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Buenos Aires: The Paris of South America

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Book cover An Archaeology of Nineteenth-Century Consumer Behavior in Melbourne, Australia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina

Part of the book series: Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology ((CGHA))

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Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to set the scene and provide a background of the city of Buenos Aires and the suburb of San Telmo in the nineteenth century. The chapter begins with a brief history of the city from pre-colonization to the close of the nineteenth century and includes major events that shaped the city such as the growth of contraband, independence, and political instability, followed by boom and bust. The chapter then describes conditions for working-class people in the nineteenth-century Buenos Aires and San Telmo. This is followed by details of the archaeological work previously conducted at the suburb of San Telmo and then specifically of the work undertaken at the Casa Peña site.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Creole in this context means a person born in South America of mixed ethnic ancestry. It encompasses various terms, some of which are no longer commonly used (and may be culturally inappropriate) to refer to people of different variants of mixed ethnic ancestry. Such terms include mestizo (European and Indigenous descent), mulatto (African and European descent), zambo (Indigenous and African descent), and pardo (African, Indigenous, and European descent). They are included here simply to highlight the rise in a nationalistic conscience that came hand-in-hand with the move away from Spanish authority. Although a social hierarchy had been (and remained) in existence, in which people of European descent were at the top and everyone else below, many people from all groups were united in the move towards local, independent rule.

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  1. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia

    Pamela Ricardi

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Ricardi, P. (2020). Buenos Aires: The Paris of South America. In: An Archaeology of Nineteenth-Century Consumer Behavior in Melbourne, Australia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21595-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21595-8_4

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