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Language
English (en)
Date of Award
3-1-2013
Author's Department
International and Area Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Restricted
Abstract
This study seeks to investigate the relationships among indigenous artisans, the indigenous craft industry, non-indigenous craft buyers, and three indigenous communities (two of which are Mapuche and one of which is Quechua). By interviewing public officials, business owners, and indigenous artisans in two Mapuche communities, I attempt to gauge the motives and methods of handicraft buyers and sellers, as well as institutions that regulate the handicraft industry, in San Martin de los Andes and Otavalo. In my interviews with Mapuche artisans, I sought to understand how community members adapt to and control the presence of visitors in their communities, how they construct their identities through the crafts that they sell, and and how they are affected by the actions and assumptions of the mass tourism industry in San Martin de los Andes. In addition, I conducted extensive document-based research on the Quechua communities near Otavalo in Ecuador, which are famous for their textiles and will serve as useful points of comparison for my data on Mapuche crafts. I found that, although cooperation and respect between state institutions and indigenous artisans are growing, the objectives and interests of the two groups are still quite different; thus, the institutions assert their asymmetrical power over the artisans when it is necessary to protect their interests. The indigenous craft industry, although it has the potential to exacerbate this imbalance of power, can also be used by the communities as an economic and cultural tool to produce and revitalize distinctly indigenous identities and to distinguish Mapuche and Quechua ways of life from the dominant culture. By asserting their influence over sectors of the tourism industry, the indigenous communities gain control and agency over how they present themselves to the rest of the world.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/bad0-1g57
Mentor
Kedron Thomas
Recommended Citation
Sullivan, Katharine, "Crafting Identities: Indigenous Artisans and the Politics of the Handicraft Industry" (2013). Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses. 167.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/bad0-1g57
Comments
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