A Translocal Perspective: Mustang Images in the Cultural, Economic and Political Landscape

Simple Summary: This study, based on ten years of ethnographic and archival research, explores the complexity of the mustang in the United States. Images are explored to show how one unique animal is manipulated to advance political, social and economic agendas using a theoretical framework that combines elements of praxis and globalization theory.

Abstract: Translocal spaces are created out of the process of globalization whereby interventions such as electronic media and migration radically change social relations and breakdown the isomorphism of space, place, and culture [1]. This approach is useful in examining the controversy surrounding the mustang. This paper explores how different social constructions influence the management of mustangs as they move between the local and national level. At each cultural level, political, economic, and environmental issues converge encouraging the emphasis of some cultural constructions over others. These socially constructed images give insight into what the mustang means to a post-industrial culture and it may simultaneously contribute to the animal’s eventual demise.