Alpaca Meat: Constraints and Reinforcements on Consumption

Introduction

For a long time, Anthropology focused on the study of the economic aspect of societies. From Malinowski Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), where Kula worked as system of exchange of bracelets and necklaces connected with political authority; to Marcell Mauss (1925) with the potlatch, an indigenous community practice in Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada where this practice reflected the leader wealth and power at the same time the reaffirmation of family, clan and the connection with the supernatural. Economic Anthropology has focused on three types of society: non-market, market and transitional and for a long time there were two main approaches. The first, the formalist approach, perceived economic behavior has resulted from rational choices with the purpose of competition and maximizing the income. Substantives, the second approach, defended that in non-commercial societies economy is embedded in institutions/practices which are plural in terms of objectives and nature. In this sense, these two theoretical positions look to economy beyond capitalism and mercantilism, privileging the substantives components of economy. Another theoretical frame that marked anthropology was Marxist analyses where class relations were the main focus. In particular, French neo-Marxist economic anthropologists were interested in exploring the traditional modes of production by capitalism. A clear example is Godelier (1977) and Meillasoux (1975) work. In this sense, anthropology escapes from a vision of homo economicus criticizing that only economic reason or practical reason are the conditions for buying or consume goods. In the 70´s, 80´s and 90´s a new paradigm was established mainly in cultural material but also in consumption. This new approach focused on the importance of understanding the influence of consumers in the markets moving from the studies connected with production to consumption and seeing people as economic agents (Falk & Campbell, 1997). With this shift, social sciences could focus on the appropriation and attribution of social meaning of goods and their circulation in the different contexts and everyday life.

In this logic, this chapter focuses on Peru alpaca meat consumption as a way to understand the cultural aspects that condition consumption. Peru is the world number one alpaca producer and has 87% of the South American camelid population (Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego [MINAGRI] 2016). The alpaca habitat is found in the Andean high zone of Peru, Bolivia, Argentine and Chile, with Peru having the highest population of alpacas with 3,685,516 (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica e Informática del Perú [INEI], 2012). The information of the present chapter corresponds to the analysis of the alpaca meat consumption with emphasis in the southern Peruvian departments of Arequipa, Puno and Cusco, which have the biggest populations of South American camelids. Alpaca is valued for its high fineness in its fiber and the extraordinary attributes of its meat, however the income earned by alpaca breeders places it as the poorest and most economically marginalized in Peru.

This chapter synthesizes information from the author’s development consulting work – Desarrollo sostenible de comunidades vulnerables en 3 provincias altoandinas de Arequipa y Puno (Rivera & Caceres, Línea de Base del Proyecto: Desarrollo sostenible de comunidades vulnerables en 3 provincias altoandinas de Arequipa y Puno, 2016) and Análisis del sistema de valor de carne del sub sector de carne de alpaca y llama for the aspects of comercialization (Caceres, 2002) - and from two theses – Estudio de la comercialización de carne de alpaca. Mercados y Fuentes (Caceres, 1998) about the study of the commercial channel of alpaca meat considering the demand and supply relationships in each intermediation and the value chain.

The methodology is qualitative and quantitative by combining data obtained through in-depth interviews aimed at consumer analysis, and surveys directed at intermediaries in commercial channels and observation, also to southamerican camel’s producers in different periods of time according to the mentioned studies.