Toxic Trajectories: Inhabiting, Migrating, and Settling in Rural and Urban Sacrifice Zones

Abstract

This article analyses and describes two different but similar scenarios in which the indigenous population is one of the most affected sectors. On the one hand, the Chaco region in the north of Argentina and, on the other, the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires in the center of the country, both of which, despite having different productive histories, are affected by an extractive model that is advancing on their territories, transforming them into sacrifice zones. Based on previous and current research conducted in the framework of ethnographic work, in-depth interviews, virtual and telephone interviews, conversational situations, field notes, primary and secondary sources, cadastral maps, population censuses, among others are used. The scenarios of socio-economic and environmental inequality that develop in both regions and the impact they have on local populations, who, in many cases, are forced to migrate and consolidate their toxic experiences, marked by scenarios of poverty, overcrowding, contamination, invisibilisation and denial are analysed, from the perspective of social anthropology.