Of Flesh and Ore: Material Histories and Embodied Geologies

Abstract

This article explores the constitution of subterranean space in a Bolivian tin mine through an analysis of the discursive practices that materialize differentially valued people and differentially valued rocks. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, I examine the processes through which tin miners are formed as socially stratified subjects and tin is mattered in its multiple forms—as mineral, as commodity, and as symbolic metal of modernity. Through this analysis, I develop a conceptual–methodological approach that integrates insights from feminist materialisms with commitments recuperated from “old” materialist geographies; I call this approach material history. Using this analytic, I argue that nonliving matters (1) are always historied before becoming materially entangled with human bodies, (2) are unevenly distributed and unevenly valued across volumetric space, and (3) contribute to the social stratification of the humans who labor with them. In the tin mine, racialized and gendered differences manifest in spatial association with differences in ore quality, ore exhaustion, and technologies of extraction. These arguments show how apparently inanimate matters can be counterintuitively influential in shaping human bodies and human social worlds, where subjects and objects are relationally formed, sorted, and ranked. : .

通过对玻利维亚一个锡矿的地下空间构成的分析, 本文探讨了话语实践如何产生了不同价值的人和不同价值的岩石。借助档案研究和人种学研究, 本文考察了锡矿工人在社会上被层次化的过程, 以及锡的多种形式（矿物、商品、象征现代化的金属）。通过这一分析, 本文建立了概念-方法论, 结合了女权主义者唯物主义观点和“旧”唯物主义地理；本文将这种方法称为“物质历史”。本文认为, 非生命物质（1）与人体发生物质性关联之前, 总是被历史化, （2）在三维体空间内的分布和价值是不均衡的, （3）促成了对劳动者的社会分层。在锡矿中, 种族和性别的差异, 在空间关系上表现为矿石质量、矿石耗竭和开采技术的差异。这些观点表明, 在塑造人体和人类社会世界时, 非生命物质具有反直觉的影响力；而在人体和人类社会世界中, 主体和客体的形成、排序和分级是关联性的。

Este artículo explora la constitución del espacio subterráneo en una mina de estaño boliviana por medio de un análisis de las prácticas discursivas que materializan gente y rocas valoradas diferencialmente. A partir de investigación archivística y etnográfica, examino los procesos a través de los cuales los mineros del estaño son formados como sujetos estratificados socialmente y el estaño es materializado en sus formas múltiples––como mineral, como mercadería y como metal simbólico de la modernidad. A través de este análisis, yo desarrollo un enfoque conceptual–metodológico que integra perspicacias de los materialismos feministas, con los compromisos recuperados de “viejas” geografías materialistas; yo llamo este enfoque historia material. Usando esta analítica, sostengo que las materias inanimadas (1) siempre son historiadas antes de enredarse materialmente con los cuerpos humanos, (2) están desigualmente distribuidas e inequitativamente valoradas a través del espacio volumétrico, y (3) contribuye a la estratificación social de los humanos, que laboran con ellos. En la mina de estaño, las diferencias racializadas y de género se manifiestan en asociación espacial con las diferencias de calidad en el mineral, su agotamiento y con las tecnologías de extracción. Estos argumentos muestran cómo materias aparentemente inanimadas pueden ser contraintuitivamente influyentes en dar forma a los cuerpos humanos y a los mundos sociales humanos, donde los sujetos y los objetos está relacionalmente formados, clasificados y ranqueados.

Key Words:

• Bolivia
• geology
• materiality
• subterranean
• vertical space

关键词:

• 玻利维亚
• 地质
• 物质性
• 地下
• 垂直空间。

Palabras clave:

• Bolivia
• espacio vertical
• geología
• materialidad
• subterráneo

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to Jen Rose Smith for constant support throughout the writing process. In various formats, the ideas in this article have also benefited from advice received from John Elrick, Camilla Hawthorne, Jake Kosek, Donald Moore, Meredith Palmer, Nancy Postero, Jesse Rodenbiker, Erin Torkelson, Michael Watts, Alex Werth, and Ashton Wesner. Finally, I am thankful for comments from the journal editor, James McCarthy, and two anonymous reviewers.

Funding

The research and writing for this article were conducted with support from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the American Council of Learned Societies–Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. As usual, all errors are my own.

Notes

1 This quote is taken from a book by René Poppe, a well-known Bolivian writer who spent four months working in the Llallagua tin mines in 1971 and subsequently published a famous testimonial recounting the experience. All translations are by the author unless otherwise indicated.

2 Like Poppe after him, George Orwell spent several months in 1936 in the mining districts of northern England. The two authors, continents and decades apart, have strikingly similar descriptions of the tin mines.

3 Following Barad (2007), I use the word matter as both noun and verb. As a verb, mattering describes the continuous process through which matter comes into being.

4 Bolivian historian Oporto Ordóñez’s (2007) study, which focuses on the early era of tin mining in Llallagua and Uncía (1900–1935), argues that workers in Uncía came largely from the exhausted silver mines of Colquechaca, within Norte Potosí, whereas workers in Llallagua came largely from the valleys of Cochabamba and Oruro. Another wave of workers came from beyond Bolivian borders, with a particularly high number of Chileans who had been working for the Chilean Compañía Estañífera de Llallagua.

5 The information in this paragraph and the following paragraph is drawn from interviews with twelve engineers and geologists in Llallagua and La Paz.

6 Demetria is a composite of two women who both work underground. I combined their stories for the purposes of anonymity and readability.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Marston

ANDREA MARSTON is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08854. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include the politics of nature, race, and gender, with an empirical focus on extractive economies in Latin America.