Fast, Easy, and In Cash
Artisan Hardship and Hope in the Global Economy
"Artisan" has become a buzzword in the developed world, used for items like cheese, wine, and baskets, as corporations succeed at branding their cheap, mass-produced products with the popular appeal of small-batch, handmade goods. The unforgiving realities of the artisan economy, however, never left the global south, and anthropologists have worried over the fate of resilient craftspeople as global capitalism remade their cultural and economic lives. Yet artisans are proving to be surprisingly vital players in contemporary capitalism, as they interlock innovation and tradition to create effective new forms of entrepreneurship. Based on seven years of extensive research in Colombia and Ecuador, veteran ethnographers Jason Antrosio and Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld's "Fast, Easy, and In Cash" explores how small-scale production and global capitalism are not directly opposed, but rather are essential partners in economic development. Antrosio and Colloredo-Mansfeld demonstrate how artisan trades evolve in modern Latin American communities. In uncertain economies, small manufacturers have adapted to excel at home-based production, design, technological efficiency, and investments. Vivid case studies illuminate this process: peasant farmers in Tuquerres, Otavalo weavers, Tigua painters, and the t-shirt industry of Atuntaqui. "Fast, Easy, and In Cash" exposes how these ambitious artisans, far from being holdovers from the past, are crucial for capitalist innovation in their communities and provide indispensable lessons in how we should understand and cultivate local economies in this era of globalization.
About the Author
Jason Antrosio is associate professor of anthropology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.
Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld is professor and chair of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Reviews
"With engaging stories and descriptions, 'Fast, Easy, and In Cash' shows how home based artisans in the Northern Andes reach world markets with innovations built on a cultural commons. Through their sophisticated account that focuses on the margins, Antrosio and Colloredo-Mansfeld reveal many dynamics of central capitalism from profit making, to winner-take-all markets, to Ponzi schemes" – Stephen Gudeman, University of Minnesota
"This ethnography is innovative, well written, and important. The authors are pioneers in the analysis and comparison of artisanal production in both Ecuador and Colombia using the concepts of the cultural commons and invasive economies as an exceptional theoretical framework. In addition, it is truly a pleasure to read" – Lynn Meisch, Anthropology, Saint Mary's College of California
"'Fast, Easy, and In Cash' is the most thought-provoking economic anthropology book I have read in the past decade. Antrosio and Colloredo-Mansfeld use material from their fieldwork among artisan entrepreneurs in the Ecuadorean Andes to examine recent provocative arguments by economists, such as risk-taking, innovation, and winner-take-all competitions. Their lively prose, intriguing illustrations, and fascinating case studies make this book accessible and stimulating" – Michael Chibnik, University of Iowa
