The Native Leisure Class
Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the Andes
259 pages
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18 halftones, 3 maps, 26 line drawings, 14 graphs
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6 x 9
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© 1999
In the Andean city of Otavalo, Ecuador, a cultural renaissance is now taking place against a backdrop of fading farming traditions, transnational migration, and an influx of new consumer goods. Recently, Otavalenos have transformed their textile trade into a prosperous tourist industry, exporting colorful weavings around the world.
Tracing the connections among newly invented craft traditions, social networks, and consumption patterns, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld highlights the way ethnic identities and class cultures materialize in a sensual world that includes luxurious woven belts, powerful stereos, and garlic roasted cuyes (guinea pigs). Yet this case reaches beyond the Andes. He shows how local and global interactions intensify the cultural expression of the world's emerging "native middle classes," at times leaving behind those unable to afford the new trappings of indigenous identity.
Colloredo-Mansfeld also comments on his experiences working as an artist in Otavalo. His drawings, along with numerous photographs, animate this engaging study in economic anthropology.
Tracing the connections among newly invented craft traditions, social networks, and consumption patterns, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld highlights the way ethnic identities and class cultures materialize in a sensual world that includes luxurious woven belts, powerful stereos, and garlic roasted cuyes (guinea pigs). Yet this case reaches beyond the Andes. He shows how local and global interactions intensify the cultural expression of the world's emerging "native middle classes," at times leaving behind those unable to afford the new trappings of indigenous identity.
Colloredo-Mansfeld also comments on his experiences working as an artist in Otavalo. His drawings, along with numerous photographs, animate this engaging study in economic anthropology.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Prologue: Andean Livelihoods in a Global Economy
1. Affluence, Consumption, and Cultural Improvisation
2. Outsider's Wealth: Race and Advancement, 1930-94
3. "Useless Things": Subsistence Ethics and Native Identity
4. Otavalo's Transnational Archipelago
5. The Artisan as Consumer: Commercial Faja-Weaving
6. The Native Leisure Class
Epilogue: Consumption and Cultural Concentration in the Andes
References Cited
Index
Preface
Prologue: Andean Livelihoods in a Global Economy
1. Affluence, Consumption, and Cultural Improvisation
2. Outsider's Wealth: Race and Advancement, 1930-94
3. "Useless Things": Subsistence Ethics and Native Identity
4. Otavalo's Transnational Archipelago
5. The Artisan as Consumer: Commercial Faja-Weaving
6. The Native Leisure Class
Epilogue: Consumption and Cultural Concentration in the Andes
References Cited
Index
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