Weaving for tourists in Chinchero, Peru

Abstract

This article examines the effects that ‘performing’ weaving for the tourists is having on the organization of textile production for sale in the Peruvian Quechua-speaking town of Chinchero. Recent dynamics of tourism in town have encouraged the transformation of households into weaving centres for textile exhibitions, a transformation that has substantially altered the relations between weavers and weaving, as well as with the production mode in a context of hierarchical control. Analysis shows how artisan centres that have been set up to demonstrate weaving techniques to tourists do not work as a location of production, so that production needs to be organized externally. In the wake of this transition and of the social changes introduced, household economies have been forced to redefine the terms of their articulation with the wider community organization. In relation to this point, the article explores the tensions that arise when non-family members are taken to work within the household.