Hearth and Household Economy in an Andean Village

Abstract

This study situates fuel collection and hearth activity in a rural village (Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary, Cusco, Peru) as cultural practices essential to securing household and collective production and reproduction. The physical hearth is spatially fluid, allowing it to serve as material and symbolic center throughout the household's life cycle. All members from children to the elderly participate in fuel collection, providing a new means of defining household composition. Wood connects the house to uncultivated landscapes and supports reciprocal labor networks and community festivals. Gendered and intergenerational divisions of labor result in four types of collection trips involving different plant species, wood sizes, and source ecosystems. With increased tourism to Machu Picchu, daily and seasonal labor patterns are changing as men and women do tourism work and children are educated in town. The physical hearth becomes more mobile as houses are improved. Changing labor patterns mean women bear an ...