From the Salt of the Earth to the Rice of the Stalls: Between Regional Autonomy and Domestic Dependency in the Andes of Chachapoyas [Peru]

The former reds of regional exchange of the middle Utcubamba & high Imaza at the North of Chachapoyas (Andes of Northern Peru) were based on redistributive & reciprocal practices of an interfamilial type beyond the borders of the village communities. The salt of a regional mine to which the various families of different communities of the area had access played an important dynamic role in those exchanges which were parts of a larger relatively egalitarian clientelistic network. But some local intermediaries used the salt & diverted the barter towards more individualistic & commercial aims, independently of central state restrictions imposed on the exchange of the local salt. The process gave way not only to a modification in the nature & in the quality of the exchanges of goods & services. It also contributed towards a decline in the regional & communitarian solidarities & to a loss of domestic & familial autonomy in relation to the market. However, the inhabitants resist, chiefly in a family framework, to this deprivation of their economy by combining commercial innovations, external migrations & autarcic withdrawals in one unique strategy which allows them to get access to new services & goods & to original opportunities without loosing in the meanwhile some control on their environment. 15 References. Adapted from the source document.