366 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
Box 9.4 The Economic Links Between New York and AtitlánWhen a woman from New York goes to a mall and purchases a pair of pants made in Lake Atitlán,
Guatemala, or a blouse made in Chiapas, Mexico, she is closing a circle that began with a partic-
ular use and aesthetic context generated within the peasant household. The blouse and the pants,
however, have gone through a profound transformation in use, style, intent, and (often) quality.
The weaver, embroiderer, or garment maker has adapted the product to suit a foreign taste
and a foreign need. The textile, originally meant to be used in the making of a man’s shirt, is now
used to make pants to be worn by both men and women. The blouse, originally hand-
embroidered and worn in special ceremonial occasions, is now often machine-embroidered and
worn with a pair of jeans in an informal context. The quality of the pieces often has decreased to
fit the demand and the pockets of the buyers. The market for peasant crafts has changed the style,
dimension, and nature of their production.
Tourists visiting the region graphically reveal its producers’ embeddedness in the modern
world. In fact, as a vivid example of its immersion in the world economy, tourism has actually
stimulated the production of craft commodities. Fewer peasants now wonder: Why would any-
one want to hang a woman’s blouse on the wall? Is it appropriate for men to wear women’s
clothes in your country? They may instead explore ways of increasing their production, while
keeping costs down so that they can still compete in the market of exotic handmade goods.
Native crafts, then, are now part of the same international division of labor that includes in-
dustrial production, and their manufacture shares many of the biases and drawbacks of the larger
industrial production. An example of this is the gendered division of labor, in which women in-
creasingly constitute the majority of the lower-paid and more labor-intensive jobs.prices when partners do not know each other well or at all. It is much shorter, faster,
and friendlier when the partners know each other and have an established relationship
(the asking price is then much closer to the expected sale price). Bargaining thus be-
comes a ritual of social identification that leads to more fluid economic relations.Consumption Patterns
An examination of the distribution and consumption pattern of the commodities
produced by peasant artisans, petty agricultural producers, and petty industrial pro-
ducers suggests that these forms are integral to capitalism. Some would even say that
capitalism heavily depends on forms like the ones described here.
Fruit and vegetables intensively produced in different areas of Central America
reach the tables of most North American households. In some cases, this availability
is a direct result of the efforts of thousands of migratory seasonal workers who work
for large landowners on coastal estates; in others, it is the result of the combined ef-
fort of small farmers and intermediaries. Prices for those fruits and vegetables are de-
termined by the combined forces of supply and national and international demand,
that is, the world market. (Box 9.4 shows just how close the connection between the
First and Third Worlds can be.)
On occasion, craft production for the world market, and in particular the sale
to tourists, has compensated for the significant population losses owing to migra-
tion to the United States (which is still large). Craft production often allows peasants