Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies
Major Professor
Aaron Augsburger, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Arturo Jimenez Bacardi, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Peter Funke, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Bernd Reiter, Ph.D.
Keywords
Social Reproduction, Reciprocity, Alternative Modernities, Decolonial Economy
Abstract
This dissertation examines the collective-oriented economy of the Viacha Highlands, a Quechua community in Cusco, Peru, to show how subsistence agriculture, reciprocity, and ritual practices constitute a coherent non-capitalist system of provisioning and belonging. Drawing on one year of ethnographic immersion, the study situates Viacha’s economy within the Community Economies framework, foregrounding its three commitments: anti- essentialism, pluriversality, and ethical–political praxis. Findings reveal that practices such as ayni-ayni (reciprocal labor exchange) and faina (communal work) resist reduction to wage labor, coexist alongside monetary and capitalist dynamics, and ground social reproduction in responsibility and care. At the same time, capitalist schooling, state policy, and nearby urban centers like Pisac reshape generational attachments to land and labor. By documenting Viacha’s economic system as both alternative and contested, this dissertation expands the debate on economy and Community Economies theory, offering a critical and timely contribution to rethinking value, resilience, and interdependence.
Scholar Commons Citation
Cavani Quevedo, Mario Renato, "Struggle for Economic Plurality; Economies of Belonging: Subsistence, Indigneity, and the Contradictions and Margins of Capitalism in the Andean Highlands" (2025). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/11076
