Down to earth: Race and substance in the andes

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-3050(97)00088-0Get rights and content

Abstract

The racial identities of Indians and mestizos in a highland Peruvian region are closely associated with their relative positions to the earth. The agricultural Indians are closer to the earth and the town-dwelling mestizos are further from it. This distinction is maintained and reinforced through the use of material objects in everyday life, especially earthen objects (adobe bricks, clay pots, dirt roads) and to earth-touching objects (shoes, floors). This distinction accords with the relativity and fluidity of racial identities of individuals. The origins of this notion are traced to political and religious ideology in colonial and postcolonial Peru.

References (30)

  • AllenC.J.
  • AndersonB.

    Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

    (1991)
  • ArnoldD.Y. et al.
  • de la CadenaM.

    ‘Las mujeres son mas indias’: etnicidad y género en una comunidad del Cusco

    Revista Andina

    (1991)
  • EliasN.
  • EliasN.
  • EscobarG.
  • FerroniM.A.

    The urban bias of peruvian food policy: consequences and alternatives

  • GadeD.W. et al.

    Chaquitaclla: the native footplough and its persistence in Central Andean agriculture

    Tools and Tillage

    (1972)
  • GoodyJ.
  • GoseP.

    Deathly Waters and Hungry Mountains: Agrarian Ritual and Class Formation in an Andean Town

    (1994)
  • GudemanS. et al.
  • HoyS.M.
  • IsbellB.J.
  • JohnssonM.

    Food and Culture among Bolivian Aymara: Symbolic Expressions of Social Relations

  • Cited by (0)

    View full text