Chinese contract labor, the corporeal rift, and ecological imperialism in Peru's nineteenth-century guano boom. Issue 3 (16th April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Loustaunau, Lola; Betancourt, Mauricio; Clark, Brett; Foster, John Bellamy
• Is Part Of: Journal of peasant studies. Volume 49:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 511
• Page End: 535
• Publication Date: 2022-04-16
• Subjects: Metabolic rift -- corporeal rift -- ecological imperialism -- bonded labor -- guano; Peasantry -- Periodicals; Sociology, Rural -- Periodicals; Rural development -- Periodicals; 305.563305
• DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2021.1979966
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-6150

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Building on the theory of ecological imperialism in the context of the Peruvian guano boom, this analysis explores the metabolic rift in the human relation to external nature and the corresponding corporeal rift in the destruction of human bodily existence. Guano capitalists robbed Peru of the manure deposited by seabirds, while British imperialism introduced a system of racialized expropriation (the 'coolie trade'), referred to by Karl Marx as 'worse than slavery.' Previous failures to understand this historical tragedy were due to the legal forms adopted, which categorized as semi-free labor what was in fact the social murder of the workers.