The Beef’s Two Bodies: A Study in 20th-Century Anglo-Argentine Meat Culture

This presentation reflects on the links between animal and human bodies by analyzing how Argentine beef was imported, prized, and appreciated by its consumers in London between the two World Wars. Whereas the rich historiography on Anglo-Argentine diplomatic and economic relations highlights the centrality of the meat trade between both countries as the basis for the power of both the Argentine cattle oligarchy and the British imperial interests in South America, the material and symbolic power of the basis of such relations—the beef itself and its consumption—has not been studied. Far from simply filling a gap, this study revisits the old theme of economic imperialism from the perspective of the logistical, nutritional, and commercial criteria that turned the body of the cow into an economically and culturally valuable input for the human body. (A perspective inspired, in turn, by the growing importance of human-animal relations in new global histories and in the global public environmental agenda). The research is based on two types of sources. First, the archives of the London wholesale market of Smithfield, which records the types, cuts, conservation techniques, quantities, and prizes of meat, both domestic and imported from within and beyond the British Empire. And second, popular British (and other European) cookbooks that included beef in their recipes in the decades between the World Wars, at the height of this trade.