Viaje a la Patagonia Austral: reflections on good taste and the need to consolidate borders in the face of threatening neighbors in the prose of Francisco Pascasio Moreno

Abstract

In this article, we will analyze some aspects about the famous work Viaje a la Patagonia Austral emprendido bajo los auspicios del Gobierno Nacional (1876-1877) by Francisco Pascacio Moreno. Specifically, we will focus our attention on those conceptions that account for good taste in the logic of civilization-barbarism. Likewise, we consider such conceptions within the historical context of the consolidation of national borders motivated, in turn, by the existence of a potential threatening neighborhood. As we will show, the demarcated borders within the imagined community that embodied civilization acted as a parameter by which the Argentine naturalist made his descriptions.

Keywords

• buen gusto
• civilización
• barbarie
• vecindad amenazante
• comunidad imaginada