De plaza a mercado: la expresión de dos sistemas conceptuales en la organización de los mercados del Occidente de Guatemala

Abstract

The analysis of the physical changes that have taken place in the organization of markets in the western highlands of Guatemala since the early colonial years graphically reveals the penetration of capitalist features in the peasant marketplace. The open plaza is a reflection of the Indian conceptual system, where the main organizing category is "the people from each township" or ethnic group. The enclosed market, instead, reflects westen capitalist assumptions where the "product" is the main organizing category. Even though gradual changes in the organization of markets have been recorded over the past four centuries, substantial changes have occurred in the last fifty years with the construction of enclosed market-buildings following westem organizational and sanitary guidelines. The study is based on the analysis of ethnohistorical sources, ethnographic accounts, and obseryations.