Los pañeros de Santa María de Berrocal (Ávila)cambios económicos y socioculturales en las formas de comercio itinerante y consolidación del pequeño comercio textil (siglos XX y XXI)

Abstract

Our object of study deals with the small textile trade in terms of historical development, starting from the figure of the draper and his socio cultural environment, passing through the textile merchant street, finally arriving until the small stable trader (XX and XXI centuries). As a theoretical framework we start with the most current economic anthropological proposals to introduce specific concepts about the theory of endogenous growth and institutionalism. The global change will be analyzed starting from a small transactional market activity in correlation with the capitalist model in force. This has allowed us to verify to what ex tent some initial elements have been maintained with different degrees of importance. We identify the modalities of this change and that coexistence and identify an eminently anthropological variable in function of the social articulation. Along with the economic factors, we have given a special interest to the symbolic framework, verifying the degree of importance as an identity resource for small textile traders today. Methodologically we have been based on participant observation and data collection directly on the ground, verifying the degree of articulation between the different forms of production. We have verified the economic bases, their relationship with the specific cultural framework and the models of configuration of each type of professional work related to the textile marketing. Small textile traders are forced to use ever more sophisticated trading techniques in order to continue competing in a de facto globalized market.