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Peru CULTURE, CLASS, AND HIERARCHY IN SOCIETY
A large part of Peru's complicated modern social system
started with the hierarchical principles set down in
colonial
times that remain as powerful guidelines for intergroup
and
interpersonal behavior. Peru's ethnic composition,
however, is
mixed. In the early 1990s, Europeans of various background
made
up 15 percent of the population, Asians from Japan and
China and
Africans formed 3 percent, the mestizo population
constituted 37
percent, and the native Americans made up 45 percent,
according
to various United States and British reference sources.
However,
it is difficult to judge the composition of the native
population
because census data have generally undercounted or
frequently
failed to identify ethnic groups successfully. Even using
language as the primary criterion does not take
bilingualism
adequately into account and omits other aspects of
cultural
behavior altogether. Thus, although Cajamarca Department
is 98-
percent Spanish-speaking, the bulk of the rural population
lives
in a manner identical to those classified as native people
because they speak Quechua. The question as to who is a
native
has been an oft-debated issue. But how the individual
chooses to
classify his or her cultural identity is determined by the
forces
of society that give ethnic terms their social meaning.
Because
of Peruvian society's longstanding negative attitudes and
practices toward native peoples, persons who have become
socially
mobile seek to change their public identity and hence
learning
Spanish becomes critical. Denial of the ability to speak
Quechua,
Aymara, or other native languages often accompanies the
switch.
Another separate dimension of the "Indian problem" so
widely
discussed by Peruvian essayists has to do with the natives
living
in the Selva and high Selva, or Montaña, regions of the
country.
The tribal peoples have a tenuous and generally unhappy
relationship with Peruvians and the state, evolved from
long
experience along the tropical frontier. The Incas and
their
predecessors ventured only into the fringes of the region
called
Antisuyu, and the Spanish followed their pattern. The
inhabitants
were known collectively as savages (chunchos). In
documents they are politely referred to as jungle people
(selvícolas or selváticos). Thought to be
savage,
wild, and dangerous but usually described as "simple" and
innocent, they are also widely considered to possess
uncanny
powers of witchcraft and healing. Here, the
sixteenth-century
concept of the "noble savage" vies with equally old
notions that
these are lazy, useless people who need to get out of the
way of
progress. Indeed, modern currents of developmental change,
the
expanding drug trade, oil exploration, the clearing of the
forest, and the search for gold in Madre de Dios
Department have
placed native peoples under great pressures for which they
are
little prepared. The Selva tribes, like native
highlanders,
Afro-Peruvians, and other people "of color," are those who
feel
the discriminatory power of the colonial legacy as well as
modern
stresses, especially if they are poor. In demographic
terms, the
impact of poverty and oppression has been, and remains,
considerable. Thus, the mortality rates of native peoples
and
especially their children are much higher than those of
the
general population. Tribal peoples are still widely
susceptible
to numerous uncontrolled infectious diseases and outside
the
religious missions have little or no access to scientific
medical
care.
The tribal peoples of the lower Selva along the major
rivers
have endured the stress and danger of contact with outside
forces
longer than those groups located at the upper reaches of
the
streams. It is in these "refuge areas" that most of the
present
tribal populations survive
(see fig. 6).
More than any
other
sector of the population, the rural peoples of the Selva,
and
especially the tribal groups, live at the fringe of the
state
both literally and figuratively, being uncounted,
unserved, and
vulnerable to those who would use the area as their own.
According to anthropologist Stéfano Varese, there are
about 50
tribes numbering an estimated 250,000 persons and
maintaining
active communities, scattered principally throughout the
departments of Loreto, Amazonas, Ucayali, Huánuco, and
Madre de
Dios. The national census, however, has lowered its
estimates
from 100,830 in 1961 to 30,000 in 1981 for the tribal
peoples,
even though field studies have not supported such
conclusions.
In the Selva, tribal lands in the early 1990s were in
even
more jeopardy than the Quechua and Aymara farmland in the
Sierra.
Although community rights were acknowledged, if not
respected, in
the Andes, outsiders have virtually never accepted this
fact in
the case of the Amazonian peoples. Nevertheless,
apparently many
tribal societies, such as the Shipibo, have held their
traditional hunting, fishing, and swidden lands in
continuous
usufruct for as long as 2,000 years. As a result of the
land
reforms under the Velasco government, however, laws
established
the land rights of Amazonian native communities.
Consequently,
some groups, such as the Cocama-Cocamilla, have been able
to
secure their agroecological base.
The Afro-Peruvians who came as slaves with the first
wave of
conquest remained in that position until released from it
by
Marshal Ramón Castilla (1845-51, 1855-62) in 1854. During
their
long colonial experience, many Afro-Peruvians, especially
the
mulattos and others of mixed racial parentage, were freed
to
assume working-class roles in the coastal valleys. Even
fewer
blacks than Europeans settled in the highland towns and
for
virtually all the colonial epoch remained concentrated in
the
central coastal valleys. Lima's colonial population was 50
percent African during much of the era. Indeed, the term
"criollo" was originally identified with native-born
blacks and
acquired much of its special meaning in association with
urban,
streetwise behavior. The social status of blacks in many
ways
paralleled that of the native Americans in rank and role
in
society.
Completing the human resource mix in Peru were the
immigrants
from Europe and Asia. The former arrived with the
advantages of
conquest; the latter arrived first as indentured laborers
and
later as Japanese and Taiwanese immigrants who pursued
careers in
truck farming, commerce, and business. The Chinese who
were
brought to Peru from Macao and other ports between 1849
and 1874
numbered about 90,000. The Chinese influx occurred in the
same
period as the United States' importation of Chinese
coolies, and
many of the latter were eventually shipped from San
Francisco to
Lima. Most Chinese eventually survived their indentures
and took
up residence in the coastal towns where they established
themselves as active storekeepers and businesspeople. The
growth
of the Japanese presence in Peru began early in the
twentieth
century and quietly increased over the 1970-90 period. In
1990
Japanese immigrants constituted the largest foreign group
in Peru
and were rapidly integrating into Peruvian culture,
gaining
positions from president (Fujimori) to popular folk singer
(the
"Little Princess from Yungay"). In the middle range of
Peruvian
class structure, the Chinese and especially the Japanese
have
achieved status and mobility in ways the native peoples
have not.
The key to understanding Peruvian society is to view
aspects
of its dynamic ethnoracial character as a set of variables
that
constantly interplays with socioeconomic factors
associated with
social class configurations. Thus, a native American might
acquire the Spanish language, a university education, a
large
amount of capital, and a cosmopolitan demeanor, but still
continue to be considered an indio (Indian) in many
circles and thus be an unacceptable associate or marital
companion. Yet, there is opportunity for socioeconomic
mobility
that permits ambitious individuals and families to ascend
the
hierarchy ranks in limited ways and via certain pathways.
Such
mobility is easier if one starts on the ladder as a
mestizo or a
foreigner, but especially if one is white.
Data as of September 1992
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