ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a brief overview of the economic systems of the pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary Andes, touching on issues such as indigenous ideals about self-sufficiency, the intersections of kinship and economies, the introduction of currency, barter, marketplaces, informal economies, and neoliberalism. Despite the upheavals of major historical events ranging from the Conquest of the Americas to the advent of neoliberal economic policies, as well as the internal diversity of peoples in the region, some common themes emerge. These include concepts of the ayllu, systems of reciprocity (ayni, mink’a, and mit’a), and verticality, all of which underlie more encompassing logics about relationships between people, labor, ecology, exchange, and household economies.
