Trueque y dinero: Impacto de las lógicas del mercado en las formas comunales de organización andina de los pobladores de Cachi (Salta, Argentina)

Abstract

Bartering practices based on complementarity between different ecological zones constituted an important strategy for ensuring food supply among pre-Hispanic populations in the Andes. These mechanisms, stemming from a logic of collective and reciprocal organization, were affected when European capitalist frameworks were introduced in the Americas. However, many of these principles persisted despite the inequality of forces. This paper aims to analyse how the logics that informed the exchange of goods have been affected by the presence of market forces since the second half of the twentieth century in localities of the Cachi department (Salta, Argentina). Ethnographic observations indicate that after the 1990s such exchanges were scarce, mostly monetarized, motivated by self-sufficiency and involved products outside the buying and selling circuit.