Craft Production and the Challenge of the Global Market: An Artisans’ Cooperative in Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

In 1987 the Artisans' Society of Santa Ana was founded to bring the global market for handmade woolen textiles to Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca, a rural Zapotec community. Santa Ana is part of Oaxaca's well-documented treadle loom industry, but remains in the shadow of its economically dominant neighbor, Teotitlán del Valle. The Artisans' Society was established in response to Teotitlán's control and was generally well supported by villagers. However, the cooperative has not accomplished its goal of gaining better market access for local weavers. Over the last decade the Society has struggled, nearly collapsing in 1995. The example of the Artisans' Society allows an opportunity to examine the advantages and disadvantages of cooperatives as avenues toward economic development. The problems facing Santañero weavers are not solely local. The evidence presented suggests our anlysis must take account of the control and flow of information and market knowledge; the place of the cooperative in regional, national and international economic processes; and the critique of local socio-economic trends.

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