Indigenous People in Peru

Résumé du document

Andean lives, is a pair of autobiographical narratives edited by two young anthropologists in which Gregorio and Asunta, a Peruvian Indian couple, tell their life stories. The story takes place in the highlands of Peru, where millions of indigenous inhabitants who represent the cultural majority, suffer from exploitation and domination. The highland area retains its predominantly Indian culture and traditions and Cuzco, the ancient Incan capital, remains the centre of traditional Indian society today. The highlands give Peru the fourth highest concentration of Indians in all of Latin America. These narratives are first hand testimony and represent one of the first attempts to coax the indigenous people to tell their life stories. The book is very rich and narrates the brutality of everyday life in the highlands, both in the urban and the rural areas. It covers a broad aspect of the lives of the protagonists. In this essay I will focus on specific issues related in these narratives. I will talk about the social structure of the highlands and then explore the experiences of the indigenous people living in the highlands with racism and domination. We will see how the indigenous people are dominated and exploited by the higher social classes, in spite of the fact that they compose a majority in the highlands. We will be led to wonder how the specific class structure of the highlands allows such dramatic life conditions for indigenous people.

Extraits

[...] Their lack of literacy contributes to their domination. Gregorio and Asunta accounts reveal how difficult life is for this people. Racism and discrimination are present everywhere even within state institutions. Indigenous people are identified by the rest of the population as second class citizens. Life conditions are terrible in both urban and rural areas. In urban area they especially experienced racism and discrimination because they are directly in contact with others social classes. Bibliography _Bourricaud, Francois. Power and Society in contemporary Peru. [...]

[...] They received only the minimum to survive. Indigenous people were dominated economically and politically and never occupied a position of authority. They lived in a culture of domination. B. Discrimination and racism The discrimination is everywhere, in the country side as well as in the city of Cuzco. Indians are considered as second class citizens. First they suffer of a cultural discrimination. Indeed most of the Indians of the highlands like Gregorio and Asunta are illiterate and don't speak Spanish. [...]

[...] In this essay I will focus on specific issues related in these narratives. I will talk about the social structure of the highlands and then explore the experiences of the indigenous people living in the highlands with racism and domination. Indeed despite the fact that the indigenous people compose a majority in the highlands they are dominated and exploited by the higher social classes. Thus we can wonder how the specific class structure of the highlands allows such dramatic life conditions for indigenous people. [...]

[...] It occurs in both rural and urban areas. Asunta's account of her experience in the hacienda reveals the most terrible form of exploitation that indigenous peasants experienced[7]. The peons, people who worked on the haciendas (80 percent of land was owned by less than 1 percent of the rural population) and their families were tied to the hacienda like medieval serfs. Indeed there were a series of personal obligation (free labour on hacendado personal land, free labour at the hacendado house (servants, domestics, sheperds). [...]

[...] Austin For an account of the work of Gregorio in the factory see chap 11, Condori Mamani, Gregorio, and Asunta Quispe Huaman. Andean Lives. Austin Handelman, Howard. Struggle in the Andes. Peasant political mobilizationh in Peru. Austin p.37. Bourricaud, Francois. Cambios en Puno. Mexico city p.17 (reprinted in Handelman, Howard. Struggle in the Andes. Peasant political mobilizationh in Peru. Austin p.40) Concerning the exploitation of peons in the haciendas see chapter 13, Condori Mamani, Gregorio, and Asunta Quispe Huaman. Andean Lives. Austin Condori Mamani, Gregorio, and Asunta Quispe Huaman. [...]