Masculinities and Femininities in Latin America's Uneven Development by Susan Paulson

Author:Susan Paulson [Paulson, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367598235
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

4 The Gendered Production of Working Bodies and Aquaculture Industry in Chiloé, Chile

Susan Paulson and Teresa Bornschlegl

For centuries, inhabitants of the Chiloé islands in southern Chile carried out a constellation of activities that included farming, fishing, collecting shellfish and seaweed, forestry, carpentry, spinning and weaving. Until recently, local production was mostly oriented toward the sustenance and reproduction of local people and culture. Both scholarly and popular literature portrayed the archipelago as historically isolated from the rest of Chile and characterized it either as an undeveloped backwater or a living museum of distinct culture.

However, the geographic remoteness of the islands has not meant a lack of interaction or mutual influence with other places and people. On the contrary, throughout most of the twentieth century, significant numbers of Chilote men engaged in seasonal migration that often meant spending from four to six months a year working in Argentina or in other regions of Chile. This long-term pattern of interregional migration contributed labor power that was vital to the development and profitability of enterprises in receiving regions, and it also influenced the evolution of gender and production systems at home on the islands.

Starting in the 1980s, the mode and locus of activity shifted significantly. As outside investors and government actions propelled the development of a booming new salmon industry in the Chiloé islands, a much larger portion of Chiloé-based activity became involved in this bourgeoning industry and thus oriented toward the generation of profits. The spectacular expansion of this new mode of production entailed significant changes in relations among social actors and between humans and the environment.

By examining and comparing gender systems in Chiloé before and after the transformation, this study draws attention to dynamics through which gender practices and norms influenced particular processes of economic development and vice versa. We begin by examining aspects of gender roles and relations that prevailed before 1990 and then identify some of the gendered skills, strengths and spaces that were harnessed and directed toward the development of the local salmon industry. Next, we trace processes through which the industry provoked the emergence of new practices, goods and places marked by gender. Our analysis focuses on two structural shifts in local systems. The first involves the spatial and gendered reorganization of those activities and roles identified as productive, those activities and roles that are oriented toward the reproduction of conditions of production, and relations among them. The second focus explores a shift on the islands toward a gender arrangement marked by specific kinds of differentiation within masculine and feminine identities.

Before the launch of the salmon boom, the work of most women in Chiloé encompassed activities carried out in and near their homes (work that is often characterized as “reproductive”) as well as activities carried out in fields, forests and coasts (work that is in many contexts called “productive”). The latter activities were especially pronounced during those periods when men household members were away, as will be described below. Despite this well-documented range of activities, national censuses, researchers and even local residents tended to characterize Chiloé women as “economically inactive.

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