Architectural Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Change in the Andes 845

In indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Andes, textile entrepreneurs have been building new homes in a distinctive, modern style. In contrast, their neighbors have perpetuated traditional motifs and forms. Underlying these designs are two economic systems: the national cash economy and the subsistence economy with its networks of labor reciprocity. In recent years, architecture has provided families with a forum for working out the social meaning and prestige of these different economic relationships and assets. The study of consumption patterns allows anthropologists to trace how societies transform new forms of wealth into locally structured relations of power and symbols of identity.