Maclean Sobre Chacha-warmi

Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2013 DOI:10.1111/blar.12071

Chachawarmi: Rhetorics and LivedRealitiesKATE MACLEANBirkbeck College, London, UK

Latin Americas turn away from neoliberalism and adoption of decolonis-ing alternatives to development has been spearheaded nowhere moreso than Bolivia by indigenous movements. The gender ideology ofchachawarmi is part of this decolonisation programme, but has been crit-icised for disguising gendered exploitation. These tensions are exploredby looking at, in Escobars words, the concrete struggles within par-ticular communities. Based on long-term research in rural Bolivia, thisarticle situates the chachawarmi ideal in the multiple influences on therecreation of gender identities, and considers the complex ways in whichchachawarmi as mobilised politically may influence gendered power.

Keywords: Bolivia, Chachawarmi, decolonisation, gender, intersec-tionality, indigenous.

Many countries in Latin America have been turning away from the ravages of thecontinents neoliberal past, and Bolivia and Ecuador in particular have adopteddecolonising alternatives to development. These counter-hegemonic policies havebeen led by indigenous leaders and framed by indigenous cosmovisions (worldviews),the co-operative, reciprocal and complementary metaphysics at the heart of whichhas inspired radical alternatives to the corrosive individualism of neoliberal policies.Although Andean cosmovisions are often defined politically in opposition to Westernindividualism and presentism (De Sousa Santos, 2010: 33), they also represent adecolonial conceptual rupture with political orthodoxy (Escobar, 2010: 21). There-assertion of indigenous worldviews hence goes beyond a rejection of neoliberalism,to embrace a distinct ontology in which beings are communities of beings before theyare individuals (De Sousa Santos, 2010: 33).

An element of these radical worldviews that exemplifies their co-operative and com-plementary ontology is chachawarmi. The term represents an ideal of complementaritybetween chacha (man) and warmi (woman), and celebrates these distinct but equallyvalued roles (Harris, 1978; Burman, 2011; Blumritt, 2013). However, there is more tothe translation of chachawarmi than the juxtaposition of the words man/woman. Theword represents an ontology of the unity of opposites that is essential to the symboliccontext of Andean cosmovisions. The translation of chachawarmi as man/womancould arguably replicate the atomisation of modernity, and misconstrue the genderedcomplementarity and co-operation that is central to the terms meaning. However,this interpretation as man/woman has also become part of the everyday translation ofchachawarmi in bilingual, indigenous communities, and there is a complex negotiation

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of discursive and material power dynamics in the recreation of gendered identity in thiscontext (Lugones, 2012).

The notion of chachawarmi has been used as a political platform to argue forwomens equal rights and representation in Bolivia, and is also an element of theMovimiento al Socialism (MAS) governments decolonisation programme. However,although generally held to represent more equitable gender relations (Harris, 1978;Hamilton, 1998), there is a risk that in being distilled from its lived instantiationsin the current politics of Bolivia, chachawarmi is being idealised and romanticised.The strategic essentialism which is arguably behind some of the policies espousedby the MAS in Bolivia in the context of resistance against neoliberalism entails amultiplicity of political tensions and dilemmas (Albo, 2004; Canessa, 2006). Indigenoussystems tend to be defined in alterity to the individualising categories of the modernistproject, constructing a familiar dichotomy of tradition and modernity (De SousaSantos, 2010). In potentially being defined by what it is not, the postulation of theAndean cosmovision at the political level risks overlooking difference and essentialisingindigenous people. This strategic essentialism is a political imperative given the continuedviolence of colonial, modern and neoliberal hegemony and the consistent marginalisationof indigenous people, but there is an important place for empirical research that bringsout the diversity and complexity of everyday life without losing sight of decolonialresistance (Lugones, 2010). The aim here is to explore notions of co-operation, equalityand oppression as expressed by women in an Aymara-speaking area of Bolivia, soresponding in some ways to Escobars emphasis on:

the need to look at the concrete struggles within particular communities,including the conflicts around who speaks for community and its cosmo-vision, and to take womens struggles as a standpoint for the actual recon-stitutions of community that are always taking place. (Escobar, 2010: 36)

This article explores the lived experience of chachawarmi by drawing on qualitativeresearch in the inter-Andean valley of Luribay, Bolivia. The focus is on diversity and thecomplex of material processes and discursive constructions that frame the recreationof gender relations. By centring the accounts of women there, it attempts to situatethe chachawarmi ideal in the context of multiple influences on gender identities, andto consider the ways in which chachawarmi as it is mobilised politically may influencegendered power. First, I present illustrative examples of the use of chachawarmi in thecontemporary discursive moment in Bolivian politics and consider the importance ofunderstanding the multiple modes of exclusion faced by indigenous women politicallyand conceptually. I then go on to explore the history of the term, before presentingempirical evidence from the valley of Luribay.

Complementarity, Gender Equality and Decolonisation

The MAS government has achieved unprecedented milestones in terms of genderrepresentation at the political level, and the chachawarmi discourse has been prominentin achieving these aims. For example, the members of the Assamblea Constituyenteof 2009 are 33 percent women (Rousseau, 2011: 12), and in January 2010, PresidentEvo Morales appointed a Cabinet in which 50 percent of ministers are women. Inannouncing the new Cabinet, the President stressed that this was achieved in thename of chachawarmi or, as the mestizos say, gender equality (La Jornada, 2010),

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Chachawarmi: Rhetorics and Lived Realities

delimiting an important distinction between the complementary ideal of gender equalityin the Andean symbolic universe and ideas of gender equality associated with Westerndiscourse and predicated on individual rights. Whilst this was hailed as a breakthroughin terms of womens political representation, there was a tense political struggle, asthe 50 percent quota for women was seen by some to come at the expense of therepresentation of indigenous groups. As the leader of the Consejo Nacional de Ayllus yMarkas del Qullasuyo, Rafael Quispe, lamented: we respect his decision, but we dontaccept that the pueblos originarios are not represented in the cabinet (Los Tiempos,2010). The political struggles involved in achieving gender parity were described as apermanent battle with union leaders to incorporate women into the political fight inBolivia (La Jornada, 2010).

The debates around womens political representation and the use of the idea ofchachawarmi in this context illustrate the conceptual and political tensions whichthis article seeks to explore. There is a distinction between chachawarmi and mestizogender equality which is often elided. It is argued that chachawarmi can disguisegender oppression and cannot be understood without a discussion of, and respectfor, womens equal rights. Vice President Garcia Linera states that there is a role forwomens rights as Chachawarmi often disguises the subordination of women withinorganisations themselves (Svampa and Stefanoni, 2007: 11). This resonates with theviews of indigenous feminist organisations that in Aymara communities where theysupposedly apply chachawarmi, there isnt a correlation between this idea and thereality and that Andean machismo is still present in every area (Julieta Ojeda, cited inBolivian Express, 2012: 16).

Claims based on gender, ethnicity and class may not coincide, and the dynamicsinvolved in exclusion by these categories are different (Radcliffe et al., 2003; Laurieand Calla, 2004). Analysing exclusion in terms of these separate categories does notcapture the multiple exclusions experienced by people at their intersections (Paulsonand Calla, 2000). As Bertha Blanco, a leader of the National Federation of CampesinaWomen of Bolivia/Bartolina Sisa, states:

Inside our struggle, they talk about chachawarmi where both men, as wellas women, decide. With the influence of the city on society, machismo hasbeen increasing. We have not been involved in the issue of women, butwe have looked at the state structures of the previous governments wherethere were just men . . . Now you can look at the Constituent Assembly,there is a woman who is from Bartolina Sisa. There is a place for us. (InMotion Magazine, 2007)

The identification of the negative influence of the city, and the references to thenow displaced political class, indicate the common cause of indigenous peoples andindigenous womens resistance in opposition to the oppression of the hegemonic urbanmestizo/criollo culture that itself has imposed gendered hierarchies and oppressions.The statement that the Campesina Women have not been involved in the issue ofwomen draws on a distinction frequently commented upon (Paulson and Calla,2000) between the gender-based political struggles that tend to be led by urban,middle and upper-class women, and the priorities of indigenous women.

The discourse of chachawarmi is central, conceptually and politically, to the decoloni-sation project and broader re-assertion of indigenous culture. In May 2011, a massmarriage of 355 couples was celebrated in an indigenous ceremony at which Evo Moraleswas Padrino [Godfather] (INFOBAE, 2011). As Vice-Minister of Decolonisation Felix

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Cardenas states, referring to the chachawarmi ideal: We are instituting a new model ofthe family, which is neither patriarchal nor matriarchal, but will be a model of com-plementarity between man and woman (quoted in INFOBAE, 2011). This ceremonyalso represented a religious decolonisation. It was presided over by pairs of Aymarapriests as the advice to married men and women is from a chacha (man) and a warmi(woman), and not a priest who has no moral experience and cant be an example ofwhat hes preaching (Felix Cardenas quoted in INFOBAE, 2011). Religion brings afurther dimension to an understanding of identity and gender constructions, relationsand oppressions that complicates the anti-patriarchal and decolonial projects for whichchachawarmi is being used.

The centrality of chachawarmi to the decolonial project reflects the argumentthat gender itself is a colonial imposition (Lugones, 2010) and that the binary ofmasculinity and femininity underpinning ideas of womens rights or gender equalityis a continuation of that colonial domination, making an understanding of chachawarmion its own terms essential. Martha Lanza of Colectivo Cabildeo recognises the resonancebetween anti-patriarchal and decolonial struggles:

There is no possible decolonisation without fighting patriarchy and viceversa. We must decolonise the social, economic and political relationshipsin order to emancipate our peoples and break the patriarchal powerrelations that subjugate women. (AWID, 2011)

However, as Lugones points out, there is a long process of subjectification of thecolonised toward adoption/internalisation of the men/women dichotomy as a normativeconstruction of the social a mark of civilisation, citizenship, and membership in civilsociety (Lugones, 2010: 748). A re-assertion of chachawarmi that does not recognisethis historical complexity might not capture the dynamics involved in indigenouswomens exclusion.

The conceptual and political complexity of the contemporary use of the wordchachawarmi as a decolonisation tool and a platform for womens equality brings outthe need for a renewed understanding of how various discourses are recreating genderrelations in the Andes that is cognisant of the cultural and colonial position of the termgender itself. In order to situate and reflect upon the cultural construction of theseterms, the next section revisits scholarship on chachawarmi in order to bring out thematerial, discursive and institutional underpinnings of the term.

Chachawarmi: History and Context

To understand how chachawarmi is being recreated both in political and everydaydiscourse and how it is distinct from mainstream ideas of gender equality, I here givean overview of scholarship on chachawarmi and contextualise it in Andean history andsociety, exploring how the idea has developed and changed. Chachawarmi explicitlyvalorises femininity on equal terms with masculinity, and this complementary unionof opposites permeates household and community relations (Harris, 1978; Lugones,2010). This has been deemed to be more favourable to women than the patriarchalgender relations associated with colonial or capitalist ideals (Balan, 1996; Hamilton,1998), and has resonance with feminist critiques of political economy that challengethe failure to recognise the value of reproductive labour and care work. However,ideas of difference and equality are complex, and it has long been pointed out that



traditional structures of gender complementarity can ossify womens traditional role.As Aymara feminist Julieta Paredes puts it: the woman cooks and the man eats whatlovely complementarity (Paredes Carvajai, 2006).

The Andes has been seen as an area of weak patriarchy due in part to the inheritancerights, marriage norms and ideals of complementarity that underpin chachawarmi.There is a strong tradition of bilateral inheritance in the Andes, meaning that childreninherit from both sides of the family. This tradition has its roots in the system of verticalfarming. Marriage tends to be between families of different altitudes, and the womanmoves to the mans land but retains rights on her own, providing the family with accessto different kinds of crop. The woman also inherits livestock and is given sheep andcattle upon marriage (Valdivia, 2001). The couple inherit part of the land on marriageand although sons and daughters inherit from both parents, the sons stay on patrilinealland. If a daughter marries someone from her home community then she can take upher maternal inheritance (Bastien, 1979).

Despite this, land ownership in the Andes is predominantly male (Deere and Leon,2001). Traditional systems of inheritance have changed with the hacienda system,land reform, commercialisation of agriculture and out-migration. These various factorshave had a different impact on land inheritance patterns in different parts of Bolivia,leading Deere and Leon to conclude that there is heterogeneity in inheritance patternsnationally (Deere and Leon, 2001: 22).

Symbolically, the distinct feminine and masculine roles encompassed in chachawarmiare expressed in terms of activities, with a formally strict division between masculineand feminine tasks (Choque Quispe, 2007). Feminine tasks include reproductive labour,tending to animals and weaving, whilst tasks associated with masculinity includeploughing and working as a labourer. Both men and women work on the land but havedistinct tasks, symbolising the unity of opposites exemplified by chachawarmi with,for example, the man digging and the woman sowing the seed. Informally, however, thissymbolic division between masculine and feminine activities is fluid (Choque Quispe,2007). Maria Lugones, in conversation with Aymara scholar Filomena Miranda,illustrates:

Filomenas sister will replace her father, and thus she will be chacha twice,since her community is chacha as well as her father. Filomena herself willbe chacha and warmi, as she will govern in her mothers stead in a chachacommunity. (Lugones, 2010: 750)

The definition of masculinity and femininity in terms of activities, rather than genderedbodies, indicates the distinct symbology represented by the term chachawarmi thatframes interpretations and understandings of change and cannot be captured if the termis translated as man/woman or gender equality.

The relationship of household to community is mediated by the chachawarmi ideal.To be a full citizen of the community you need to be in a partnership (Rousseau, 2011),and people are not seen as mature until they have a family. As Choque Quispe points out,nobody, neither man nor woman acquire the status of a socially complete adult person,if they have not been united before society with their partner, completing the unity ofthe social persona jaqi (Choque Quispe, 2007: 2). Before being in a partnership, peopledo not have a voice in the community. As such, young peoples aspirations are framedin terms of forming their own independent family and neo-local household, for whichpartnership and ultimately marriage are pre-conditions, but links with the extendedfamily and the community remain vital in terms of property, livelihood, community


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and identity. Initially the couple lives with the extended family, normally the husbandsfamily, where the wife will be educated into the ways of his family by the mother-in-law.The wife is in a position of learning and obeying until she can form her own nuclearunit (Balan, 1996).

The ideal of chachawarmi has its roots in historical institutions of family, landand inheritance, and continues to frame interpretations and aspirations. However, thematerial, political and discursive context of the Andes is myriad, changing and dynamicand the multiple influences on gendered power may be overlooked by the re-assertionof chachawarmi at the political level. The focus of the following empirical sectionsis to bring out this multiplicity and the complexity of womens understanding andnegotiation of gendered power.

Research Setting and Methodology

The present exploration of chachawarmi is based on fieldwork conducted over fiveyears in Bolivia, including eight months in the Aymara-speaking valley of Luribayin 2006 and two visits of one month in 2010 and 2011, staying in both El Alto andLuribay. The advantage of this relatively long period of exploration, and the contrastinglocations, is to afford an idea of the complexity of gendered relations and the discursivepolitical context in which they are situated. The MAS government was inaugurated in2006, and studying gendered relations over this period has presented an opportunity tounderstand the diversity of households as a starting point from which to critique thepolitical assertion of Andean worldviews and the chachawarmi ideal.

The evidence to be presented here focuses on research in the municipality of Luribay.Luribay is a fruit-producing valley about seven hours from the city of La Paz by bus ortruck. In the centre of the valley is Luribay Town, the capital of the municipality, wherethe municipal government and NGOs working in the valley have their offices. LuribayTown is surrounded by 78 hamlets. There are two vertiginous, winding roads leadingto the main highway between La Paz and Cochabamba. Many people from Luribayregularly make the journey to La Paz, particularly during the harvest as they go to thecity to sell fruit.

Luribay is known as a rural, Aymara-speaking valley, but this disguises complexdynamics of identity and difference. A total of 75 percent of the population arebilingual Aymara/Spanish, with Aymara as their first language (Municipality of Luribay,2005). Tensions remain between the mestizo Town and indigenous hamlets; economies,languages, dress, institutions and ethnicities sharply divide these places. The tendencyof people in the Town to dress in Western clothes, speak Spanish and earn a living fromcommerce rather than land-based production constitutes the Towns mestizo identity(Crandon-Malamud, 1993; Maclean, 2010).

The socio-economic fabric of the hamlets is based more on the reciprocal, co-operative work practices for which the Andes is known. The ayllu is a form of socialorganisation based on co-operation and exchange of goods among members of bilateralkinship groups (Bastien, 1979; Rivera Cusicanqui, 1990). The traditions of ayni, directand commensurate return of favours, and minka, exchange of labour, mediate howresources are distributed, and this lexicon is part of everyday language. Valley areas areseen to have weaker attachments to indigenous culture and traditions in comparisonwith the Altiplano. The social and political organisation in the valley has its rootsin the ancient ayllu of pre-hispanic origin, but, due to the incursions initiated by the



Spanish during the sixteenth century, the people originating from this area have brokenwith that form of social, economic and political organisation (Municipal DevelopmentPlan, 2005: 54). The hamlets are administered by Agrarian Unions set up after the 1952Revolution and agrarian reform, and are formed along the same lines as an ayllu. TheMAS decolonial project has been criticised for being led by Aymara people from theAltiplano and excluding the views of rural people (Canessa, 2006), and some of thiscomplexity will be brought out by this valley case study.

NGOs that have worked in Luribay include Save the Children, Credit with RuralEducation (CreCER), Caritas and the Bolivian Valleys Federation, all of whom promotecommerce and inclusion in the mainstream market. The focus of the NGOs workingin Luribay is to increase agricultural production in order to make the valley moresustainable, arguably constituting an example of the incursion of neoliberal economicsinto the valley; but the local effects of the global economy are also seen in the high levelof migration to urban centres mainly El Alto, but also Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo andMadrid (Municipality of Luribay, 2005).

The institutions of marriage, bilateral inheritance and agricultural traditions thatconstitute chachawarmi are clearly in evidence in households in Luribay, as are theco-operative and complementary ideals that frame interpretations of gendered successesand failures and the ever-changing social context. The phrase itself was used to memostly when people were seeking to clarify their ideas of men and women to a Westernoutsider, whom they assumed would have individualistic notions of gender and family.One woman in a microfinance group took pains to explain to me that if my husbandand I had a joint bank account instead of, as I had explained, separate ones, wewould be much happier thats how it is here: chachawarmi. Another example wasthe procession of couples in the Towns annual fiesta. One NGO worker from La Pazexplained to me: You cannot be in the procession alone; if youre single here yourenot a real citizen the citizen is chacha and warmi. The fact that the phrase itself tendsto be used to clarify Aymara ideas of gender and the household in contradistinctionto assumed Western norms underscores that cultural identity is defined by its others.The term chachawarmi is hence both persistent and dynamic, and the aim here is toillustrate the way that it is being recreated and challenged in peoples interpretations oftheir changing circumstances.

In 2006, I stayed with three families, one in the Town and two in the hamlets. I knewthese families through an Aymara contact in the UK, and although it was made clearat every moment that I was a university researcher, this did give me a very differentreception. First, I stayed with Dona Magdalena and Don Pedro, from a hamlet aboutthree hours walk from the Town. The couple, both in their sixties, had six childrenwho had left Luribay to work variously in El Alto and Cochabamba. I also stayed withDona Carol and her husband Don Eduardo, who lived in Luribay Town. They owneda hostel and a small shop and also had property in El Alto. Finally, I stayed with DonaJaneta and the Pastor, Don Rodrigo, who lived in between two hamlets with their fourchildren and his parents. His brother and his wife and family also had a nearby home.

Whilst in Luribay I attended meetings of the Agrarian Union, the Mayors Officeand the microfinance institution CreCER. I conducted 28 formal interviews in Spanishwith women I met through the families I stayed with. My position and positionalitythroughout this is vitally important in contextualising the interviews, experiences andreflections that I have had in the course of this fieldwork. I was discussing theseissues in Spanish my second language with bilingual women whose first languagewas Aymara. The imposition of the colonial language in the research process is fraught


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with epistemological and political difficulties which can only be partly addressed bya long-term, qualitative and reflexive approach (Maclean, 2007). The aim here is toexplore the variety of discourses and interfaces that are involved in the recreation ofgendered identities and it is important to recognise that I was one of those interfaces.

Chachawarmi Orthodoxy and Difference in Luribay

In this section I explore the narratives of women from different areas of Luribay, livingin various household situations and of different ages and religions. I start by lookingin more detail at how co-operation, complementarity and partnership are exemplifiedand understood. The accounts explored indicate the importance of co-operation andthe fact that women can inherit, own property and earn. I then explore situations thatdiverge from this norm of the chachawarmi household, including evangelical families,women-headed households, single mothers and women without children. Many of thewomen with whom I spent time in Luribay were not in a relationship that wouldconform to any chachawarmi norm. Nevertheless, interpretations of family situationsand gender relations were almost always framed in terms of the ideals of co-operationand partnership represented by the term.

Recreating the Chachawarmi Norm

In this section I look at the lives of four women whose family situations reflect thechachawarmi norm, and the gendered power that they experience. Begona and Felizashouseholds are typical in the sense that they are married, work together with theirhusbands on the land, choose to live with their in-laws in Luribay and emphasisethe importance of partnership and co-operation. I then present Lucia and Celia, whoare in households that structurally conform to the chachawarmi ideal type, but whonevertheless feel subordinate to their husbands for reasons that shed light on the changeswhich are re-shaping gender relations. I conclude this section by exploring commentsfrom a course on self-esteem that demonstrate how chachawarmi is used to interpretindividualist discourses.

Dona Begona is an Aymara woman, de pollera, from the neighbouring municipalityof Cairoma, who came to Luribay with her husband. She is 23 years old and hastwo infant children. She owns land inherited from her mother and emphasises that thedecision about where to live is dependent on where the couple would have more land,giving the example of her sister and her husband who are living on her sisters land,also inherited from her mother. At the time of the interview, she had been in Luribayfor two years:

I live with my parents-in-law but were lucky: we have a little house justa little apart. My husbands younger brother doesnt have any land andhe and his wife live with the in-laws and thats a little more difficult youdont have as much space. But we work together and share all the chores.

Begonas reference to her luck reflects Balans (1996) assertion that the aspiration ofyoung married couples in the Andes is to form their own chachawarmi household. Theunderstanding of the household as a co-operative work unit is also illustrated here, andthe benefits of sharing emphasised, reflecting the chachawarmi ideal.



Perhaps contrary to the emphasis on co-operation and partnership in the way inwhich chachawarmi is defined politically, it is striking that within typical chachawarmihouseholds, individuals have clear ideas about what is theirs for example, childrensrespective parcels of land are clearly marked out. Nevertheless, although individualproperty is clearly defined, a refusal to share or insistence upon individual propertyor savings would be seen as selfish. Dona Feliza, who grew up in the nearby cityof Oruro and married a Luribayeno, illustrates the ideal of co-operation within thefamily whilst emphasising the importance of individual property and independence. Shemoved to Luribay Town when she and her husband were married and describes herfirst experiences:

I was married when I was 16, and Im telling you I didnt even know how tocook! But I was lucky. My motherinlaw is really, really kind. We livedwith them for twelve years until we had enough to move out by ourselves,and she really took care of me and taught me everything . . . When I wassingle, I didnt have anything, but his family did, a truck and everything, andthey shared everything with me. Hes good, really good. But sometimes youwant your own stuff too, particularly if there are problems in the family.

Like Begona, she also emphasises her luck, and contrasts the kindness of her family-in-law with the vulnerability of her situation when she moved to live with them. Felizaalso clarifies that reproductive labour is unquestionably a womans role, and she wenton to explain in the interview that men and women might work together on the land,but it is the woman who comes in and has to take care of the dinner.

There are a number of women in Luribay who own their own land, either viainheritance or purchase. Dona Lucia is an Aymara woman de pollera who lives in ahamlet about half an hours walk from the Town, with her five children. She inheriteda large amount of land, and her husband lives with her:

My husbands from the Town but he had to come here, to the communitywhere I was born. Most of the time the man takes his wife away with himbut it wasnt like that with me. My mother had died, my sister lives inCochabamba, my other sister lives on the Altiplano. So I was the only oneliving on the land. So my husband had to be present here with me. But Imthe owner of the land.

Despite the fact that she owns the land, Dona Lucia still feels subordinate to herhusband. She complains that he just sits and drinks with his friends whilst she raisestheir five children and two nephews, organises land-based production and the sale ofproduce, is a member of two separate NGO projects and is active in the Agrarian Union.She clarifies: Were exploited by our husbands. They just boss us around and we cantdo things on our own behalf. We have the right to rest.

One of the sources of Dona Lucias husbands power, despite his lack of landownership, is his status within the community as a former soldier. Dona Lucia wasknown locally for being particularly outspoken and participating in public meetings,but she expressed frustration at not being given as much right to speak in meetingsas men. She explained that it was difficult to be taken seriously if you had not donemilitary service, which discounted not only the participation of women but also that ofcertain men. The military is extremely important in the construction of masculinity andis part of the Andean machismo that Lucia feels is oppressive (Gill, 1997). Military


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service is obligatory in Bolivia, but whereas the urban middle and upper classes tend toavoid it, in the countryside this is seen as a rite of passage as a man and a citizen. InLuribay, a fiesta would be held on return from military service, and people would beaware of the grade that men received on exiting.

Dona Lucia and other women bemoaned that their husbands would only workon other peoples land, for which they would receive money, rather than helping ontheir own land. Money is by no means a recent arrival in the valley, but resources,and particularly labour, are generally distributed via reciprocal traditions such as ayni,defined above. These traditions are important elements of the co-operative, reciprocalontology in Andean cosmology, but the increasing importance of cash in the localeconomy is changing how ayni functions. Dona Celia is 48 years old, an Aymarawoman de pollera who lives in the Town:

I do all the work. I work on the land, I raised eight children, I go to La Pazevery week to sell my tomatoes. My husbands terrible. He just sits arounddrinking all day and when I complain he just says this is my land, you,you dont have anything, and you better remember that. He wont workfor me, on our land. He leaves me to do everything. Hell go and work onother peoples land, because theyll pay him money and then he can buyspirits and get drunk.

Celia is here invoking a gendered distinction between remunerated and unremuneratedlabour that is a familiar consequence of development policies focused on production.Despite the bilateral inheritance that has historically been a defining characteristic ofchachawarmi, Celias landlessness reflects the gendered distribution of land regionally,and she identifies this unequivocally as a source of gendered exploitation. At the sametime, she refers to our land, evoking the ideal of a household unit that appears to bebreaking down. Her story indicates the way in which the increasing reliance on financialcapital is creating gendered dynamics that are not always represented in notions ofchachawarmi as marshalled politically.

The contradistinction between complementarity, co-operation and individual rightsis perhaps not as starkly defined as could be implied by some political rhetorics ofchachawarmi as set against Western individualism (De Sousa Santos, 2010: 33) orgender equality. The way in which equality can be framed by ideas of reciprocityand co-operation comes through clearly in comments about a training course onwomens self-esteem that had been offered by an NGO. The material for these sessionsencouraged women to have the confidence to go ahead with their own projects andnot be discouraged by what people may say. However, the participants interpreted self-esteem in terms that reflected the value of co-operation and reciprocity, emphasising theimportance of taking peoples advice. Dona Juana is 55 and comes from a hamlet aboutfour hours walk from the Town. She has five children and lives in an old haciendabuilding that is rented from its owners who live in the USA. Her reaction to the NGOtraining courses suggests the ways that Western individualism can be interpreted incontext:

For me, the training is really key, I really like it. Self-esteem, I really likedthat one. Youre not meant to tell people what to do, but guide them. I likethat. Everyone wants something, everyone has an aim, and you have torespect that and advise them. Some people are going wrong in their lives,and you have to advise them.



The self-esteem course emphasised the importance of going ahead with your ownprojects despite what people think and having confidence in oneself and ones ownabilities. Juana does not position herself as the person with the aim, but rather as theperson giving advice a position which speaks to her seniority as a grandmother andgodmother and concludes, perhaps contrary to the intention of the course, that theguidance of others is important.

Juanas interpretation underscores the importance of community and how it wouldbe quite shocking to not seek or respect peoples advice. I noted that before embarking onany endeavour, the rhetorical question well what will people think! would frequently beheard, and the axiom small town, big hell [pueblo pequeno, infierno grande], referringto the ferocity of gossip in rural communities and heard throughout Bolivia, was oftenused by Luribayenos. The individualist discourse of self-esteem could be perceived tobe helpful in this context, but Juanas comments also show up the culturally situatednature of equality and empowerment discourses based on individualist notions.

Diverging from the Norm

A number of households in Luribay do not conform to the chachawarmi norm.Examples include those that actively reject this notion and those who have been,in their own terms, unable to achieve this ideal. In this section I look at variouspeople whose relationships and households do not conform to the ideals of partnershipand equal but complementary roles associated with the term chachawarmi. Firstly Ipresent Veronica and Janeta, and how they view their gendered position within thepatriarchal family structure promoted by the Evangelical church. I then look at howsingle women mothers and non-mothers deal with the pressures of the norm ofpartnership and gender complementarity.

Dona Veronica is the sister-in-law of the Pastor, Don Rodrigo, and converted to theEvangelical church as a child. The tropes of male headship in the family are marked outmuch more strongly in evangelical households than in those that reflect more closelythe chachawarmi ideal. There is a poem on Don Rodrigos dining room wall about theimportance of obeying the father of the house, and the eldest son explicitly takes onthe role of head of the house when the Pastor is away. His wife Dona Janetas manybusiness ideas, including making juice and empanadas for the local market and raisingturkeys, are spoken of somewhat dismissively by her male kin, who see her incomeas secondary to that brought in from their work with the Church and the municipalgovernment.

The patriarchal structure of this Protestant household is placed into sharp relief in acontext where co-operation and complementarity is a norm. It should be said, however,that Dona Janeta and Dona Veronica seem to derive substantial power from theirposition in the Church, and put their literacy and business acumen down to trainingreceived from the Brothers. Nevertheless, the gendered hierarchy in this household ispalpable, and supports the assertion that chachawarmi is a more equitable ideal.

Single mothers are by definition excluded from the chachawarmi household norm.It is argued, however, that pre-marital sex was encouraged in the Andean communityuntil Spanish colonisers constructed sexuality as an abomination and the woman asthe temptress (Lugones, 2012). It is not unusual for single mothers to be welcomedback into their family and for the extended family to care for them and their children.Whilst being in a couple is important, the decision to get married has more to dowith the most appropriate time to hold the accompanying fiestas, given the financial


Kate Maclean

burden that it represents, and children born into a stable but unmarried couple are notremarked upon (Balan, 1996). However, single women who give birth experience afamiliar double standard of masculine and feminine sexual norms, which are enforcedby legal frameworks around divorce and paternity.

Sara had a daughter out of wedlock and the father, allegedly the son of one ofthe richest landowners and politicians in Luribay, refused to recognise the child. Herextended family was supporting her and was appalled at the mans unwillingness torecognise the child. They were nevertheless aware that people were speaking badlyof Sara and that really, thats not done. It was emphasised that the daughter borea resemblance to the alleged father, and rumours on that basis put pressure on himto fulfil paternal responsibilities. However, his father was adamant that he should notrecognise the child until they had a paternity test, and he emphasised that should the testprove negative, Sara could be sued for slander. This story presents the many hierarchiesthat are at play: the pressure to be in a partnership, the power that comes from wealthand the patriarchal underpinnings of laws around paternity.

Dona Sofia is divorced with six children. She was born in Luribay, but went to Brazilto work when her husband left her. When her father died, she came back to look afterher mother and her mothers small plot of land. Her main source of income is fromworking as a labourer:

I work the land alone. Im both a woman and a man. I plough andeverything, even though thats a mans job . . . Theres just me working onmy own, no one helps me . . . Sometimes I work as a minka [labourer]every day of the week. I need the money!

Dona Sofia makes explicit reference here to the understanding of gender as activity,illustrating how she takes on both the masculine role of ploughing and femininetasks on the land. However, venerating the ideal of partnership does not capture therealities of abandonment and the economic pressures on female-headed households.Being chacha and warmi in Sofias case equates to a double burden of labour. Whatsmore, she finds herself subject to ridicule people would call over to Sofia whilst shewas ploughing and tease her by saying what are you, a man?. This is an example wherethe valorisation of the feminine in a context of a strict division between masculine andfeminine roles can reinforce gendered exploitation.

Those perhaps most clearly excluded by normative discourses of the chachawarmihousehold are single non-mothers. Carolina was a university graduate who grew upin Luribay before moving to La Paz for her education. She was a councillor in themunicipality and was respected among people in the Town and the hamlets for her rolethere. As she was of indigenous descent and spoke fluent Aymara, she was particularlyadmired for being able to communicate with everyone in the valley and not being tooproud, in comparison with others from the city. She felt however that her single status,particularly as she was approaching 30 years of age, excluded her from the communityand made her vulnerable to malicious gossip. She bemoaned that only couples couldfully participate in fiestas and that as a single person youre not a real citizen, recallingthe importance of being in a partnership to community belonging and maturity.

Ramona, a single, childless woman in her 30s, had moved from the city ofCochabamba to care for her elderly mother in one of the hamlets of Luribay. Shecompleted secondary school but as the youngest sibling it was seen as her duty to carefor her mother. She was referred to ungenerously as the starlet of Luribay, as theabsence of male kin locally meant that she was perceived as lacking protection from



sexual advances. In both of these cases, womens education, age or wealth was notenough to give them a full sense of belonging in the community because of their failureto meet the demands of chachawarmi.

The expectation to be in a partnership, albeit it an equitable, co-operative one,can itself represent gendered oppression and place the multiple femininities illustratedhere in the context of migration, divorce, and education in alterity. Single people,both men and women, are excluded from the community, but single women addi-tionally feel unprotected, exposed and judged. The discursive resources associated withchachawarmi are evident in the way the women describe their situation the importanceof partnership to participation; gender as an activity but it seems these resources alsocompound their exclusion and do not represent their subject positions.

Conclusion

This overview of the multiplicity of discourses involved in the recreation of genderedrelations and hierarchies in Luribay has indicated some of the diversity that is overlookedby discourses of chachawarmi as marshalled politically. At the same time, it hasillustrated the importance of the recognition of a symbolic universe of co-operation,reciprocity and unity that frames understandings and interpretations, including bythose excluded from the chachawarmi norm of gendered relations. It also speaks tothe importance of the military, religion, work, education and money to genderedpower and identity. Considering these stories suggests that an essentialist focus onchachawarmi albeit strategic defined as different but complementary gender rolesmay compound these hierarchies and oppressions.

The complexity illustrated here can be seen as the continued colonisation of Andeanworldviews the military, Christian religions and money being cases in point and thenegotiation of these processes in terms that recreate the discourses associated withAndean cosmologies testifies to the importance of decolonial politics. The conceptualand political tensions around the use of chachawarmi as a platform for gender equalityand decolonisation are readily apparent, and illustrate the complexity of exclusion inthe postcolonial context. Exploring the multiple political dynamics involved in genderedpower involves a detailed exploration of everyday struggles and a recognition of thedifferent forces at play. The transition of an intersectional approach from the levelof empirical exploration to political rhetoric is difficult to conceptualise, and evenmore so to practice. Nevertheless, essentialism adopted strategically for a political goalnecessarily does not represent this diversity, and may indeed compound exclusionarypower dynamics.

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