A Returnee’s Commodity. Transatlantic Trade and Consumption of Yerba Mate between Argentina and Lebanon (1920s–1950s)

Yerba mate, originally an indigenous drink from South America, has recently become popular around the world. As early as the 1930s, returning migrants who had emigrated from the Ottoman provinces of Mount Lebanon and Syria, brought yerba mate in large quantities from South America to the Levant. Despite its long-standing popularity, a history of the introduction of yerba mate into the region has yet to be written. This project will analyze the transatlantic trajectories of selected merchants and trace their trade routes from Argentina to Lebanon, covering the French Mandate (1920–1946) and the early independence period (1946–1950s). These transatlantic “South-South” entanglements between Argentina and Lebanon challenge notions of center-periphery models by decentering Europe, particularly France as a colonial metropole during the Mandate. It highlights the emigrants’ agency as they returned from South America, shaping Lebanon’s economy and consumption culture along class and sectarian lines. By following yerba mate and the people transporting and selling it, this project focuses on the importance of actors creating new markets and shaping globalization processes. It is based on a variety of historical sources from private and state archives in France, Argentina, and Lebanon, and uses the methodological approaches of 1) the social and cultural history of capitalism, 2) the history of transatlantic migrations, and 3) consumption history. As a consumption history of post-Ottoman Lebanon is a largely unexplored topic of research, the dissertation lays the ground for future scholarship. It also contributes to the still understudied economic history of Lebanon, including its diasporic, imperial, and global context.