The plantain or the nation. Social representations and practices around the plantain in 19th century Colombia

Abstract

Based on theoretical approaches to social representations, on the analysis of texts by elite and foreign travelers, and on production and consumption practices, we ask how plantain (Musa paradisiaca) was represented between 1780 and 1900, in the hot lands by the low and mid Magdalena river. We argue that plantain was a marker of the border between “Us” (white, urban, of the elite) and the “Others” (racially diverse, rural, illiterate). Represented as a tropical “non-crop” and accomplice of riverside inhabitants' idleness, especially zambos', plantain appeared as atavistic, an obstacle to civilization, and a form of resistance.