Title: Barter Fairs, Ethnic Configuration and National Multiculturalism in the Argentinean Andes
Abstract: In the Argentinean Andes, fairs constitute the main setting where lowland and highland Kolla peasants barter their agricultural production. In order to preserve these encounters – seen as traditional – in a context of peasants' growing participation in capitalist economy, public organizations invest money for boosting old fairs and instituting new ones. The author proposes to qualify these fairs as 'institutional', compared with the 'spontaneous' ones that come along with religious celebrations. Alluding to Bourdieu's concept of institutional rituals, this expression enlightens how such meetings assert social categories, whose boundaries are otherwise blurred. Drawing on an analysis of institutional fairs' social and symbolic performativity, the paper argues that rather than 'safeguarding ancestral customs', as claimed by the organizers, these specific festivals publically state the conditions for the ethnic group at play to be integrated within the nation state.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-02-06
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 9
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