ANTHROPOLOGY: Peru's Indians

Peru specialist David Scott Palmer knows the highlands well, having long been based in Ayacucho. He writes:

1. Indians - So many changes and cross pressures in the highlands. And so much outside assistance, from government agencies and/or NGOs. Result to date --in general terms -- is not growing ethnic identification, but more and more connection to the non-Indian world. Unlike Ecuador, for example, no significant organization, to date, on grounds of Indianness. The highland violence engendered by Shining Path and the police/military has tempered any autonomous organizing capacity by Indians and has undermined their traditional identifications (in Ayacucho, fully one third of all casualties in the 1980-1994 conflict occurred there -- almost 11,000, and about the same proportion of the total population was forced from their rural communities -- about 180,000.). This puts a real damper on organizing as Indians. The political context is not favorable either -- political organizations, whether parties or interest groups, not fostered or encouraged.

2. Toledo -- A flawed opposition candidate, but the best that could be offered. No Haya because no party, though origins comparable, as well as extended foreign experience. No real ideology either. Likely to fade as his inability to organize an opposition force (as distinct from mobilize) becomes more apparent.

3. APRA -- A shadow of its former self, largely the result of the Garcia debacle, from which it has yet to recover, as well as the systematic undermining of organized political alternatives by the Fujimori government. But still the only real party left, and could possibly regenerate itself.Certainly worth a visit!

4. IEP and Carlos Ivan Degregori. He's back there and working away, so by all means get in a visit there as well. As astute a political observer on local and ethnicity as there is in Peru at this time.

5. Indian identity may be out, but good old fashioned racism is still a part of the fabric of Peruvian society, sadly.