Social Science Research Council

“Capitalist Relations: Kinship, Tourist Art, and Trade Networks in an Extended Andean Community”

Cochas Chico, my field site, is a Peruvian peasant community whose members want, in their words, to “progress” and “modernize” – but what exactly does that mean? According to some Cochasinos, “modernity” has come to Cochas, but occasionally leaves as well. Cochas’ claim to fame is the Mate Burilado, a gourd decorated with images of Andean life for sale to First World tourists. This case is particularly interesting as many Cochasinos want their children to be “professionals” instead of peasants and Cochasinos vehemently eschew the idea of their indigenousness, a state-of-being they locate in the past; ironically, the craft they feel to be their ticket to capitalist modernity reproduces rural Andean culture through its idealized depictions and kin-based mode of production.

This project examines how and why a geographically-dispersed cooperating network of actors who identify as members of a peasant community reproduce their families and peoplehood and pursue their goals of transforming themselves into “modern” people by collectively-producing symbols of rural peasant identity. This study also seeks to understand how, in the wake of neoliberal restructuring, cosmopolitan and national neo-indigenist and capitalist discourses influence local cultural identities and reproductive strategies and goals. This twelve-month ethnographic study will collect data in Cochas Chico, Lima, and Cuzco, Peru on Cochasino practices of social reproduction, economic strategies, goals and understandings of their activities, and their participation in and understanding of the national and global discourses that interpolate peasants and artisans.