Mujeres y máquinas. Las manos de las artesanas wichís (Chaco argentino)

This article analyses the gender dimension of the mechanisation of wichí work in Misión Nueva Pompeya (Chaco, Argentina), promoted by the Franciscan missions, and its effects on the contemporary construction of wichí gender and ethnicity. The aim is to demonstrate that, although women were initially denied access to machines when the missionaries arrived at the beginning of the 20th century, with Guillermina Hagen in the 1970s, women’s traditional activity (weaving) was transformed into work (paid crafts- manship). Today, it is precisely the fact that their work is manual that allows them to occupy a certain social role as “ethnic” craftswomen, forming part of networks at differ- ent levels (local associations, work with NGOs, etc.). Their work remains entirely manual and without the use of machines.