Women Weavers and Male Tour Guides. Gender, Ethnicity and Power Inequalities in the Selling of Handicrafts in the Sacred Valley of Peru

Abstract

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 48:2 Introduction The Urubamba Valley, better known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas, is one of Peru’s main tourist regions. Located in the southeast of the country, between the city of Cusco and Peru’s tourist flagship of Machu Picchu, it offers a wide variety of attractions to entertain tourists: beautiful nature and ecosystems, Inca ruins, colonial architecture, museums, the so-called living cultures of indigenous people, and outdoor activities such as hiking, hang gliding and canoeing. It is not without reason that an increasing number of national and international tourists visit the region. During the last decade, the annual number of international visitors arriving in Peru grew from almost 1.5 million in 2004 to 3.5 million in 2015. The number of tourists visiting Machu Picchu increased from 453,000 to 971,000 in the same period. An important tourist service in this area is the guided tour. Excursions of one or multiple days are offered all along the tourist route between the city of Cusco and the ruins of Machu Picchu. For tourists, these tours are an efficient and safe way of sightseeing. On the famous Inca Trail, the state obliges visitors to go on guided tours. One of the tourist villages in the Sacred Valley that is heavily dependent on guided tours is Chinchero. Here, In Peru, in the tourist village of Chinchero located in the Machu Picchu region, tourism is often organized through guided excursions. This article deals with the complex relationships that urban male guides maintain with the local, often Quechua-speaking, women of Chinchero. These women have opened workshops where they offer tourists demonstrations of their weaving art as well as weavings to purchase in an atmosphere created to simulate the Andean home. To a large extent, the women depend on male guides to bring tourists to their workshops, and pay them commissions. Based on frequent field visits, informal conversations, interviews, participation and a survey, the study demonstrates how gender and ethnic inequalities are replicated through interactions between weavers and guides.