Castigos, disciplinamiento y desarticulación de la comunidad campesina en la Provincia de Concepción (Chile), 1830-1860

Distructuring community ties of peasant sociability, took a variety of paths in 19th century Chile. So far, the historiography has agreed on the consequences that the economic mechanisms of spoliation had in this process. Nevertheless, the focus on the policies implemented by provincial authorities–primarily those referred to the disciplining and social control–does not emphasize the implicit rationality that informed state actions. In this article we intend to demonstrate that the content of judicial sentences and police edicts regulated not only superficial aspects of peasant life in the southern Province of Concepcion, but also, and most importantly, the foundations of peasants’ societal constitution: their productive times, their autonomous spaces, and their sociability, characterized by roaming and informality.