I just want to thank Tamara for leaving us with such an interesting last unit to reflect upon, honestly, this reflection will not be close to the thoughts I have on the Quechua community. As a student studying food and resource economics, Caffentzis and Federici’s reading appealed to me in the sense that I realized that there is a way to sustain a community economically without involving the government. In economics, tragedy of the commons is given a very negative connotation, in the sense that thanks to personal interests, there is no advantage overall to the society and there is a faster depletion of resources than there would have been, had there been a government present in regulating these. However, the ways in which these authors discuss the advantages of this situation has led me to believe that self-sufficiency is indeed possible and has been seen by the Quechua people for thousands of years.
Barter exchange was the first type of exchange ever known to humanity, and it shocked me that it is still used in Lares Valley and has been able to contribute to such positive aspects for the community. It reminded me of how “commons” should be managed by us, not the state because decision-making should be done by those who are affected by its results, something that was also mentioned in the Hija de la laguna documentary. Transitioning into the documentary itself, I found it ironic how the jeweler constantly talked about the value that jewels have, at ceremonies, weddings, representing promise, yet the process to get it is so cruel and requires hard work at the expense of destroying the environment. I had tears in my eyes when I saw the father coming back home and telling his daughter that he was fired because his daughter had taken part in the protest against the Conga mining company. Despite trying to provide for his daughter’s education, Indigenous people continue to struggle to fit into modern society, when they should be given all the rights to the city in the first place.
I want to end with the change globalization has brought to the Quechua communities where Indigenous food is now seen as shameful, and commercial food seen as a privilege. If this is how we change their mentalities, beautiful traditions such as Ayni that sustain so many families will eventually disappear. I know I have talked about quite a few topics, but I just want to end with the importance of help. Help does not mean going to a community and telling them what you are going to do, it means asking them what their needs are, and then applying what you know you can do to have an impact on their lives. I mention this because I believe that it is very easy to write about these conflicts that we see, but it should be of even more importance to raise our voices and see what we can do to preserve these alluring cultures.
Hi Khushi, I really enjoyed reading your post! I completely agree with you that self-sufficiency is definitely possible and quite sustainable, as we have learned from the Quechua community. I often wonder about ontological conflicts, especially between Western worldview and indigenous worldview, and I find that a lot of the problems that we face in our society is caused by this conflict. To be specific, the imperialism of western worldview and its prejudice against other worldviews, especially when the western worldview is set up deeply flawed and unjust. I also deeply relate to the internal shamefulness of the Quechua people of their traditional foodways, as I have seen this kind of mindset infect many Chinese people as well. Many people now would rather go to big supermarkets rather than the traditional farmers’ market as shopping in big supermarket has become a symbol of class and wealth…
Hi Khushi! I really really like your post! It is so beautifully written especially the ending!
I completely agree with you in regards to the help we need to provide others. It is not that people should just come and be like “hey, we are here to help you and this is how we are going to do it”. It is as you said about asking what they real needs are and how can we address them to the best abilities we can. In addition, I have the same belief that as people we still have the responsibility to help others.
In spite of Quechua people living in a completely different continent, we still influence one another in many ways and the gold was just one of the many possibilities . Overall, we all share just one planet not multiple right? 🙂
Thank you so much! Such a beautiful post!
Kat
Hi Khushi,
Could not agree more with the points you bring up. I am in the last year of my anthropology degree so these are topics we have gone over many times. Something that is really troubling is how, like you said, modern/convenience foods are thought to be prestigious and yet are often devoid of nutrition and have empty calories. No wonder it leads to a decline in health and mental health issues when indigenous people adopt a modern diet if people are not exercising as they would have been tending to their gardens and eating nutrient rich, fresh foods. I just watched the film too and in relation to ‘prestigious foods’ and the jeweller you mentioned, it really gets me thinking about this idea of ‘prestige’ and how it is essentially based in a class system. I watched a short news clip yesterday about the class system in England and how based on a persons accent they are judged as either upper or lower class. This is so unfortunate because this echoes around the world even though we may not be aware of it on a daily basis, and you could really see that in the film, the presence of a class system and how the indigenous farmers were so disrespected by the police, I think at one point a police called them trash. This just ties back into the arbitrary idea that modern foods are prestigious, which is absolute bullshit just like the class system.
You do a great job of putting the materials from your various courses into dialogue. It’s suggestive that Federici and Caffentzis offer such a disparate perspective on the potential of the commons, no?
I’m thrilled you enjoyed this final unit. I’ve been looking forward to it all semester, and the blog reflections and in-class conversation did not disappoint. En fin, igualmente–gracias a ti y a tus compañerxs de clase 🙂