Savings as a cultural construction in Otavalo: Pigs, representations and obligations

The article explores how saving is conceived as a cultural construction in Otavalo, integrating economic practices, symbolic meanings and social obligations. Through an ethnographic approach, the study analyses how saving goes beyond a classic economic category to encompass local dynamics such as pig raising, considered an ancestral form of saving. Four main categories of saving were identified in Otavalo: monetary, behavioral, ancestral and credit. Saving is associated with planning for the future, both in contexts of crisis and in the achievement of personal or family goals. In addition, it reflects tensions between the Western model of saving and local traditions, where symbols such as the pig acquire a central meaning. The study concludes that saving in Otavalo is a cultural phenomenon full of meaning, linked to time management, economic resilience and local identity.