The Art of Indigeneity: Aesthetics and Competition in Mexican Economies of Culture

Abstract

Based upon ethnographic research with woodcarvers in Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper investigates the role that aesthetic practices play in economic competition in cultural markets. I explain how one family has become the most successful artisans in their village by aesthetically referencing the indigenous art that is highly sought after by the North American ethnic art market. By reformulating Bourdieu's analysis of artistic fields, I argue that aesthetic competition should be theorised at the level of genres, which allows insight into how individual aesthetic innovations may transform the fields in which art is produced and circulated. I show that by referencing indigeneity, this successful family not only accesses a new market, but also renders their work more authoritative than the carvings of their neighbours, which aesthetically reference Mexican "artesanías" (craftwork). In so doing, they not only earn more money, but also change the ways that Oaxacan woodcarvings are valued in general.

‘Making’ labour in Mexican artisanal workshops

“…The Garcías’ woodcarvings command very high prices in global art markets that value the aesthetic and technical capacities of the people who produce them. Since they work with the same materials and basic techniques as everyone else, to their neighbours their incredible success seems mysterious and difficult, if not impossible, to replicate (Cant ).…”

“…Colloredo‐Mansfeld ) . Miguel and Catalina García's continuing success is due to their unique level of exposure to the North American indigenous art market, which has allowed them to carve out a new aesthetic niche within the genre of Oaxacan woodcarving (Cant ). They have also benefited from ongoing relationships with key individuals in the art world of Oaxacan folk art and craft, which is made up of overlapping networks of actors that connect Oaxacan villages with the state capital, Mexico City, and the United States .…”

‘Edgy’ politics and European anthropology in 2016

“…Others explore the social effects of recombinant practices and the power of graphical forms. Brady and Bradley, for instance, examine the agency of graphic forms in sorcery in relation to rock art in Kurrmurnnyini, North Australia (Brady and Bradley ); Cant discusses the role that ‘indigenous art’ aesthetics plays in changing power relations in wood‐carving art markets in Mexico (Cant ); Vasantkumar conducts a close material and historic analysis of several collections of coins to reveal how abstract theorisation often conceals Eurocentric theorisations of currency (Vasantkumar ); and McGuire's paper on barter exchanges in Kazakhstan describes how money is imbued with obligations, leading many to prefer the exchange of livestock as a less obligating form of trade (McGuire ). Questions of materiality, ontology and futures coupled with detailed empirical attention help us to approach the edges of global political and economic thinking.…”

The allure of art and intellectual property: artisans and industrial replicas in Mexican cultural economies

“…The Garcías most acutely embody this ambivalence, not only because they are the most successful, but also because their work aesthetically deviates from the established genre of Oaxacan woodcarving. As I have discussed elsewhere (Cant forthcoming), their success has been largely built upon the intentional development of an aesthetic repertoire in the direction of ‘indigenous art’. In particular, they draw on American and Canadian aesthetics of indigeneity (colours, styles, and forms) while symbolically connecting their work and themselves to a reified, even romantic, notion of ‘Zapotec culture’ (see Wood : 105‐14).…”