Cañari children, cows and milk production: Toward ch’ixi temporalities in the Andes

Abstract

This article considers the intersection of multiple and, at times, seemingly conflicting temporalities in Andean childhoods. We draw on Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui’s scholarship on Andean sociology and our ethnographic research with Cañari families to argue that Cañari families’ and children’s relations with cows and milk production are fueled by both capitalist and Andean temporalities that cannot be thought as opposites. These temporal relations do not create confusion or limiting binaries but are, we propose, itinerant. We show how Cañari children’s and cows’ collective lives are knitted within ch’ixi temporalities.