Illness and Household Reproduction in a Highly Monetized Rural Economy: A Case from the Southern Peruvian Highlands

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the socioeconomic reproduction of households and illness in a small town on the Peruvian altiplano with serious limitations on production levels and access to agropastoral inputs. Significant social differentiation characterizes this semirural population, with some living comfortably off of cash incomes from formal sector jobs, commodity production, and/or commerce, while others survive on meager resources earned through a combination of subsistence production and low-paying informal employment. A quarter of the population is excluded from agropastoral activities, relying completely on poorly paid, insecure jobs. Illness not only reflects such differentiation but is a major causal factor conditioning people's socioeconomic circumstances. The low-income, landless households are the most at risk to socioeconomic and health-related crisis.