Area of Interest:

Indigenous peoples, artisan economies, competition, commodities, consumer cultures, producer associations, local food systems

Education:

Ph.D. UCLA 1996

Research & Activities:

I am a cultural anthropologist broadly concerned with community economies and cultural change in the context of globalization. My teaching and research concentrates on three related concerns: (1) native peoples, autonomy and expressive culture; (2) the organization and politics of rural economies and family enterprise; and (3) the social power of commodities and material culture.  Much of this work has concerned indigenous peoples of the Andes and since 2000, I have developed my own research program in collaboration with community organizations.

Focused on how a community’s cultural assets shape the development of their economy, I am currently working on two projects.  One compares two provincial Andean apparel economies, the first centered on indigenous artisan goods and the second anchored in an old factory town and dedicated to national markets in fashionable casual wear.  Working with an artisan union and the chamber of commerce, the project examines local cooperation, product innovation, and public cultural investments.  In addition, I have taken the lead in a North Carolina based collaborative research project on the local food economy, a study that investigates the role of retailers and their community partnerships in the development of regional food system.

Selected Publications:

2009       (with Jason Antrosio) Economic Clusters or Cultural Commons? The Limits of Competition-Driven
              Development in the Ecuadorian Andes. Latin American Research Review 44(1):132-157

2009       Fighting Like a Community: Andean Civil Society in an Age of Indian Uprisings. Chicago: University of
              Chicago Press.

2003       Editor (with Mark Peterson) "Fleeting Objects" a special issue of Journal of Material Culture 8(3).

2002       An Ethnography of Neoliberalism: Understanding Competition in Artisan Economies. Current
               Anthropology 43(1):113-137.[receiving full *CA treatment, accompanied by author's Response]

2002       "Don't be lazy, Don't lie, Don't steal": Community Justice in the Neoliberal Andes. American
               Ethnologist 29 (3) 637-662.

1999       The Native Leisure Class:  Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the  Andes. Chicago University Press,
               Chicago. (Second Printing 2004)