Brave "Brave "New Goat": regionalism and ruralism in defense of caprinoculture in the Brazilian Northeast
‘Admirável Bode Novo’: regionalismo e ruralismo em defesa da caprinocultura no semiárido nordestino
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36920/esa-v28n1-5Abstract
Over the past decades, caprinoculture (goat raising) has been the target of public and private investment in the Brazilian Northeast. And this has occurred for reasons that go beyond economic factors: there is a strong regionalist bias of tourist and gastronomic events in various cities in the region that legitimizes caprinoculture as an authentic symbol of the “backlands” (sertão). The article analyzes the social conditions of this belief and relates them to the way in which segments of livestock raising elites from the Northeast grounded an idea of living with the droughts. To map this field of disputes the author uses such sources as zootechnical manuals, magazines of associations and entities representing large northeastern ranchers (1980-2013 editions). The article concludes that the legitimacy for the current valued status of goat farming in the semi-arid zone arose from two movements of segments of the livestock raising elite. On the one hand, disqualifying the perception and the logics of reciprocity – called “miunça”– of goats for the poor. On the other, bringing the perception of goat farming closer to the image of a Brazilian “rural vocation”, as an argument of segments of the national agribusiness sector.
Keywords: livestock raising elite; goat-breeder; regionalism; ruralism; semi-arid Northeast Brazil.
MENESES, Valdênio Freitas. ‘Admirável Bode Novo’: regionalismo e ruralismo em defesa da caprinocultura no semiárido nordestino. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, v. 28, n. 1, p. 109-135, fev. 2020.
Submitted on November 22, 2019.
Accepted on January 6, 2020.
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