Studi e ricerche

La velocidad en los mundos lentos

Accidentes, máquinas y sociedades en América del Sur

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open access | peer reviewed
    edited by
  • Nicolas Richard - CNRS - email
  • Diego Villar - Università Ca' Foscari Venezia - email
  • Alberto Preci - Sorbonne Université - email

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

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

Copyright © 2025 Nicolas Richard, Diego Villar, Alberto Preci. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.