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The Dilemmas of Male Consumption in Nineteenth-Century Argentina: Fashion, Consumerism, and Darwinism in Domingo Sarmiento and Juan B. Alberdi*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2007

ADRIANA NOVOA
ADRIANA NOVOA
Affiliation:
Adriana Novoa is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and American Studies, University of South Florida. [email protected]
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Abstract

This article explores how the relationship between luxury, consumption and gender in Argentina changed in response to the introduction of Darwinian ideas. Ideas surrounding consumerism were transformed by the 1870s, influenced by a scientific revolution that gave new meaning to gender categories. The introduction of Darwinism at a time of extreme ideological confusion about how to organise the nation only enhanced the perceived dangers about how economic changes and the expansion of markets would affect elites' ability to govern. The article focuses specifically on changing perceptions of gender and consumerism between 1830 and 1880, paying particular attention to the work of two of the most important intellectuals of the Generación del '37, Juan B. Alberdi and Domingo F. Sarmiento. By closely examining their reflections on the expansion of markets and accumulation of luxury goods, it reveals the nature of the cultural changes introduced by the Darwinian revolution.

Resumen:

Este artículo explora cómo la relación entre lujo, consumo y género en Argentina cambió en respuesta a la introducción de las ideas de Darwin. Las nociones alrededor del consumismo fueron transformadas por los años 1870s, influenciadas por una revolución científica que le dio sentido a las categorías de género. La introducción del darwinismo durante un tiempo de extrema confusión ideológica sobre cómo organizar a la nación sólo realzaron los peligros que se percibían sobre cómo los cambios económicos y la expansión de los mercados habrían de afectar a la capacidad de las elites para gobernar. El artículo se enfoca específicamente en el cambio de percepciones de género y consumismo entre 1830 y 1880, prestando atención especial al trabajo de dos de los intelectuales más importantes de la Generación del 37, Juan B. Alberdi y Domingo F. Sarmiento. Al examinar de cerca sus reflexiones sobre la expansión de los mercados y la acumulación de bienes de lujo, se revela la naturaleza de los cambios culturales introducidos por la revolución darwinista.

Palabras clave: Argentina, consumismo, Darwinismo, selección sexual, género

Resumo:

Este artigo explora como a relação entre luxo, consumo e gênero na Argentina mudou em resposta à introdução de idéias darwinianas. Até a década de 1870, idéias cercando o consumismo foram transformadas, sendo influenciadas por uma revolução científica que deu novo sentido às categorias de gênero. A introdução do darwinismo numa época de extrema confusão ideológica sobre como organizar uma nação, somente exacerbou os supostos perigos percebidos em relação a como mudanças econômicas e a expansão de mercados abalaria a capacidade das elites de governar. O artigo foca especificamente em mudanças de percepções sobre gênero e consumismo entre 1830 e 1880, prestando atenção especialmente ao trabalho de dois dos mais importantes intelectuais da Generación del ’37, Juan B. Alberdi e Domingo F. Sarmiento. Examinando de perto suas reflexões sobre a expansão de mercados e acúmulo de bens de luxo permite que seja revelada a natureza das mudanças culturais introduzidas pela revolução darwiniana.

Palavras-chave: Argentina, consumismo, darwinismo, seleção sexual, gênero.

Keywords

ArgentinaconsumerismDarwinismsexual selectiongender
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 771 - 795
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1 Rebecca Earle, ‘Consumption and Excess in Spanish America (1700–1830)’, Working Paper 1 (April 2003), University of Manchester. Centre for Latin American Cultural Studies, p. 3.

2 Ibid., p. 8.

3 Antonello Gerbi, The Dispute of the New World. The History of a Polemic, 1750–1900 (Pittsburg, 1973), David Bindman, Ape to Apollo. Aesthetics and the Idea of Race in the Eighteenth-Century (Ithaca, 2002).

4 Rebecca Earle, ‘Consumption and Excess’, p. 8.

5 See: Rebecca Earle, ‘Rape and the Anxious Republic. Revolutionary Colombia, 1810–1830’, in Maxine Molyneux and Elizabeth Dore (eds.) Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America (Durham, 2000), pp. 127–46.

6 Rebecca Earle, ‘Consumption and Excess’, p. 19.

7 Alberdi, Juan B., ‘Modas de Señoras’ in Obras Completas, vol. I (Buenos Aires, 1886), pp. 273–4Google Scholar.

8 Regina A. Root, ‘Fashioning Independence: Gender, Dress and Social Space in Postcolonial Argentina’, in Regina A. Root (ed.), The Latin American Fashion Reader (New York, 2005), p. 31.

9 Alberdi, ‘La Generación Presente á la Faz de la Generación Pasada’ in Obras I, p. 385.

10 Ibid., p. 386.

11 Ibid., p. 386.

12 See Janet Todd, Sensibility: An Introduction (London, 1986); John Mullan, Sentiment and Sociability: The Language of Feeling in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1988); Colin Campbell, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism (Oxford, 1987); Lorna Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain 1660–1760 (London, 1988); Neil McKendrick, John Brewer and J. H. Plumb, The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, (Bloomington, 1985).

13 G. J. Barker-Benfield, The Culture of Sensibility (Chicago, 1992), p. 104.

14 Francine Masiello, Between Civilization and Barbarism: Women, Nation and Literary Culture in Modern Argentina (Lincoln, 1991), p. 20.

15 Domingo F. Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic in the days of the Tyrants; or Civilization and Barbarism (New York, 1968), p. 70.

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22 Ibid., p. 91.

23 Domingo F, Sarmiento, Viajes por Europa, Africa I América, 1845–1847 (Madrid, 1993), p. 100. Italics in the original.

24 Ibid., p. 100. Around the same time Alberdi also mentioned the elimination of the differences between men and women, something that he was very concerned about. He wrote ironically about the socialists’ claims against the difference of the sexes and denounced the fashion that confused the role of men and women. See: Gandía, Enrique, ‘La Ironía Política de Alberdi’, in Journal of Inter-American Studies, vol. 8. no. 4 (1966), p. 501CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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30 Ibid., p. 171.

31 Ibid., p. 171.

32 Ibid., p. 172.

33 Ibid., p. 173.

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35 Malthus' influence on Alberdi by this time can be seen in his constitutional studies, such as Las Bases. See, Juan B. Alberdi, Obras Completas, Vol. III, pp. 526–7.

36 See, Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (London, 1902), p. 170.

37 The work of Alexander von Humboldt was extremely important to the members of Alberdi and his generation. See, Adolfo Prieto, Los viajeros ingleses y la emergencia de la literatura argentina, 1820–1850 (Buenos Aires, 1996); Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Studies in Travel Writing and Transculturation (London, 1992).

38 Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, Vol. I (London, 1826), p. 3.

39 Malthus's negative ideas about the indigenous and Spanish populations of America left a profound impression on Alberdi. Consider the following quotation from Malthus and its connection with Alberdi's demographic theories: ‘If the United States of America continue increasing, which they certainly will do, though not with the same rapidity as formerly, the Indians will be driven further and further back into the country, till the whole race is ultimately exterminated, and the territory incapable of further extension. These observations are, in a degree, applicable to all the parts of the earth where the soil is imperfectly cultivated. To exterminate the inhabitants of the greatest part of Asia and Africa, is a thought that could not be admitted for a moment. To civilise and direct the industry of the various tribes of Tartars and Negroes, would certainly be a work of considerable time, and of variable and uncertain success.’ Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, p. 8.

40 Juan B. Alberdi, Cartas sobre la prensa y la política militante de la República Argentina, in Obras Completas, vol. IV (Buenos Aires, 1886), 40. Italics in the original.

41 Ibid., p. 46.

42 Domingo F. Sarmiento, Las ciento y una, in Obras, vol. XV, p. 139.

43 Ibid., p. 149.

44 Ibid., p. 172.

45 Ibid., p. 180.

46 Ibid., p. 180.

47 Ibid., p. 181.

48 Rocchi, Fernando, ‘Consumir es un Placer: La Industria y la Demanda en Buenos Aires a la Vuelta del Siglo Pasado’, Desarrollo Económico, vol. 37, no. 148, (Jan.–Mar. 1998), p. 535CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Ricardo D. Salvatore, ‘The Strength of Markets in Latin America's Sociopolitical Discourse, 1750–1850’, Latin American Perspectives, no. 104 (Jan. 1999), p. 32.

50 José Manuel de Estrada, El Génesis de Nuestra Raza (Buenos Aires, 1862).

51 William H. Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago (London, 1931), pp. 326–32.

52 The Anales del Museo Público de Buenos Aires includes a detailed description of the journals received through subscriptions. The references to Burmeister in Darwin's correspondence are available online through the Darwin Correspondence Project: http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/

53 Juan B. Alberdi, Ensayos póstumos, vol. VII (Buenos Aires, 1899), p. 104.

54 Quoted by Alberto Palcos, in Esteban Echeverría, El Dogma Socialista. Edición crítica. (La Plata, 1940), p. 258.

55 Sarmiento, Domingo, ‘Un Viaje de Nueva York a Buenos Aires: De 23 de Julio al 29 de Agosto de 1868’, Obras Completas, vol. XLIX (Buenos Aires, 1900), p. 321Google Scholar.

56 Juan B. Alberdi, Ensayos póstumos, vol. VII (Buenos Aires, 1899), p. 349.

57 By the 1870s Darwin is always mentioned by Alberdi as the new scientific source to understand America. See, Ensayos póstumos, vol. XII (Buenos Aires, 1900), pp. 80–1.

58 Eduardo Holmberg, Dos Partidos en Lucha: Fantasía Científica (Buenos Aires, 1875). On Darwinism in Argentina, see, Marcelo Montserrat, ‘Holmberg y el Darwinismo en la Argentina’, Criterio no. 47 (1974), pp. 591–8; ‘The Evolutionist Mentality in Argentina: An Ideology of Progress’ in Thomas Glick, Miguel Angel Puig-Samper, Rosaura Ruiz, (eds.), The reception of Darwinism in the Iberian World (Boston, 1999), pp. 1–29. Darwinistas! Evolution, Race and Science in Nineteenth Century Argentina, written and translated by Adriana Novoa and Alex Levine (forthcoming, University of Nebraska Press).

59 See, José Manuel Estrada, Obras completas (Buenos Aires, 1905). There is a continuous overlapping between Darwinian and Spencerian evolutionism; for the purposes of this article I concentrate only on those ideas that came from Darwin.

60 Domingo F. Sarmiento, Epistolario Intimo (Buenos Aires, 1961), p. 120. English in the original.

61 Juan B. Alberdi, Escritos Póstumos, vol. I (Quilmes, 2002), p. 195.

62 Marcelo Montserrat, ‘La mentalidad evolucionista en la Argentina: una ideología del progreso’ in Documento de Trabajo (Universidad de San Andrés, 1997), p. 9.

63 Alberdi, Juan B., ‘Comment of 1870’ in Escritos póstumos de Juan Bautista Alberdi, vol. IX (Buenos Aires, 1895–1901), pp. 661–3Google Scholar.

64 Alberdi, Juan B., ‘Estudios Económicos’ in Escritos póstumos de Juan Bautista Alberdi, (Quilmes, 2002), pp. 284–5Google Scholar.

65 This is the name that he used to identify Sarmiento in his latter writings. See, Escritos Póstumos, vol. X (Buenos Aires, 1899), p. 59.

66 Sarmiento was known in the popular press as ‘el loco Sarmiento.’

67 Juan B. Alberdi, Luz del Día en América (Buenos Aires, 1916) p. 169.

68 Juan B. Alberdi, Luz del Día, p. 169.

69 During his stay in Boston, Sarmiento read the work of Huxley and even wrote an article in The Boston Daily Advertiser about the breeding of sheep, aiming to prove that there was a new species of sheep in Argentina. It is very probable that Alberdi was making fun of this article in order to show his rival's ignorance. See The Boston Daily Advertiser, September 19, 1865. Sarmiento also repeats this argument in a eulogy given on the occasion of Darwin's death: ‘It seems to me that we Argentines have sufficient motive for subscribing to the transmutationist doctrine, given how we transmute one variety of sheep in another. We have constituted a new species, the argentiferous sheep, so-called both because of its Argentine origins, and because it brings in the silver.’ Domingo Sarmiento, ‘Lecture on Darwin’, presented at a public meeting of the Medical Circle (Círculo Médico) in the National Theatre, 30 May 1882, after news of Darwin's death had arrived. The English text comes from Darwinistas! Evolution, Race and Science in Nineteenth Century Argentina.

70 Juan B. Alberdi, Luz del Día, p. 169.

71 Ibid., p. 170.

72 Evelyn Fishburn, The Portrayal of Immigration in Nineteenth Century Argentine Fiction (1845–1902) (Berlin, 1981), pp. 41–2.

73 Alberdi, Juan B., ‘Varela’ in Escritos Póstumos, vol. XII (Buenos Aires, 1900), p. 57Google Scholar.

74 Juan B. Alberdi, Escritos Póstumos, vol. XI (Buenos Aires, 1900), p. 404.

75 Ibid., p. 403. Italics in the original.

76 Nancy Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800–1960 (Hamden, CT, 1982), p. 59.

77 Ibid., p. 62.

78 Domingo Sarmiento, ‘Lecture on Darwin.’

79 On Spencer and Darwin see: Helena Cronin, The Ant and the Peacock. Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today (New York, 1991), pp. 371–9.

80 Domingo Sarmiento, ‘Lecture on Darwin’.

81 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man in Edward O. Wilson (ed.), From so Simple a Beginning. The Four Great Books of Charles Darwin (New York, 2006). p. 1220.

82 Domingo Sarmiento, ‘Lecture on Darwin’.

83 See: Vorzimmer, Peter, ‘Charles Darwin and Blending Inheritance’ in Isis vol. 54, no. 3 (September 1963), pp. 371–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 1217.

85 Domingo Sarmiento, Obras Vol. XIX (Buenos Aires, 1898), p. 349.

86 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 1210.

87 Domingo Sarmiento, ‘Lecture on Darwin.’

88 Ibid., italics in the original.

89 For further explanation on sexual selection see, Helena Cronin, The Ant and the Peacock. Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today (New York, 1991).

90 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 1151.

91 Ibid., p. 1062.

92 Ibid., p. 1091.

93 Ibid., p. 1203.

94 Ibid., p. 1203.

95 Ibid., p. 1234.

96 Ibid., p. 1204.

97 Alberdi noted the relationship between luxury, adornments and the savages. ‘A girl in whose education no attention is paid to morality, and where the only thought is to adorn her with shiny talents, represents for civilised society the counterpart of a shirtless indigenous woman, wearing flowers in her hair and earrings.’ Alberdi, Juan B., ‘Educación’ in Escritos Póstumos, vol. XII (Buenos Aires, 1900), p. 162Google Scholar.

98 Alberdi, Juan B., ‘Varela’ in Escritos Póstumos, vol. XII, p. 160Google Scholar.

99 Ibid., p. 163. Italics in the original.

100 Gilliam Beer, Darwin's Plots. Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Cambridge, 2000), p. 196.

101 Domingo F. Sarmiento, ‘El Parque Palermo’ in Discursos Populares, Colección Grandes Escritores Argentinos, vol. I (Buenos Aires, s/f), p. 208.

102 Memoria Municipal 1879 (Buenos Aires, 1880), p. 334.

103 Ibid., p. 338.

104 Juan B. Alberdi, Obras Completas, vol. III (Buenos Aires, 1886), p. 361.