Economic Success, Ostentation, and Ritual in Aymara Communities: Defining the Contours of Ethnicity Among Aymara Merchants

• In Event: Liberalismo, desestructuraciones rurales, conflictos territoriales y economías morales en comunidades andinas

Abstract

In recent years, the growth and pervasive presence of Aymara-led informal economy in the southern Andes has called the attention of anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and other social scientists. While the research agenda about the indigenous informal economy rightly have assessed and characterized its size and the ways in which it operates; less attention has been placed on the moral economy shaping the sociability and values of indigenous communities dedicated to informal commerce. This paper discusses how social institutions and values, tied to Aymara notions of reciprocity and complementarity, are negotiated and re-framed in the midst of Aymara merchants’ economic success and upward mobility. In this context, I examine how ostentation and showing off wealth during rituals and festivities both spark tensions within such communities and open up for negotiating the contours of ethnicity and political consciousness in the Aymara world.

Author

• Jorge R Montesinos, University of California, Riverside