Artisanal Cooperation, Forms of Labor, and the Global Economy, Chachapoyas, 1930s to the 1990s

Abstract Since the 1960s students of agrarian society have interpreted the existence of putatively "capitalist" economic practices and relations (e.g., commoditization, wage capitalist nature of the economies concerned. The present paper challenges this interpretation. Based on an analysis of artisanal production in the northern Peruvian Andes, the paper shows that purportedly "capitalist" economic practices may be fully commensurable with "non-capitalist" relations (e.g., forms of cooperation in the production process, kin ties, etc.), and may even act as an obstacle to capital accumulation. "Non-capitalist" forms of organizing the production process and of remunerating labor, on the other hand, may be essential to the accumulation process.