Asymmetries of power in commercial exchange. The case of indigenous handicrafts from Chaco, Argentina

Abstract

In this article we analyze the implication of the power asymmetry in the exchanges in which artisans of two collectives of the Wichí and Qom peoples of El Sauzalito and Fortín Lavalle, respectively, participate. We work with the ethnographic research method. The collection of information, in alternation with periods of systematization and reflection on the material collected, elapsed between August 2012 and August 2018. The mercantile exchanges of the crafts express the asymmetry of power among those who participate in the transaction. This asymmetry has to do with the colonization process of the Chaco and with the repetition of a naturalized exchange rate. In turn, the mechanical repetition of a rate of change over which the artisans have little ability to influence is expressed in terms of the erosion and impoverishment of women and their families.