-
Chapter 7: Otavalo Wealth and Changing Social Relations
- University of Texas Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Otavalo Wealth and Changing Social Relations The ethnic groups in the Otavalo valley have a long history of uneasy and unequal coexistence characterized by almost castelike hierarchical relationships until the years following the abolition of wasipungu. This chapter examines the profound shift in social relations and power that has occurred over the past thirty years, an ethnic earthquake that has rearranged the local social strata to the extent that the terminology has changed and some ethnic categories have disappeared. I am using ‘‘power’’ in the classic Weberian sense as the ability to impose one’s will and realize one’s goals even against the opposition and resistance of others (: ). The cause of this seismic upheaval is the increase in indigenous prosperity , which has brought social and political power that has altered social relationships among indígenas and between indígenas and other local groups. While there are no data on Otavalo income levels, since I have noted the increased acquisition of consumer goods by families I know. These range from blenders and stereos to sewing machines , refrigerators, and motor vehicles (Meisch , , b). Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld’s thorough study of changing household consumption patterns in Ariasucu confirms this trend and documents other concrete signs of new indigenous wealth, including the construction of substantial homes in the countryside (, b, ). Foreigners are now a potent ingredient in this volatile ethnic brew. Ethnic and racial terms in Ecuador vary regionally, and I am confining my discussion to Imbabura and especially the Otavalo valley. Today Otavalos and Cayambes constitute approximately % to % of the population of Imbabura. Historically each Imbabura ethnic group has had preferred self-referential names for itself, with disparaging terms used by outsiders (Stark ). Some Ecuadorians considered these divisions based on heredity (race or caste) and others on culture (or ethnicity): ‘‘No one single schema explains the social divisions of modern Ecuadorian society; both race and ethnicity exist as social facts’’ (ColloredoMansfeld a: ). I use ethnicity rather than race as a description of Imbabura’s divisions because the emphasis on culture is more analytically appropriate, given the movement between ethnic categories. Increased indigenous prosperity (albeit unevenly distributed) also challenges assimilationist models of development and the Ecuadorian government’s policy of mestizaje. Since the late s, the government has proclaimed that ‘‘[w]e are all mestizos’’ and that indígenas will cease to be a problem when they cease to be Indians. This philosophy is expounded in classroom lectures, school textbooks, and the media (Stutzman ). On September , , Ecuadorian president Guillermo Rodríguez Lara proclaimed in a speech in Puyo: ‘‘There is no more Indian problem.We all become white when we accept the goals of national culture ’’ (Whitten : ). The assumption behind mestizaje is that white culture is inherently superior and that indígena equals poverty; one way to erase poverty is to assimilate indígenas. Mestizaje is based on Enlightenment notions of a monocultural nation-state, rather than on the pluricultural and pluriethnic realities of Ecuador, so CONAIE represents mestizaje’s antithesis . Indeed, a primary thrust of mestizaje is to ‘‘whiten’’ indígenas (Stutzman ). Many Ecuadorians hope indigenous culture will be subsumed by white culture, although it is logical to ask why it should not be the other way around. If everyone is mestizo why not become indígena? But rather than moving toward the middle, ethnic categories have polarized : ‘‘Only one ethnic boundary in Ecuador is socially and culturally defended by both sides, that between self-identifying indígena and nonind ígena’’ (Butler : vi–vii). Most Otavalos have no intention of becoming mestizos. Textile and music production and marketing have strengthened rather than weakened cultural identity and increased Otavalo economic power to a degree unimagined thirty years ago. The Otavalo example confounds the indígena-equals-poverty equation and challenges the dubious assumptions of mestizaje. How did Otavalo wealth change local social relations, from indígenas on their knees before whites in the s to indígenas owning half the town and flying off to England or France and assuming the mayoralty in ? There has always been movement between categories, generally defined as upward mobility or acculturation, but this mobility across ethnic lines does not mean the absence of boundaries. Ethnic boundaries involve processes of exclusion and inclusion which maintain dis- [52.91.177.91] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:13 GMT) crete categories despite changing participation and membership in the course of individual lives (Barth : ). In other words, just because some individuals in the Otavalo valley changed ethnic...