Naming the oxen. Zebus and Zebuzeiros in the Brazilian cattle elite

Author(s)

Natacha Simei Leal

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2014-10-10

Examining board members

Ana Claudia Duarte Rocha Marques; Ciméa Barbato Bevilaqua; John Cunha Comerford; Marcio Ferreira da Silva; Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden

• Advisor: Ana Claudia Duarte Rocha Marques

Abstract

This is a thesis about men and oxen. Through field research on agricultural fairs, artificial insemination centers, laboratories, farms and examining genealogical records, husbandry manuals, as well as other texts, published documents or archives. In this thesis, aspects of the framework and concepts of kinship, biotechnologies, the economy, government policies relating to a particular segment of livestock in Brazil - the cattle elite - will all be explored from an anthropological perspective. The cattle elite is a branch of breeding cattle that produces specimens developed to improve the quality of specimens of common cutting, which are sent to slaughterhouses. At the same time, this branch carries a high degree of autonomy in relation to beef cattle, constituting a market with specific rules and actors. The work focuses on the narrative of a Brazilian invention, from the Triângulo Mineiro the zebu cattle - which like so many other national inventions was made from investments in the ideas of blood, family and race. Zebu cattle are, per excellence, the cattle elite in Brazil, and its constitution mobilizes concepts of blood, genes, genealogy, race, miscegenation and purity (among others), which consolidate these animals market value. The cattle market elite - which simultaneously mobilizes millions in money by selling at auctions, by the use of biotechnology and by the sales of reproductive cells (semen and embryos), determining the value of the cattle and their owners, i.e the zebu and the zebuzeiros (zebu breeders). The invention and implementation of this branch of husbandry, more than zootechnical, is actually political, because it pertains to the consolidation of the elites of cattle and the elites of family breeders in Brazil. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/06628-3 - "Naming the bulls": Circulation, commerce and trade networks on livestock agribusiness.
• Grantee: Natacha Simei Leal
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate