'We Were Never Informal Ones': Aymara Qamiris and Independent Work in the Cities of Peruvian-Bolivian High Andean Plateau

This is a theoretical-ethnographic study of the independent work carried out by Aymara traders in the main cities of the Peruvian-Bolivian high Andean plateau (Juliaca, Puno, El Alto and La Paz), contextualized by profound local and global socioeconomic changes. Firstly, I unfold an epistemological review of the concepts by which the sociology of labour usually approaches the phenomenon of non-salaried work in Latin America, distancing myself from the notion of “informal work”. Secondly, I argue that it is the influence of Andean culture in the independent work of Aymara traders—especially reciprocity derived from a traditional agricultural-livestock economy—which sustains the social reproduction of an Aymara work ethic and habitus. Finally, I analyse how this habitus disposes Aymara traders to the deployment of social, cultural and symbolic strategies (social capital, reciprocity and Patron saint festivities, respectively), that have promoted the increasing economic success of the Aymara qamiris by pushing both traditional and modern logics, articulating economy and culture.