Peru People and Preserved Culture

There are many reasons why Peruvians have been naturally divided since pre Columbian times. There are many natural boundaries between them from the deserts along the western coast line to the formidable Andean sierra mountains that rise nineteen thousand feet into the air. The majority of the territory in Peru compromises highlands in between the two. With these natural divide many problems were posed in the development and integration into a single society

The end result in this is a significant regional diversity, and an abundant quality of different services and standards of living. All across Peru there is a uneven distribution of services including health, education, and police coverage.

When we first look into the Peruvian culture, it seems significantly divided between the colonial and indigenous societies. This is where the divide is more significant between living in the cities and the mountains. In the colonial town the people can trace blood lines back to the original Spanish conquest of 1536. Like most that have come before them Lima is the most populated and where European visitors will feel most comfortable with the diversity of cafes and markets.

On the other side, Mountains rural communities dream of owning simple pleasures like televisions and blue jeans. This does come into conflict with tradition cultural values as well. The main cultural values that the mountainous culture has is they struggle to maintain a standard of living like there ancestors in a very divers and rapidly changing world. Most of them still own traditional family farms which they base their lively hood off of. The farms are or charkas are done by hand or with assistance from farm animals.

The social complexity of the rural communities in the Andes differs greatly from its European descendants. From work, marriage, and land ownership all is centered on the complex family structure called the ayllu which dates back to the ancient Inca times. One of the main objectives of the ayllu is the focus and organization of sharing work exchange.

Over the centuries, there has been a long integration of culture mixing; creating a mestizo which is a person is part European and part Indian heritage. Today most Peruvians would fall into this category. In Peru you can become a mestizo not only by birth but by choice. So socially the divisions in Peruvian society can the racially just as culturally defined.

The Andes have two large main groups; the larger of the two speaks a language called Quechua. The smaller of the groups speaks a language called Aymara and is settled to the south east of Bolivia around Lake Titicaca. Beyond these obvious traits there are a couple of others there is a group of Peruvians called Morochucos of Pampa who have lighter colored eyes and hair and speak a language called Quechua

The most dominate cultural class in the Andes is called Misti and they mostly speak the language of Queschua and share other cultural trait. They enjoy a more modern existence because of easier access to education, healthcare, and other luxuries. A little farther north in the middle of the Amazon jungle there are an additional 60 indigenous groups that are currently known. Each group of people carries there own traits and values that have been handed to them throughout the generations. They consist up to ten percent of the total population of Peru.

Peru also enjoys a modern history rich in cultural diversity. In the nineteenth century wealthy European land owners brought in African black slaves to work there lands and repress the local Indians. When the move from east to west started from China and Japan the owners used this cheap labor to build a modern railway through the Andes.

Most of the people that live in the mountainous regions of Peru live a harder than normal existence while battling poverty and being removed from modern amenities. While doing this they are retaining a unchanged loyalty to their devoted ancestral heritage. They are worldly identified to the outside world by their brightly colored homemade costumes, Yet they are still eager to share in the world modernized luxuries like education, electricity, sewage, and running water. But instead of improving these communities they are quickly disappearing due to the large scale migration to the suburbs of larger cites of Peru.

Peru also does have what would be comparable to the US middle class. But, still this set of people is not easily defined. With the convenience of modernization the middle class kind of took on its own life both in Lima and other Cities. The growth was due in large part to the diversification of the economy and to the expansion of the Peruvian state, both as a entrepreneur and the need for public services. Most if it started during the early 1070s due to the penetration of roads and mass communication began to reach a larger audience.

Today the largest city in Peru is Lima, the capitol which has become what is everything wrong with Peru. Because, most if not all government services and policies take effect in the city of Lima instead of spreading it out more evenly across the country. They are grossly inadequate to sustain Peru’s massive population of over seven million people from this one city.

One thing that is very noticeable in today Peruvian society is the reemergence of the informal economy. The national economy has shrunk in the last few years but has led to the abundance of market streets and corner neighborhood bartering for sustaining a quality of life. Ambulantes or street vendors are found on every corner of the city with which you can buy anything your heart desires.

Despite decades of political upheaval and social unrest, Peru can now be seen to be entering a more stable phase in its history. An increasing level of governmental consistency and growing economic strength has led to growing confidence from within.

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The Sacred Traditions of the Andean Culture of Peru

The rich and powerful spiritual legacy of the Andean civilization is only now being properly recognized after 500 years of obscurity. This article takes a look at some of these traditions. Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley hold Retreat programs in the Andes and Amazon where we work with many of the traditional shamans and healers.

The Mesa Nortena is a particular ceremonial tradition best conserved in the region of ‘Las Huaringas’, high and remote sacred lakes in the northern Department of Piura.

There are probably only a few good maestros who continue this ancient tradition in Peru today. The rest simply work with the externalities of the mesa, while giving their clients minimal doses of the visionary San Pedro cactus. Originally more importance was given to the medicine, which must be in the organism of the participants as well as the maestro for the power to flow. The mesa then served to intensify the power of the plant.

An altered state is needed to enter the symbolic world of the objects on the mesa (the word refers to the altar as well as the ceremony itself). The abundance of macerated plants, perfumes and smells employed in the mesa function to move the feelings associated with one’s memories. At a deep level, sensations are translated into vibrations which the medicine brings to consciousness so that associated hurt and pain can be ‘re-membered’ again and a new attitude can emerge.

The singado, or absorption of macerated tobacco juice through the nostrils involves another power medicine which is used to intensify the San Pedro at regular intervals. The instruction from the maestro to pour up the left or right nostril reflects the notion of duality found in shamanic disciplines all over the world: masculine and feminine, hot and cold, upper world and earth, expansion and contraction, flowing and stagnant. Illness arises from one of these polarities loosing equilibrium. The word singado comes from the Quechua word singa meaning nose and is perhaps an Andean notion of Pranayama!

The tendency to commercialize a tradition is inherent in urbanization and seeing things for their utility and business. For example mesas are sometimes held so that lawyers win legal battles. Piles of documents are laid on the mesa so that the power works on them and they win their case. In this way a shamanic ceremony is degraded to folklore. We can try to reconstruct the original tradition to how it was in pre-Colombian times and remove the images of Sarita Colonia and the other saints, crucifixes, photos etc., which have accumulated throughout the centuries and evolved the mesa into the mestizo tradition which survives today. Left behind are the ancient stones, magic plant brews and the enchanted waters of the lakes of Las Huaringas, being the original elements, which have survived underneath.

Ofrenda

An ‘ofrenda’ is the most important ceremony used by Andean Indians to relate with Mother Earth. The ofrenda is a symbol of reciprocity with nature and its purpose is to teach us to reproduce this attitude. Through it we speak back to nature saying we understand the message and concord.

The ofrenda which is also known in Spanish as a ‘pago’, is not

a ‘payment’ to nature as the Conquistadores saw it, implying a sinister pact with nature spirits. Additionally, they accused the Indians of being miserly because they preferred to pay symbolically rather than with real money!

An ofrenda is an expression of gratitude, not of debt or obligation. Neither is it selfish to want things for ourselves as some people see it even today. It is true that urban people in Peru have started to make ofrendas for reasons such as wanting their businesses to flourish, but good business can equally imply good health, and harmony to the community and for the natural world.

In an Andean community realities are closer to earth than they are in the city, it is more important that the cattle do not die than to have more private possessions. Hence in the country there is a better understanding of the shamanic meaning of the ceremony, the re-establishing of relationship to nature. This is why we need a little preparation so that an ofrenda can work for us too.

Pachacuti

We live in a time of the fulfillment of an ancient Inca prophecy. This is the time of the new Pachacuti, a great change bringing with it a new relating to the Earth (Pachamama). Each Pachacuti is a era of time about 500 years. The last Pachacuti occurred with the Conquest in the early 16th century, and the Q’ero (Inca) priests have been waiting ever since for the next era, when order would start to emerge from chaos. The current Pachacuti refers to the end of time as we understand it, the end or death of a way of thinking and a way of being. A new relationship with the living Earth, and an emergence into a golden age of peace. There are many indications that changes in human consciousness are taking place, yet there is still a long way to go. The traditional ways can inform us and show how we can re-engage with the sacredness of life and the Earth so we too can more fully participate in the new Pachacuti.

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Peru has high maternal mortality rate, rights group says

Pregnant women in Peru are dying at scandalous rates, according to the author of an Amnesty International report into maternal mortality in the South American country.

The report, “Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru” found that hundreds of poor, rural and indigenous pregnant women are dying because they are being denied the same health services as other women in the country.

It also concluded that the government’s response to tackling the problem was inadequate.

Peruvian government figures state 185 in every 100,000 women die in childbirth, but the United Nations says the number is much higher, 240 per 100,000, which makes it one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas.

In wealthy developed nations, only nine women die for every 100,000 births.

The five main causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Peru are hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, infection, complications following abortion and obstructed birth, according to Peru’s Ministry of Health figures.

Amnesty’s Peru researcher Nuria Garcia said, in a written statement: “The rates of maternal mortality in Peru are scandalous. The fact that so many women are dying from preventable causes is a human rights violation.

“The Peruvian state is simply ignoring its obligation to provide adequate maternal health care to all women, regardless of who they are and where they live.”

Garcia added: “Health services for pregnant women in Peru are like a lottery: If you are poor and indigenous, the chances are you will always lose.”

The report said pregnant women in Peru die because they lack access to emergency obstetric care, to information on maternal health, and to health staff members who can speak Indigenous languages such as Quechua — a native Andean language spoken by some 5 million people in Peru.

According to the report, 27 percent of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes occurred during pregnancy; 26 percent occurred during the birth itself; and 46 percent during the first six weeks after giving birth.

A 2007 Census of Indigenous People showed that 60 percent did not have access to a health facility, said Amnesty International.

The Amnesty International report notes that the Peruvian government has instituted policies aimed at reducing the rates of maternal mortality, such as increasing maternal waiting houses — rooms where pregnant women who live far from health centers can stay. Other measures include more training for health staff members on the vertical birth method common among indigenous women and teaching the Quiche language to health professionals, Amnesty International said.

But the human rights group said Peruvian women and health professionals have complained that the measures are not being implemented effectively. For example, the rights group said, even though the number of waiting houses has increased more than threefold in the past eight years, only half of them are in rural areas.

The agency also contends that training for health professionals on the vertical birth method is not sufficiently widespread. According to Peru’s Human Rights ombudsperson, more than 45 percent of health staff last year said they had not received appropriate training, Amnesty International said.

“Official initiatives to reduce maternal mortality are good news,” Garcia said. “However, lack of clear responsibilities for implementing them and the absence of effective resourcing and monitoring puts any initiative in great jeopardy.”

Though Peru’s rate of maternal deaths is high, it pales in comparison to sub-Saharan Africa, which has about 900 deaths for each 100,000 births, the United Nations says. For Africa as a whole, the number is 820. The highest rates were in Sierra Leone, with 2,000, and Afghanistan, with 1,900.

Latin America and the Caribbean average 130 deaths per 100,000 births, the United Nations says, with the lowest rates in Chile, Costa Rica and Cuba.

Worldwide, there were an average of 400 deaths for each 100,000 births in the year 2000, the United Nations says. The lowest rates were in Iceland, with zero, and Austria, with four per 100,000 births.

The United States had 11 deaths per 100,000 births in 2005, the United Nations says.

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Peru bus collision kills 23 near Lake Titicaca

Two buses crashed head-on Thursday on a mountain road near Lake Titicaca in Peru, killing at least 23 people and injuring 50 more, police said.

The morning crash occurred in the Santa Lucia district, about an hour’s drive from Lake Titicaca high in the Andes, a Puno state highway police officer told The Associated Press by phone.

The officer requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the crash.

Emergency crews said there could be as many as four more people still trapped in the wreckage, the officer said. Fourteen of the dead were identified, all of them Peruvians.

The buses belonged to the Julsa and Destinos transport companies, which operate daily interstate buses in the remote southeastern part of Peru.

Deadly bus crashes are common in Peru, where domestic routes are loosely regulated and highways are poorly maintained.

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Peru's indigenous people win one round over developers

Logging and other activities ruin tribal lands and set off protests that lead to the revocation of laws to further open the Amazon to outsiders. ‘The Indians beat them by a knockout,’ one analyst says

Peruvian tribal leader Luis Pizango says private investment in his part of the Amazon has brought only misery to him and his people.

Deforestation by loggers ruined tribal hunting grounds. An oil spill in the nearby Corrientes River diminished fishing. A 10,000-acre African palm plantation to produce biofuels displaced dozens of families. And a government plan to build a port facility on the Huallaga River to ease trade with Brazil stands to limit his people’s access to the waterway.
The Shawi indigenous people in northeastern Peru have many reasons for bitterness, Pizango, who is apu, or chief, of the group, said last week at a roadblock set up a few miles west of Yurimaguas to protest government policies.
“It’s been a long trajectory of abuse,” Pizango said. “We got tired of it.”

He and others had blocked the main road leading to Peru’s interior with tree stumps and rocks and set up makeshift tents with plastic sheeting along the highway shoulders. The surrounding terrain of Loreto province was a rolling green moonscape that long ago had been clear-cut by loggers.

Then, in a development celebrated as a victory for indigenous groups, Peru’s Congress last week voted to revoke two laws enacted last year to further open the Amazon to mining, oil and timber development. The measures had enraged indigenous groups and led to a bloody confrontation June 5 in Bagua that officials said left 10 civilians and 23 police officers dead, with one officer missing and presumed dead.

Like Pizango’s group, the indigenous people in Bagua were protesting decrees President Alan Garcia signed last year that gave foreign companies the right to take title to Amazonian land and facilitated their acquisition of road building rights of way. In addition to roadblocks, enraged tribes in the Amazon and in the Andean highlands closed an oil pipeline and took over two provincial airports after launching coordinated protests in early April.

The violence tarnished Peru’s image abroad and forced Peruvians to confront what some analysts described as indigenous peoples’ second-class status in society and politics. Indigenous people represent about 5% to 25% of the population based on various estimates and largely consider themselves underrepresented in Congress.
Garcia, who signed the decrees without formal consultation with native groups, has been criticized for his handling of the matter.

“We’ve all learned a lot the last two weeks,” said economist and analyst Augusto Alvarez Rodrich. “Especially the government. The Indians beat them by a knockout.”

Although Garcia initially blamed the Indians and unnamed foreign agitators for the killings, he since has been more conciliatory. Congress acted after Garcia went on national TV last week to acknowledge errors and “obstinacy” and call for the two laws to be repealed.

Shortly after the June 18 vote, Peru’s largest indigenous umbrella group, known by its Spanish initials AIDESEP, called for all roadblocks to end. Many of the blockades, including Pizango’s, were lifted by Friday afternoon, but unrest continued in some areas.

Although the government conceded points to the tribes, some of the groups said it would take more than the revocation of two laws to mollify them. Pizango said last week that his group wanted a half dozen other decrees revoked.

Prime Minister Yehude Simon, who has offered to resign, said the government may form a national commission to foster reconciliation.

“Sadly, it seems to take violence for Peru to know itself, and we’ve learned we’ve made some big mistakes from not listening,” Simon said. “We know we are very behind from where we should be, but the president is committed to making up for lost time.”

Richard Chase Smith, executive director of Common Good Foundation, a Lima-based group that promotes indigenous civil rights, said Peru lags far behind other Latin American nations.

“Peruvians have been forced to come face to face with the fact that indigenous are largely invisible, a condition that will take two or three more generations to fix,” Chase Smith said.

Since the Bagua incident, Garcia has come under intense criticism for, at best, insensitive rhetoric in reference to indigenous people before and after the deaths. He compared them to “garden watchdogs” who defend food, meaning Amazonian resources, that “they don’t eat nor let others eat.”

Garcia is taking additional heat for his support of foreign investment in mining, petroleum and timber as the key to Peru’s economic development. He described the laws that the indigenous object to, including the two that were revoked, as essential in meeting criteria for a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. that went into effect in January.

The president has insisted that facilitating foreign investment in the Amazon would bring order and formality to a region where illegal wood cutting and gold mining are rampant. He has also framed privatization of the Amazon as a means of fighting drug traffickers because it would add to the government’s presence.

Garcia’s push for dozens of decrees last year, many of them having to do with natural resources, has highlighted Indians’ lack of participation in policy issues that affect them.

Pizango said the gulf separating the Garcia government and the indigenous community remains wide.
“We are flexible. But we don’t trust the government,” Pizango said. “It has shown it’s ready to settle disputes by force and not through dialogue. And we have shown we will stand up for our rights.”

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