Government, Alterities and Vernacular Cultures: An Anthropological Reading of Antonio de Gaver’s Survey of the Iberian Borderlands (1749-1756)

Abstract

This article reassesses Antonio de Gaver's (1749-1756) reconnaissance of the Iberian border as an operation embedded in the logics of territoriality that characterised Iberian governments from the mid-18th century onwards. It examines the information policies in which it was inscribed, the alterities projected towards Portugal and borderland communities, and the vernacular cultures it depicts, in friction with governmental devices aimed at controlling these spaces. The article argues for the novelty of Gaver's survey and his anticipation of territorial ordering solutions that would mature at the end of the Old Regime.