Money from above: Cash transfers, moral desert and enfranchisement among Guaraní households of the Argentine Chaco

Historically, Argentina’s indigenous populations have been marginalized from state projects of belonging. However, the advent of cash transfer programs has allowed them to benefit from one of the state’s most recent attempts to enfranchise the poor. Drawing on ethnographic research, this chapter shows that, although conditional cash transfer money has created unprecedented material opportunities for indigenous Guaraní households, the ways in which this money is collected, circulated and spent raises problematic issues concerning moral desert that become entangled with gendered notions and practices at the local level. While scholarship on distributive welfare has emphasized relationships between states and citizens, this chapter argues that cash transfers also have moral implications that impinge upon the development of local social relations.