La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste

From the beginning of Juan Domingo Perón’s administration, food consumption was both a significant object of state policy and a central component of official propaganda. This essay resists the analytical separation between politics and imaginaries in order to expand our understanding of Peronism in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Natalia MILANESIO
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut des Amériques
Series:IdeAs
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/425
_version_ 1797305841705025536
author Natalia MILANESIO
author_facet Natalia MILANESIO
author_sort Natalia MILANESIO
collection DOAJ
description From the beginning of Juan Domingo Perón’s administration, food consumption was both a significant object of state policy and a central component of official propaganda. This essay resists the analytical separation between politics and imaginaries in order to expand our understanding of Peronism in new directions. First, it shows the economic, political, and iconographic centrality of food for state planning, commercial culture, public health, and definitions of social, national, and physical wellbeing. Second, the essay reinterprets nationalism and social entitlement—concepts that researchers have identified as key in Peronist ideology—through a new focus on food. An increase in per-capita beef consumption—beyond serving as a symbol of popular wellbeing—undermined the images of Argentina as an export economy subservient to foreign capitalism. By favoring internal consumers over external markets, Peronist beef politics created an empowering ideology of economic sovereignty. This ideology reinforced the commitment of the state to benefit the local population in the distribution of national wealth. Between 1946 and 1949, the government popularized the rise in beef intake as the new entitlement of the working classes to what had previously been a “luxury food”. Finally, the analysis demonstrates that Peronism collected and instrumentally continued or redefined key arguments circulating in Argentine popular culture and medical and leftist discourses including the relation between beef and nationalism, luxury, right, and health ; the intervention of the state in nutritional issues; the dietary education of the masses; and the connection between nationalism, tradition, and culinary culture.
first_indexed 2024-03-08T00:32:25Z
format Article
id doaj.art-38745eebf5cc4021b7b1097c3093cdfe
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1950-5701
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-08T00:32:25Z
publisher Institut des Amériques
record_format Article
series IdeAs
spelling doaj.art-38745eebf5cc4021b7b1097c3093cdfe2024-02-15T13:54:30ZengInstitut des AmériquesIdeAs1950-5701310.4000/ideas.425La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péronisteNatalia MILANESIOFrom the beginning of Juan Domingo Perón’s administration, food consumption was both a significant object of state policy and a central component of official propaganda. This essay resists the analytical separation between politics and imaginaries in order to expand our understanding of Peronism in new directions. First, it shows the economic, political, and iconographic centrality of food for state planning, commercial culture, public health, and definitions of social, national, and physical wellbeing. Second, the essay reinterprets nationalism and social entitlement—concepts that researchers have identified as key in Peronist ideology—through a new focus on food. An increase in per-capita beef consumption—beyond serving as a symbol of popular wellbeing—undermined the images of Argentina as an export economy subservient to foreign capitalism. By favoring internal consumers over external markets, Peronist beef politics created an empowering ideology of economic sovereignty. This ideology reinforced the commitment of the state to benefit the local population in the distribution of national wealth. Between 1946 and 1949, the government popularized the rise in beef intake as the new entitlement of the working classes to what had previously been a “luxury food”. Finally, the analysis demonstrates that Peronism collected and instrumentally continued or redefined key arguments circulating in Argentine popular culture and medical and leftist discourses including the relation between beef and nationalism, luxury, right, and health ; the intervention of the state in nutritional issues; the dietary education of the masses; and the connection between nationalism, tradition, and culinary culture.https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/425PeronismFood politicsNationalismBeefFood imaginaries
spellingShingle Natalia MILANESIO
La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste
IdeAs
Peronism
Food politics
Nationalism
Beef
Food imaginaries
title La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste
title_full La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste
title_fullStr La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste
title_full_unstemmed La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste
title_short La politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l’Argentine péroniste
title_sort la politique alimentaire et la consommation dans l argentine peroniste
topic Peronism
Food politics
Nationalism
Beef
Food imaginaries
url https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/425
work_keys_str_mv AT nataliamilanesio lapolitiquealimentaireetlaconsommationdanslargentineperoniste