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The Native Leisure Class: Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the Andes

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In this book, anthropologist Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld provides an ethnography of a small weaving village outside of Otavalo, Ecuador in the South American Andean mountains. The Otavalo Indians have become famous internationally for marketing their textiles (such as thick, wool sweaters) and playing traditional pan-pipe Andean music. Colloredo-Mansfeld examines how economic success has influenced the Indians' craft traditions, social networks, and consumption patterns. As the Indians have become wealthy, class and ethnic divisions have emerged in local communities. He expertly explores how the Indians have negotiated these local and global interactions. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is the pen and ink drawings which accompany the text. He describes how while living in Otavalo conducting the research for this book his act of drawing led to "a more complex relationship among observed, observer, and those observing the observer" (p. 50). It reversed power relations and opened up intimate opportunities for him to become a more active member of the community, which has resulted in a more complex and nuanced study of the community.