List of Abbreviations ix
Note on Labels and Language xiii
Preface and Acknowledgments xv
Introduction. Gaseous State 1
Part One. Time
1. Heroes of Chaco 27
2. Imperial Maneuvers 50
3. Las nalgas of YPFB 69
Part Two. Space
4. Gas Lock-In 97
5. Bulls and Beauty Queens 125
6. Just a Few Lashes 152
Part Three. Excess
7. Requiem for the Dead 179
8. Gas Work 202
9. Quarrel over the Excess 223
Postscript. Bolivia 2020 247
Notes 255
References 271
Index 293
Bret Gustafson is Associate Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia, also published by Duke University Press.
“Fossil capitalism, and the calamitous consequences of our
dependence on coal and petroleum, is central to any understanding
of life in the Anthropocene. Bret Gustafson offers up an original
and compelling take on the oft-told tale of oil wealth,
petroviolence, and the so-called curse of oil dependency by
reinterpreting the colonial and postcolonial history of Bolivia
through the country's relation to natural gas, what he calls the
gaseous state. Gustafson draws together the temporalities, spaces,
and excesses of a world built through the exploitation of gas and
in so doing takes the reader on an exhilarating ride through US
imperialism, the Bolivian state, Indigenous territoriality, the
hard-edged world of pipelines, wellheads, violent corporate
capital, and of course the rise and fall of Evo Morales. A book for
our time.”
*Michael Watts, Class of 63 Professor, University of California,
Berkeley*
“Bolivia in the Age of Gas is without a doubt the definitive
account of the Bolivian petrostate and its subjects. It makes
important contributions to anthropology, to Latin American studies,
and to the emergent interdisciplinary literature in energy
humanities. It is also a true pleasure to read, the rare scholarly
page-turner that conveys critical analytical insights in terms and
ethnographic moments that will captivate readers of all
backgrounds.”
*Energopolitics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene*
“Bret Gustafson’s Bolivia in the Age of Gas is an ambitious and
exquisitely detailed historical ethnography of Bolivia and its
complicated relation with gas (and oil).... Gustafson exudes an
enviable clarity even as he insists on nuance, complexity and
contradiction.”
*ReVista*
“Gustafson’s Bolivia in the Age of Gas examines the historical and
contemporary cultural politics of Bolivia’s complex and often
troubled relationship with natural gas.... Fundamental questions
surface at the end of [Gustafson’s book] that chart new directions
for political analyses of Latin American social movements....”
*NACLA Report on the Americas*
"[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] provide[s] important insight into
Bolivia and Ecuador, and into fossil-fuel capitalism writ
large."
*Public Books*
"While [Bret Gustafson] assumes a degree of familiarity with
Bolivian geography and political history, his writing is gripping,
and the book will be fruitful for advanced undergraduate and
graduate courses."
*Choice*
"Gustafson’s book is historically expansive, beginning with the
Chaco War of 1932–1935 and concluding with the 2020 ouster of Evo
Morales, but it remains anchored and oriented by the ethnographer’s
attention to the quotidian. The result is a compelling analysis of
petropower in Bolivia shaped as much by the commanding heights of
the global fossil empire and the military-industrial complex as by
the gendered and colonial violence of everyday life on the gas
frontier."
*Latin American Research Review*
"Gustafson’s book is historically expansive, beginning with the
Chaco War of 1932–1935 and concluding with the 2020 ouster of Evo
Morales, but it remains anchored and oriented by the ethnographer’s
attention to the quotidian. The result is a compelling analysis of
petropower in Bolivia shaped as much by the commanding heights of
the global fossil empire and the military-industrial complex as by
the gendered and colonial violence of everyday life on the gas
frontier."
*Latin American Research Review*
“[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] is an important book, worthy of
sustained and considered attention. From here forward, it will be
required reading for all competent scholars wrestling with the
various components of extractive capitalism in contemporary Bolivia
from a variety of social science disciplines.”
*American Anthropologist*
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