30 Sep 2025 | Ruben Darío Chambi

Exploring Qhatu as a commoning practice among Aymara traders in El Alto, Bolivia

DGSKA Conference (University of Cologne, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology)

This presentation explores the Qhatu, an Aymara term that designates both a small stall in public space and the collection of several such stalls that make up a market. Spread out in squares and streets, they are a widespread form of organisation among traders in El Alto, Bolivia's largest Indigenous city. More than just a commercial space, the Qhatu is a place where the private and the public coexist, where families consolidate their commercial relations and knowledge, while also serving as a practice of commoning where reciprocity and mutual cooperation are deployed.

Based on ethnographic research, this study examines how Aymara traders engage in shared decision-making, space allocation, and collective strategies to secure their spaces vis-à-vis official city institutions. The Qhatu raises several important elements for the study of urban Indigenous economies, not only as a family economic practice but also as an arena where traders reinforce social ties and express their logics of collective well-being or Suma Qamaña. It also reflects on its political dimension, as principles such as sovereignty and social, economic, and political positioning are exercised there, reconfiguring the city on their terms and contesting modernising forms of urban planning in the Global South.

The presentation is part of the workshop The commons in the city, convened by Christoph Brumann (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle) and Philipp Demgenski (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Zhejiang University). Visit the conference website for more information on the program.

The conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologieon, DGSKA (German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology, GASCA) “Un/Commoning Anthropology“ takes place in Cologne from 29 September – 2 October 2025. It is organised and hosted by the GASCA together with the Cologne Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.