Los límites del «Pueblo soberano»: territorio, nación y el tratamiento de la diversidad. Argentina, siglo XIX

Abstract

This article analizes the nation in association with the principie of the sovereign people, and discusses the definition of the inclusión/exclusión limits as a two-fold identification process: that of the elements or principies on which the selection is made, and that of the human group/s to whom such principies are applied. The case study is focused on the Rio de la Plata región along the 19th Century. The territorial principie, which was selected as the main basis of the nation building process, articulated the handling of the ethnic and phenotypical diversity of the population and re-sulted in the definition of the limits of the «sovereign people». A explana-tory metaphor is proposed (the alchemy of the land, alternative to the in-creasingly disregarded melting pot), in which the territorial principie operates both as the foundation of the inclusión/exclusión limits and the basic element for the integration of diversity.