Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld
Associate Professor
Office: 235 Macbride Hall
Phone: (319) 335-1425
rudi-colloredo@uiowa.edu
Background:
Since 1991, I have researched and written about the changing social world of native peoples in the Ecuadorian Andes. This work unfolds in relation to three key issues: the economic complexity of native Andean society, the growing political strength of indigenous peoples, and the role of material culture in economic and cultural processes. My early work explored the farming, weaving, and trading economy of Otavalo, Ecuador. Beyond documenting the careers of artisan peasants and the growth of a transnational handicraft trade, I examined how Otavaleños used new consumer goods and traditional material culture to work out publicly the values that shape collective identity. This research culminated in my book, The Native Leisure Class: Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the Andes.
Beginning in 1999, I expanded my research to focus on urban artisan trade associations in both Otavalo and Quito-specifically those of indigenous artists from the sector of Tigua, Cotopaxi province, Ecuador. My focus is the dynamics of economic competition in markets that are both informal and global-that is shaped by an expanding international customer base or by recurrent sales to periodic "deep-pocket," foreign purchasers. Looking at community politics, I have written articles for Current Anthropology, American Ethnologist, and Identities on how people use the material world to legitimize their growing class differences in their own communities even as their communities gain new, national political stature.
In 2004, I began work with on a new project comparing mechanized textile producers in Otavalo and Atuntaqui, a mestizo textile center north of Otavalo in the center of Imbabura province. The new research explores the failure of artisan export markets as a particular type of decline that is best understood as a degradation of a “commons”-or the loss of a once vital, open stockpile of cultural ideas. Working with local artisan unions, chambers of commerce and provincial commissions, we are documenting commodity designs, their cultural meanings, and the politics of defining a market identity. With this information we hope to test the utility of a commons framework as both a theoretical model and as a practical guide for economic revitalization projects.
Courses Taught: 113: 003 Introduction to the Study of Culture and Society 113:122 Artisans and Global Culture 113:131 Latin American Economy and Society 113:144 Culture and Consumption 113:145 Economic Anthropology of the Third World 113:240: Seminar in Sociocultural Anthropology |
Affiliations & Links http://www.otavalo.com |
