Protestantism and capitalism revisited, in the rural highlands of Ecuador

Abstract

The central concern of this paper is to examine some of the consequences of the penetration of capitalism among a‐ group of Ecuadorian Indian peasants, recently converted to Protestantism. Particular attention is given to the role played by certain ideological practices in the extraction and appropriation of the peasants’ surplus. It is argued that, in addition to the analysis of the economic aspects of the interdependence between capitalist and non‐capitalist modes of production, the concept of ‘ideological articulation’ is particularly useful in the understanding of those social formations which have suffered successive colonialisms. The problem of Protestantism is analyzed in the context of the changing social relations of production, and in relation to the ideologies of ‘ethnicity’ and ‘nationalism’. The paper concludes with some remarks on the redefinition of ‘tradition’, and on the development of political consciousness among Indian peasants.