvest. The stories told by tongueadora women re-signify this practice as a space of enjoyment, sociability and transmission of cultural memory. Drawing on theoretical elements of black geographies and Latin American feminist spatial thought, I argue that tongueo was an embodied territorial practice that occurred within the spaces of agrarian modernization. By shedding light on the configuration of black geographies in articulation with racialized agrarian change in Colombia, the paper contributes to broadening the field of black geographies beyond Anglo-centric literature, establishing a dialogue with Latin American debates on territory and body-territory.
Black geographies of rice in the Colombian Caribbean: gleaning and body-territory in the cracks of agrarian modernization
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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