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The paper explores the discourses around masculinity and modernity intertwined in intellectual elites' representations during the turn of the twentieth century. The analysis uses a close-reading of certain cases -cultural magazines, eulogies, literary works- that illustrate such discourses. The article shows the elites' efforts for positioning Peru within the realm of the civilized countries and as part of the advancement of Western modernity. To do so, they tried to describe the virile, strenuous, and rational character of the men than inhabited the country. On the hand, elites extolled the heroic character --in terms of hegemonic masculinity-- of leading Peruvian figures to counter the pessimism after the War of the Pacific military defeat. In the same vein, the subsequent enthusiasm during the Aristocratic Republic was anchored in the possibilities to transform the Peruvian subjects towards greater whiteness, masculinity, and civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the hair and beard grooming narratives of fourteen upper-middle-class men aged between 27 and 40 years from Lima, as well as those of barbers and barbershop managers. We conduct in-depth interviews and analyze their thematic and interpretive content. We find that the interviewees use various strategies to avoid being feminized by their interest in grooming. At the same time, the subjects seek to match their hairstyle and/or beard with their clothing and body type in order to appear well turned-out; in Peru, this practice is strongly linked to racial, gender and class narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the discourses of financial-independence and «professionalisation» of offspring promoted by state-provided health-care and welfare (Juntos), Quechua women living in poverty find that upon entering motherhood their full citizenship becomes conditional on successful behaviours and stewardship of children to a more «desirable» livelihood than their own. This suggests that mothering-while-poor places a moral value on women that the state uses to justify monitoring and governing them. This paper is based on one-year's ethnographic-fieldwork in rural communities and health centres or posts in Vilcashuaman province, Ayacucho department, Peru. 100 interviews were conducted with women, men and health-workers, in addition to substantial participant-observation. Whilst the pervasive discourses overburden women's freedoms, there are alternatives to «professionalization» of indigenous-youth that do not require the financial literacy currently imposed on mothers. This paper suggests that moral values placed on poor-maternities are sometimes used unfairly as a justification for reproductive-intervention and revocation of full-citizenship for poor, indigenous women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Peruvian government's Law N. 27811, an intellectual property law passed in 2002 and designed to register and protect traditional knowledge, provides productive opportunities for critical analysis. Framed within the trajectory of international intellectual property rights and discussions that complicate the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into Cartesian scientific frameworks, this paper critically examines how the Peruvian law has been implemented and its impacts in Indigenous communities, particularly in the Andean Amazon region. The analysis is based on the author's work assisting Indigenous communities in San Martin register their knowledge through this law. While the law represents an advanced legal attempt to address power inequalities, it remains problematic. It does not address the impoverishment of Indigenous Peoples and continues to subordinate Indigenous TEK to Cartesian science. Although it is a symbolic recognition of the value of Peruvian Indigenous Peoples, other mechanisms are still required to redress the long history of colonization and racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the narratives, dialogues and experiences of inmates and health personnel involved in an intervention funded by the Global Fund to reduce tuberculosis rates in Peruvian prisons. It seeks to answer two main questions: How is it discussed and who has the responsibility for care of the disease in this intervention? It is based on an ethnography conducted in 2006 in Lurigancho, the most overcrowded prison in Peru. The study shows that, contrary to what interventionists affirm, most of the inmates can reproduce the biomedical versions of the disease's etiology in their own terms and without major problems. It was found that intervention discourse holds the patient solely responsible for his health condition; obscuring other equally important social and economic factors. It is argued that many public health policies have taken on a reductionist nature since they have begun to be based upon liberal economic assumptions. As a consequence of this process, certain diseases and types of patients or social groups are considered as morally reprehensible and punishable. It is concluded that it is essential to explore the communication ideology behind any intervention or public health policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes some ideas regarding the history of the Quyllurit'i pilgrimage by paying close attention to the particularities of the wayri ch'unchu ritual dance. After reviewing the available historic evidence about it, the text proposes that the location of the shrine at the bottom of the Qulqipunku glacier (Ocongate, Cusco) is explained by its liminal position between the Andean highlands and the Amazon. The location of the Qulqipunku, and its difference with the Ausangate, is very evident for the communities living in the surroundings of Qulqipunku. The text proposes that these communities were the main protagonists of the pilgrimage at least until the end of the 19th century. The paper explains why the wayri ch'unchu dancers of these communities -highlanders who represent indigenous peoples of the Amazon- were so important and numerous in the past. Finally, the text shows how the continuous grow of the pilgrimage along the 20th century has meant a progressive marginalization of these communities within the pilgrimage as well as a clear decrease in the preponderance of wayri ch'unchu dancers. The decrease is directly related to attempts to subvert ideologies of social differentiation present in the region that are framed in a broader and ongoing process of de-indianization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to think about the dynamics between social labour relationships and the religious believes in Peruvian mining on the basis of anthropological analysis of data collected among Julcani miners (Huancavelica) and Canta artisanal miners (Sierra of Lima) . Julcani miners are observed in two different socioeconomic contexts, one of modernization and technological development, and another of mine closure. Canta artisanal miners are also observed in two different periods, one before and the other after the installation in the zone of a mineral trade company. It can be stated that the apparition of «evil» believes in miner's religious system corresponds to the expansion and intensification of capitalist labour relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the decades of the 1950's and 1960's, several communities of Peru's central coastal area, well-known examples being Acos and Huayopampa (Chancay Valley, Huaral), converted from subsistence production systems to fruit growing, economically more profitable. This occurred in Putinza, the community discussed in this paper. Around 1955 it shifted to cultivating fruit and replaced multicropping with monoculture, articulated to the urban markets of Cañete and Lima. This research, which combines field work with a diachronic and synchronic vision and draws on comparative studies of peasant economies, seeks to explain the factors that facilitated this articulation in the early 1960's. Among the factors that influenced this process are the ecological advantages the community enjoyed, its openness to change, its relative closeness to large urban centers, the existence of roads and infrastructure, and market advantages in terms of prices and the growing consumer demand for fruit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes changes in community governance in the context of negotiations with a mining company. We focus on three issues: the role played by the community government on the regulation of community resources and territory, the diverse and complex interests that emerge in the presence of mining activity; and, the community as a political institution confronting external pressures over its land. We develop a study case focusing on the negotiation process between the Michiquillay peasant community and Anglo American Mining Company in Cajamarca, Peru. This information was obtained doing fieldwork in the community in 2009. In our analysis we observe that changes on community resources regulation, its uses and valorization, as well as changes on the balance of power between economic and political actors, have created a greater level of complexity in the community, creating new levels of community decision and spaces for disputing resources' control. At the same time, new inter communal conflicts emerge and fragmentation of community lands increases. In this context the community as an institution plays a central role in the negotiation process over access productive resource and the distribution of financial capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Quechua offerings in the South of Peru are banquets dedicated to the Pachamama and the Apus, and at the same time, are elaborated mathematical systems controlled by sophisticated operations. Using two principal numbers, 3 and 4, the religious specialist is capable of transmitting polysemic messages. Through the number 3, the religious specialist refers to the people, landscapes and mountains, in sum, to «persons» able to interact among themselves. The number 3 appears in the k'intus, composed of coca leaves, also in the prayers said during the process of the offering ritual. On the contrary, the number 4 does not indicate relationships but spatial forms: it is a geometrical operator that is constructed of the ceremonial square napkin (unk'uña) and paper in which the offering is completely wrapped to make the offering a miniature world, containing the «four directions of the world.» Using these numbers, the religious specialist can recreate the cosmos, establish covenants with the gods and define new situations favorable to the life of Quechuas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the principal purposes of Q'eros music is to actively regenerate and re-create good relationships with the cosmos and the spirit world they believe in. In this paper, I explore how both the Q'eros' indigenous songs as well as their newly-adopted music and dance for Peru's largest pilgrimage, Qoyllurit'i, achieve efficacy of purpose through similar techniques of sound production and aesthetics. Even though the specific musical traits (structure, scale, and instrumentation) of both musical styles are significantly different, I address how Q'eros' musical production of both types share the same focus and serve the same end-goals, whether the ritual is an intimate one within the community or shared with thousands of other people from the greater region. In addition, the performance of both styles of music serve as specific identity markers for the Q'eros depending on their contextual use and the identity desired at the time. In other words, the Q'eros' musical choices allow them to shift identities between traditional Q'eros in their home community and misti (mestizo) in Qoyllurit'i. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork I conducted between January and March of 2007 in a small rural village on the north coast of Peru as part of the research for my Master's Degree thesis. It addresses the ways that the rural youth give their own school experience. During the fieldwork, I lived in Chaquira for two months and conducted 18 in depth interviews with young people. I also visited the local high school and had informal conversations with different demographic groups in the village, mainly young parents (between 30 and 45 years old). Based on a definition of citizenship and a description of the youth's every day life, this paper analyzes the processes of exclusion, not only as a structural problem, but also as the situation of internal oppression within a determined social space. The objective is to think about social space of rural youth as spaces that enable or hinder the formation of participatory citizens. For this reason, I focuse on the aspects of school experiences and on social factors that contribute to the construction and exercise of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a paleographic transcription of two original documents of the Archivum Romanum Societat Jesu (ARSI) in Rome, referred to the death of Jesuit Priest Pablo Joseph de Arriaga in a province of Peru. The first document has been extracted from the section called Fondo Gesuita: Elogia Defunctorum (1621-1622,1623). Busta 115, III,3. The second document is part of the Peru section, volume Peru 21: Vida de los difuntos desta Prov.a del Peru (Life of the Dead in this Province of Peru). 2.a. Via Citanse en carta n. 22, written in Italian of the XVII century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers and analyses a selection of pictures -with special emphasis on those representing urban scenes- from the photographic collection of TAFOS' Social Photography Workshop. Its main purpose is to highlight some important issues in contemporary discussion about anthropology in general and visual anthropology in particular: (1) theoretical and methodological issues and aspects associated with the experience developed by TAFOS in the field of visual anthropology, and (2) the role that these pictures may have in the construction of Lima's collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]