Historical analysis of mezcals and their current situation from an eco-marxist approach

  This article analyzes the history of production, consume and commercialization of distillate agave manufactured in Mexico, through Political Ecology, from an eco-marxist approach. The main argument is that those artisans whose practices are diverse and heterogeneous, are systematically an...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Plascencia de la Torre, María Fernanda, Peralta Gordon, Lilian María
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2018
Country:Ecuador
Institution:Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales
Repository:Revista EUTOPIA
Language:Spanish
OAI Identifier:oai:revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec:article/3579
Online Access:https://revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec/eutopia/article/view/3579
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:agave
denominación de origen
destilados de agave
ecomarxismo
mezcal
Description
Summary:  This article analyzes the history of production, consume and commercialization of distillate agave manufactured in Mexico, through Political Ecology, from an eco-marxist approach. The main argument is that those artisans whose practices are diverse and heterogeneous, are systematically and legitimately excluded and stripped of the agaves and the associated knowledge to elaborate mescal, to favor industrial production linked to the accumulation of capital. Through historical analysis, with particular emphasis on the second half of the twentieth century to the present, the main changes in their conditions and means of production are defined. The transformation from use value to exchange value and the mutation of the agaves to fictitious commodities are examined. Finally, the article discusses the political and legal schemes used contemporarily by the Mexican State to legitimize exclusion and dispossession.