Studi e ricerche

La velocidad en los mundos lentos

Accidentes, máquinas y sociedades en América del Sur

crossmark logo

open access | peer reviewed

Abstract
From trucks and bulldozers to smaller tools like chainsaws and electric generators, a massive influx of machinery is currently reshaping Latin America’s peripheral landscapes. This process of mechanical colonization introduces disruptive and often violent forms of acceleration that profoundly impact environments and societies. Drawing on anthropology, history, and geography, this volume analyzes mechanical accidents as critical events. These events are not random fatalities but reveal tensions between machines, territories, and societies, prompting a re-evaluation of concepts like materiality, agency and causality.

Keywords Ayoreo • Rubber Boom • Bolivia • Sulfur mining • Chaco • Power • Wichí • Potosí • Easter Island • Chuquicamata • Machine-animal relations • Whalers • Progress • National identity • History of the Chaco • Culture • Oral tradition • Press • Suicide • Animal trampling • Machines • Guarani ethnography • Lafkenche society • Roads • Capitalism • Symbols • Hunter and gatherers • Violence • Draining machines • Extractive industries • Aullagas • Transportation • Indigenous peoples • Prevention • Accidents • Trains • History • Travel Accounts • Indigenous labor • Imaginary • Road accidentality • Tragedy • Indigenous perception • Speed • Extractivism • Motorcycles • Spaces of memory • Accident • Mapuche • Mining • Gran Chaco • Routes • Humahuaca, Iturbe • Asphalt • Technological appropriation • State • Government agencies • Neo-wildlife • Copper mining • Train accident • Being-on-the-street • Chile • Technology • Storytelling • Volcanoes • Infrastructure • Addictions • Rhythm • Shipwrecks • Mechanization • Anthropology of infrastructure • Amazonia • Mixtecs • Jujuy • Development projects • In-between • Memory • Road anthropology • Explosion mining capitalism • Motorcycle

Thema codes JHMC • NHTK • 1KLS • 3MN

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-940-5 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-940-5 | Published Sept. 30, 2025 | Language es