ABSTRACT

Nearly one hundred years ago, a group of Mennonites left the prairies of Manitoba for the deserts of Northern Mexico. Since then, Mennonites have created over two hundred agricultural colonies across Latin America, spanning nine countries and seven biomes. In this paper, we provide the first continental-scale map and account of Mennonite expansion in Latin America over the last century. We show that Mennonite colonies today cover an area exceeding that of the Netherlands, having expanded through the conversion of uncultivated land to agriculture in remote areas. We discuss the implications of Mennonite expansion for the study of frontier land-use change. We argue that Mennonite farmers differ from both peasant and capitalist farmers, two categories of agents commonly featured in studies of frontier land-use change, in ways that have made them more likely to take a pioneering role in agricultural frontiers. We finish by proposing some avenues for future research.

摘要

大约一百年前，一群门诺派教徒离开马尼托巴大草原前往北墨西哥的沙漠。自那时以来，门诺人在拉丁美洲建立了200多个农业殖民地，横跨9个国家和7个生物群落。在本文中，我们提供了上个世纪以来拉丁美洲第一个大陆比例图和门诺岩扩张的描述。我们表明，今天的门诺派殖民地所覆盖的面积已经超过了荷兰，该地区已经通过将荒地转变为偏远地区的农业而扩大了。我们讨论门诺派扩张对边境土地利用变化研究的意义。我们认为门诺派农民不同于农民农民和资本主义农民，这是边境土地利用变化研究中通常具有的两类主体，以某种方式使他们更有可能在农业前沿领域扮演先锋角色。最后，我们提出一些未来研究的途径。