Peasants and Pirámides: Consumer fantasies in the Colombian Andes

Abstract

For those accustomed to consumption norms of the US middle-class, the Latin American mix of consumer goods with small-scale agriculture can be particularly jarring. Túquerres, a highland town in Colombia’s southwestern Andes, has depended on small-plot farms, manual labor, and regional peasant marketplaces. During my fieldwork in the late 1990s, people stressed these continuities at the same time as they were actively adopting new clothing styles and musical tastes, transforming cooking and kitchen spaces, and then incorporating telephones and, later, cell phones.