The social economy of the “estancieiros”: Cattle breeder and power in Brazilian society

Abstract

Senhores da terra, senhores da guerra: sociologia histórica do patronato estancieiro do Rio Grande do Sul (1920-2019)  , by Marcos Piccin, is a book based in the author’s doctoral thesis about the estancieiros gaúchos. Many notorious Brazilian politicians – Getúlio Vargas, João Goulart, Ernesto Geisel, Emilio Garrastazu Medici – have social origins in this class of Brazilian South cattle breeders. Despite this fact, there still lacked a sociological study about estancieiros and their social strategies. The seven chapters of the book present a sociohistorical study about estancieiros: econonomical, matrimonial and educational investments, practices and lifestyles between the XX and XXI centuries. One of the main strategies is a non-economical calculation between honor, land and cattle stock towards social distinction. This review highlights the contribution of Piccin’s work, with some critical points: from the choice of writing the narrative in an impersonal fashion – which denotes something of a Bourdiesian exaggeration – to the insistance whithin the work to view estancieiros’ social world as an autonomous “island” to make a comparison between the classical literature about Brazilian plantations (sugar cane and coffee). There is no comparison between estancieiros and other sectors of Brazilian livestock. We conclude this review by pointing out that the book makes way for new researches about elites, ruling classes in the rural Brazilian society.

Keywords:
estancieiros; elites; ruling classes; rural studies