Barter and Social Regeneration in the Argentinean Andes by Olivia Angé

Author:Olivia Angé [Angé, Olivia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Business & Economics, General, Agriculture & Food
ISBN: 9781785336836
Google: 3dk6DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2018-09-01T04:23:08+00:00

Mercaderías

In addition to providing an occasion to exchange goods produced by peasants, the fair also enables the circulation of manufactured commodities, most of them proposed by specialised traders. Among these goods, some were once made in the home or exchanged in barter networks but today are obtained from the industrial sector. Such is the case of candles, clothing, shoes, spices and yista, an alkaline chewed with coca leaves which today has been replaced by baking soda. It is also the case of those foods described as mercaderías, which were added to the daily diet in the twentieth century and replaced local agricultural products. These include pasta, rice, cooking oil, wheat flour, wine, tea and coffee, which have replaced dried maize, animal fat, corn flour, chicha and aromatic herbs in the local cuisine.

The industrial foods are highly standardised. Within each category of product, the evaluation is homogenised. The merchants have only one brand per product, and only a few brands circulate for each one: the ones specialised in the cheaper, large-scale packaging favoured by peasants, who prefer to purchase enough to avoid going back and forth to the city for the family food supply. These are the cheapest brands available on the market, and price is the key criterion peasants use in comparing similar goods. Price is indeed the only information peasants ask about before making their choice. Many times, peasants order the commodity from the merchant, who keeps his or her stock in his vehicle, thus out of sight of potential consumers. All flour, vegetable oil, sugar or rice sold at fairs is seen as having the same qualities. Once acquired, they are all appreciated as signs of the successful articulation of the household economy with the wider society.

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