"Culture" in the market: recognition, cultural vitality, and alliance-making through the exchange of cultural practices (by Professor André Vereta-Nahoum)
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Drawing on long-term ethnographic research with the Yawanawá people in the Brazilian Amazon, the article by Professor Vereta-Nahoum asks how markets involving songs, rituals, images, and other cultural practices can contribute to Indigenous cultural vitality. Rather than treating commodification simply as a force of cultural loss, the article shows how the Yawanawá transform market exchanges into arenas of recognition. Through these exchanges, cultural practices are revitalized, new forms of value emerge, and enduring political and economic alliances are built. At the same time, these processes also generate new tensions over authority, access, and the distribution of benefits. The article argues that the Yawanawá do not merely adapt to markets. They actively reshape market forms to support autonomy, collective projects, and the renewal of cultural difference. The paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1080/ |