Nicholas P. Cushner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195307566
- eISBN:
- 9780199784936
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195307569.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book tells the story of how the 16th-century religious conquerors of America attempted to change the belief systems of the Native Americans. To what degree did they succeed or fail? And why? The ...
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This book tells the story of how the 16th-century religious conquerors of America attempted to change the belief systems of the Native Americans. To what degree did they succeed or fail? And why? The European protagonists and frontline representatives of the new religion in the spiritual struggles were the Jesuits (members of the Society of Jesus) who, although latecomers to America, soon became the most vocal and visible spokespersons. Invasion and military power are nothing new to minority societies. But how did they handle the waves of spiritual conquerors that came ashore in the 16th century? “Why have you come here?” are the words of a Florida Indian chief to a Jesuit missionary. The reply enlightens and at the same time demonstrates the renaissance certainty of the Europeans. From their first encounters with the Indians of La Florida, through Mexico, New France, the Paraguay Reductions, Andean Peru, to contact with Native Americans in pre-revolutionary Maryland, the Jesuits were ubiquitous in North and South America, with missions, preaching, and public theater, with the goal of changing what the Native American thought about God. Drawing on an abundance of primary material, the book also integrates the latest in published scholarship. The Jesuit Archives of Rome, the Archivo de Indias, Seville, besides those in Madrid and South America, have been tapped to throw light on the spiritual conquest of America.Less
This book tells the story of how the 16th-century religious conquerors of America attempted to change the belief systems of the Native Americans. To what degree did they succeed or fail? And why? The European protagonists and frontline representatives of the new religion in the spiritual struggles were the Jesuits (members of the Society of Jesus) who, although latecomers to America, soon became the most vocal and visible spokespersons. Invasion and military power are nothing new to minority societies. But how did they handle the waves of spiritual conquerors that came ashore in the 16th century? “Why have you come here?” are the words of a Florida Indian chief to a Jesuit missionary. The reply enlightens and at the same time demonstrates the renaissance certainty of the Europeans. From their first encounters with the Indians of La Florida, through Mexico, New France, the Paraguay Reductions, Andean Peru, to contact with Native Americans in pre-revolutionary Maryland, the Jesuits were ubiquitous in North and South America, with missions, preaching, and public theater, with the goal of changing what the Native American thought about God. Drawing on an abundance of primary material, the book also integrates the latest in published scholarship. The Jesuit Archives of Rome, the Archivo de Indias, Seville, besides those in Madrid and South America, have been tapped to throw light on the spiritual conquest of America.
Kurt Weyland
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199226801
- eISBN:
- 9780191710285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226801.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Pensions and Pension Management
This chapter analyzes the decision-making process surrounding pension reform in Latin America. It argues decision to emulate the Chilean model did not follow the procedures of full, ‘economic’ ...
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This chapter analyzes the decision-making process surrounding pension reform in Latin America. It argues decision to emulate the Chilean model did not follow the procedures of full, ‘economic’ rationality. Rather they were shaped by shortcuts of bounded rationality. Instead of proactively scanning the international environment for the relevant information, experts and policymakers mostly reacted to information about Chilean-style privatization that happened to be available to them. Rather than conducting systematic, balanced, cost-benefit analyses of this innovation, many of them were overly impressed by the initial success of Chile's private pension funds and used associative reasoning in depicting social security privatization as the main cause for the dramatic increase in domestic savings and productive investment and the resulting growth boom experienced by Chile. Furthermore, instead of thoroughly adapting the Chilean import to their own country's requirements, decision-makers in a number of countries stayed strikingly close to the original. Thus, these pension reformers did not apply the principles of comprehensive rationality, but displayed the three principal shortcuts documented by cognitive psychologists in innumerable experiments and field studies: the heuristics of availability, representativeness, and anchoring.Less
This chapter analyzes the decision-making process surrounding pension reform in Latin America. It argues decision to emulate the Chilean model did not follow the procedures of full, ‘economic’ rationality. Rather they were shaped by shortcuts of bounded rationality. Instead of proactively scanning the international environment for the relevant information, experts and policymakers mostly reacted to information about Chilean-style privatization that happened to be available to them. Rather than conducting systematic, balanced, cost-benefit analyses of this innovation, many of them were overly impressed by the initial success of Chile's private pension funds and used associative reasoning in depicting social security privatization as the main cause for the dramatic increase in domestic savings and productive investment and the resulting growth boom experienced by Chile. Furthermore, instead of thoroughly adapting the Chilean import to their own country's requirements, decision-makers in a number of countries stayed strikingly close to the original. Thus, these pension reformers did not apply the principles of comprehensive rationality, but displayed the three principal shortcuts documented by cognitive psychologists in innumerable experiments and field studies: the heuristics of availability, representativeness, and anchoring.
Eliana Carranza and Eduardo Morón
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199226801
- eISBN:
- 9780191710285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226801.003.0014
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Pensions and Pension Management
This chapter analyzes pension reform in Peru. Peru's reform introduced private savings accounts while maintaining a fiscally unsustainable public pillar that must eventually be fixed. A number of ...
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This chapter analyzes pension reform in Peru. Peru's reform introduced private savings accounts while maintaining a fiscally unsustainable public pillar that must eventually be fixed. A number of factors led to the slow acceptance of the new system, including the fact that workers had more incentive to remain in the old PAYGO system, which offered a lower contribution rate, a lower retirement age, and a minimum pension guarantee. However, eventual adjustments allowed the new system to compete more effectively for workers. The performance of the Peruvian system with respect to investment, fees, competition, and coverage is analyzed, and it is argued that reducing political interference is crucial to its future success.Less
This chapter analyzes pension reform in Peru. Peru's reform introduced private savings accounts while maintaining a fiscally unsustainable public pillar that must eventually be fixed. A number of factors led to the slow acceptance of the new system, including the fact that workers had more incentive to remain in the old PAYGO system, which offered a lower contribution rate, a lower retirement age, and a minimum pension guarantee. However, eventual adjustments allowed the new system to compete more effectively for workers. The performance of the Peruvian system with respect to investment, fees, competition, and coverage is analyzed, and it is argued that reducing political interference is crucial to its future success.
Jo‐Marie Burt
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198781837
- eISBN:
- 9780191598968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198781830.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
In the early 1990s, the rural‐based Maoist guerrilla organization, know as Shining Path, held Lima virtually under siege. The capture of the movement's leader by the Fujimori government in 1992 ...
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In the early 1990s, the rural‐based Maoist guerrilla organization, know as Shining Path, held Lima virtually under siege. The capture of the movement's leader by the Fujimori government in 1992 effectively undermined the movement's activities. The question remains, however, as to why Shining Path generated so much support in Lima's shantytowns. Are poor people more willing to support violent political alternatives? This study argues that subaltern groups in Peru continually negotiate relationships with a range of political actors, from populist presidents to leftist organizations. It looks beyond Shining Path's use of terror and intimidation to its provision of material and symbolic goods. Within the shantytowns, the absence of state services, extreme poverty, growing crime, and insecurity and weak local institutions to mediate conflict made Shining Path's tactics seem as an effective means of restoring social order and imparting social justice. The group failed to develop long‐term political ties. When the state targeted the shantytowns with increased services and provided a security, Shining Path lost support among popular sectors.Less
In the early 1990s, the rural‐based Maoist guerrilla organization, know as Shining Path, held Lima virtually under siege. The capture of the movement's leader by the Fujimori government in 1992 effectively undermined the movement's activities. The question remains, however, as to why Shining Path generated so much support in Lima's shantytowns. Are poor people more willing to support violent political alternatives? This study argues that subaltern groups in Peru continually negotiate relationships with a range of political actors, from populist presidents to leftist organizations. It looks beyond Shining Path's use of terror and intimidation to its provision of material and symbolic goods. Within the shantytowns, the absence of state services, extreme poverty, growing crime, and insecurity and weak local institutions to mediate conflict made Shining Path's tactics seem as an effective means of restoring social order and imparting social justice. The group failed to develop long‐term political ties. When the state targeted the shantytowns with increased services and provided a security, Shining Path lost support among popular sectors.
Cecilia Blondet
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199256457
- eISBN:
- 9780191601989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256454.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter examines the ways women from different social and political groups gained national prominence in Peru during the Fujimori administration. It argues that the political interests of the ...
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This chapter examines the ways women from different social and political groups gained national prominence in Peru during the Fujimori administration. It argues that the political interests of the President led to increased contact with a wide range of professional women and social leaders, whose interests overlapped with his. These women learned to operate within the confines of the authoritarian regime, and became important players in a political arena characterized by disorder and weak institutions.Less
This chapter examines the ways women from different social and political groups gained national prominence in Peru during the Fujimori administration. It argues that the political interests of the President led to increased contact with a wide range of professional women and social leaders, whose interests overlapped with his. These women learned to operate within the confines of the authoritarian regime, and became important players in a political arena characterized by disorder and weak institutions.
David Beresford-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264768
- eISBN:
- 9780191754005
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264768.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This book presents an archaeological case of prehistoric human environmental impact: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 750 bc and ...
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This book presents an archaeological case of prehistoric human environmental impact: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 750 bc and culminating in a collapse during the Middle Horizon, around ad 900. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley — today depopulated and bereft of cultivation and yet with archaeological remains attesting to substantial prehistoric occupations — thereby presenting a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. Previous archaeological interpretations of cultural changes in the region rely heavily on climatic factors such as El Niño floods and long droughts. While the archaeological, geomorphological, and archaeobotanical records presented here do indeed include new evidence of huge ancient flood events, they also demonstrate the significance of more gradual, human-induced destruction of Prosopis pallida (huarango) riparian dry-forest. The huarango is a remarkable leguminous hardwood that lives for over a millennium and provides forage, fuel, and food. Moreover, it is crucial to the integration of a fragile desert ecosystem, enhancing microclimate and soil fertility and moisture. Its removal exposed this landscape to the effects of El Niño climatic perturbations long before Europeans arrived in Peru. This case study therefore contradicts the popular perception that Native Americans inflicted barely perceptible disturbance upon a New World Eden. Yet, it also records correlations between changes in society and degrees of human environmental impact. These allow inferences about the specific contexts in which significant human environmental impacts in the New World did, and did not, arise.Less
This book presents an archaeological case of prehistoric human environmental impact: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 750 bc and culminating in a collapse during the Middle Horizon, around ad 900. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley — today depopulated and bereft of cultivation and yet with archaeological remains attesting to substantial prehistoric occupations — thereby presenting a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. Previous archaeological interpretations of cultural changes in the region rely heavily on climatic factors such as El Niño floods and long droughts. While the archaeological, geomorphological, and archaeobotanical records presented here do indeed include new evidence of huge ancient flood events, they also demonstrate the significance of more gradual, human-induced destruction of Prosopis pallida (huarango) riparian dry-forest. The huarango is a remarkable leguminous hardwood that lives for over a millennium and provides forage, fuel, and food. Moreover, it is crucial to the integration of a fragile desert ecosystem, enhancing microclimate and soil fertility and moisture. Its removal exposed this landscape to the effects of El Niño climatic perturbations long before Europeans arrived in Peru. This case study therefore contradicts the popular perception that Native Americans inflicted barely perceptible disturbance upon a New World Eden. Yet, it also records correlations between changes in society and degrees of human environmental impact. These allow inferences about the specific contexts in which significant human environmental impacts in the New World did, and did not, arise.
Michael Laffan and Max Weiss (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153599
- eISBN:
- 9781400845248
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153599.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Fear is ubiquitous but slippery. It has been defined as a purely biological reality, derided as an excuse for cowardice, attacked as a force for social control, and even denigrated as an unnatural ...
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Fear is ubiquitous but slippery. It has been defined as a purely biological reality, derided as an excuse for cowardice, attacked as a force for social control, and even denigrated as an unnatural condition that has no place in the disenchanted world of enlightened modernity. In these times of institutionalized insecurity and global terror, this book sheds light on the meaning, diversity, and dynamism of fear in multiple world-historical contexts, and demonstrates how fear universally binds us to particular presents but also to a broad spectrum of memories, stories, and states in the past. From the eighteenth-century Peruvian highlands and the California borderlands to the urban cityscapes of contemporary Russia and India, the book collectively explores the wide range of causes, experiences, and explanations of this protean emotion. It contributes to the thriving literature on the history of emotions and destabilizes narratives that have often understood fear in very specific linguistic, cultural, and geographical settings. Rather, by using a comparative, multidisciplinary framework, the book situates fear in more global terms, breaks new ground in the historical and cultural analysis of emotions, and sets out a new agenda for further research.Less
Fear is ubiquitous but slippery. It has been defined as a purely biological reality, derided as an excuse for cowardice, attacked as a force for social control, and even denigrated as an unnatural condition that has no place in the disenchanted world of enlightened modernity. In these times of institutionalized insecurity and global terror, this book sheds light on the meaning, diversity, and dynamism of fear in multiple world-historical contexts, and demonstrates how fear universally binds us to particular presents but also to a broad spectrum of memories, stories, and states in the past. From the eighteenth-century Peruvian highlands and the California borderlands to the urban cityscapes of contemporary Russia and India, the book collectively explores the wide range of causes, experiences, and explanations of this protean emotion. It contributes to the thriving literature on the history of emotions and destabilizes narratives that have often understood fear in very specific linguistic, cultural, and geographical settings. Rather, by using a comparative, multidisciplinary framework, the book situates fear in more global terms, breaks new ground in the historical and cultural analysis of emotions, and sets out a new agenda for further research.
David Beresford-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264768
- eISBN:
- 9780191754005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264768.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to present a new archaeological case for prehistoric human impact on the environment: a study of ecological and cultural change ...
More
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to present a new archaeological case for prehistoric human impact on the environment: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 700 bc and culminating in a collapse by about ad 1000. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley, today largely depopulated and bereft of cultivation, but whose abundant archaeological remains attest to substantial prehistoric occupations and thereby present a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. This is a place of extreme environmental juxtaposition: one of the world's oldest and driest deserts, crossed by lush riverine oases, and sporadically impacted by El Niño floods or long droughts. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to present a new archaeological case for prehistoric human impact on the environment: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 700 bc and culminating in a collapse by about ad 1000. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley, today largely depopulated and bereft of cultivation, but whose abundant archaeological remains attest to substantial prehistoric occupations and thereby present a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. This is a place of extreme environmental juxtaposition: one of the world's oldest and driest deserts, crossed by lush riverine oases, and sporadically impacted by El Niño floods or long droughts. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
David Beresford-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264768
- eISBN:
- 9780191754005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264768.003.0002
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This chapter describes the area of interest — the basins of the lower Ica Valley on the Peruvian south coast — which lies within one of the world's oldest and driest deserts. It starts by examining ...
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This chapter describes the area of interest — the basins of the lower Ica Valley on the Peruvian south coast — which lies within one of the world's oldest and driest deserts. It starts by examining the causes of that desert's age and extreme aridity. It distinguishes the climate, geology, geomorphology, and hydrology of the south coast from the rest of the Peruvian coast. It goes on to explore those peculiarities of the south coast since they underlie the particular sensitivity of its human ecology. It also shows how our archaeological impressions of the south coast's ‘limitations’ are coloured by the effects of long human impact. In fact — thanks to those factors of climate and geomorphology explored here — its riparian valleys are among the most potentially productive in the world.Less
This chapter describes the area of interest — the basins of the lower Ica Valley on the Peruvian south coast — which lies within one of the world's oldest and driest deserts. It starts by examining the causes of that desert's age and extreme aridity. It distinguishes the climate, geology, geomorphology, and hydrology of the south coast from the rest of the Peruvian coast. It goes on to explore those peculiarities of the south coast since they underlie the particular sensitivity of its human ecology. It also shows how our archaeological impressions of the south coast's ‘limitations’ are coloured by the effects of long human impact. In fact — thanks to those factors of climate and geomorphology explored here — its riparian valleys are among the most potentially productive in the world.
David Beresford-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264768
- eISBN:
- 9780191754005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264768.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
The huarango are a species of the genus Prosopis, one of the most common plants found along the watercourses of New World deserts and members of a family of nitrogen-fixing, bean-producing plants — ...
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The huarango are a species of the genus Prosopis, one of the most common plants found along the watercourses of New World deserts and members of a family of nitrogen-fixing, bean-producing plants — the legumes — whose importance to humankind is second only to that of the cereal grasses and with which our relationship is even older. Today, perceptions of the genus are deeply divided between appreciation of its value on the one hand, and intense dislike of it as a thorny, invasive weed on the other. This chapter sifts through the reasons for this and a history of misidentification, in order to identify the particular characteristics of the huarango and, thereby, its true value as a human resource in the past. It suggests that thousands of years of co-evolution with humans have left their mark on the tree's form on the south coast of Peru.Less
The huarango are a species of the genus Prosopis, one of the most common plants found along the watercourses of New World deserts and members of a family of nitrogen-fixing, bean-producing plants — the legumes — whose importance to humankind is second only to that of the cereal grasses and with which our relationship is even older. Today, perceptions of the genus are deeply divided between appreciation of its value on the one hand, and intense dislike of it as a thorny, invasive weed on the other. This chapter sifts through the reasons for this and a history of misidentification, in order to identify the particular characteristics of the huarango and, thereby, its true value as a human resource in the past. It suggests that thousands of years of co-evolution with humans have left their mark on the tree's form on the south coast of Peru.
David Beresford-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264768
- eISBN:
- 9780191754005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264768.003.0008
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This chapter considers the subtler role of Prosopis in underpinning a fragile desert ecology. It is perhaps difficult to exaggerate the dominance of this genus within its desert environments, ...
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This chapter considers the subtler role of Prosopis in underpinning a fragile desert ecology. It is perhaps difficult to exaggerate the dominance of this genus within its desert environments, especially on the coast of Peru, where rather few tree species occur naturally. It is shown that no other desert tree has as pervasive an influence upon the soil's physical, chemical, biological, and moisture properties; the sub-canopy microclimate; the neighbouring vegetation; and the wildlife and insect populations. The huarango integrates diverse parts of the desert ecosystem. In modifying the environmental extremes characteristic of deserts, especially one as arid as the Peruvian south coast, Prosopis makes what would otherwise be inhospitable lands habitable for other species, including humankind. In other words, if we are to lay bare the ecological consequences of deforestation on the south coast, we need to understand why, here, the huarango is what ecologists term a ‘keystone species’.Less
This chapter considers the subtler role of Prosopis in underpinning a fragile desert ecology. It is perhaps difficult to exaggerate the dominance of this genus within its desert environments, especially on the coast of Peru, where rather few tree species occur naturally. It is shown that no other desert tree has as pervasive an influence upon the soil's physical, chemical, biological, and moisture properties; the sub-canopy microclimate; the neighbouring vegetation; and the wildlife and insect populations. The huarango integrates diverse parts of the desert ecosystem. In modifying the environmental extremes characteristic of deserts, especially one as arid as the Peruvian south coast, Prosopis makes what would otherwise be inhospitable lands habitable for other species, including humankind. In other words, if we are to lay bare the ecological consequences of deforestation on the south coast, we need to understand why, here, the huarango is what ecologists term a ‘keystone species’.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Climate change is producing profound changes globally. This environmental history analysis offers a much needed but barely examined ground‐level study of human impacts and responses to climate change ...
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Climate change is producing profound changes globally. This environmental history analysis offers a much needed but barely examined ground‐level study of human impacts and responses to climate change over time. It analyzes how people around Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range grappled with climate‐induced glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, which killed approximately 25,000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved, they formed community organizations and demanded state programs to drain dangerous glacial lakes. Yet they rejected hazard zoning in their communities. Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century. But hazard mitigation, disaster responses, and climate change adaptation were never just about engineering the Andes to protect vulnerable populations. Local urban and rural populations, engineers, hydroelectric developers, irrigators, tourists, and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier retreat differently, based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development, state authority, race relations, class divisions, cultural values, the evolution of science and technology studies, and shifting views of nature. Over time, the influx of new groups helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders—and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region, triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting political and economic modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be overlooked in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios.Less
Climate change is producing profound changes globally. This environmental history analysis offers a much needed but barely examined ground‐level study of human impacts and responses to climate change over time. It analyzes how people around Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range grappled with climate‐induced glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, which killed approximately 25,000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved, they formed community organizations and demanded state programs to drain dangerous glacial lakes. Yet they rejected hazard zoning in their communities. Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century. But hazard mitigation, disaster responses, and climate change adaptation were never just about engineering the Andes to protect vulnerable populations. Local urban and rural populations, engineers, hydroelectric developers, irrigators, tourists, and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier retreat differently, based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development, state authority, race relations, class divisions, cultural values, the evolution of science and technology studies, and shifting views of nature. Over time, the influx of new groups helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders—and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region, triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting political and economic modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be overlooked in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above ...
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This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.Less
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter analyzes the onset of Cordillera Blanca glacier disasters in 1941 through an examination of a glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people and destroyed one-third of the Ancash ...
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This chapter analyzes the onset of Cordillera Blanca glacier disasters in 1941 through an examination of a glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people and destroyed one-third of the Ancash capital city of Huaraz in the Callejón de Huaylas. In the aftermath, Peruvians scrambled not only to survive and rebuild but also to determine the cause of the flood. While hazard mitigation began right after the catastrophe, it progressed haphazardly during the 1940s. Just as the 1941 flood made urban residents in Huaraz intimately aware of the previously unrecognized melting glaciers over their city, the glacial lake disaster made Peruvians in Lima and elsewhere significantly more aware of the Andean mountains—both their peril and their possibilities. Local urban and rural residents, engineers, scientists, and government officials who began studying glacial lake hazards after 1941 all brought their own perspectives about glaciers, construing them simultaneously as hazards and resources.Less
This chapter analyzes the onset of Cordillera Blanca glacier disasters in 1941 through an examination of a glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people and destroyed one-third of the Ancash capital city of Huaraz in the Callejón de Huaylas. In the aftermath, Peruvians scrambled not only to survive and rebuild but also to determine the cause of the flood. While hazard mitigation began right after the catastrophe, it progressed haphazardly during the 1940s. Just as the 1941 flood made urban residents in Huaraz intimately aware of the previously unrecognized melting glaciers over their city, the glacial lake disaster made Peruvians in Lima and elsewhere significantly more aware of the Andean mountains—both their peril and their possibilities. Local urban and rural residents, engineers, scientists, and government officials who began studying glacial lake hazards after 1941 all brought their own perspectives about glaciers, construing them simultaneously as hazards and resources.
Susan Stokes
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520086173
- eISBN:
- 9780520916234
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520086173.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This ethnography set in contemporary Peru provides an analysis of the making and unmaking of class consciousness among the urban poor. The author's research strategy is multifaceted; through ...
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This ethnography set in contemporary Peru provides an analysis of the making and unmaking of class consciousness among the urban poor. The author's research strategy is multifaceted; through interviews, participant observation, and survey research she digs deeply into the popular culture of the social activists and shantytown residents she studies. The result is a penetrating look at how social movements evolve, how poor people construct independent political cultures, and how the ideological domination of oppressed classes can shatter. This work is a new chapter in the growing literature on the formation of social movements, chronicling the transformation of Peru's poor from a culture of deference and clientelism in the late 1960s to a population mobilized for radical political action today.Less
This ethnography set in contemporary Peru provides an analysis of the making and unmaking of class consciousness among the urban poor. The author's research strategy is multifaceted; through interviews, participant observation, and survey research she digs deeply into the popular culture of the social activists and shantytown residents she studies. The result is a penetrating look at how social movements evolve, how poor people construct independent political cultures, and how the ideological domination of oppressed classes can shatter. This work is a new chapter in the growing literature on the formation of social movements, chronicling the transformation of Peru's poor from a culture of deference and clientelism in the late 1960s to a population mobilized for radical political action today.
Frank Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195136401
- eISBN:
- 9780199835164
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195136403.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
An in-depth study of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617), canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World, serves to explore the meanings of female mysticism and the ways in which saints are products ...
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An in-depth study of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617), canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World, serves to explore the meanings of female mysticism and the ways in which saints are products of their cultures. The opening chapter analyzes trends in scholarship on mysticism and the interrelations of sanctity and insanity. Rose and flower poetics are then pursued into the odor of sanctity, “deflowering,” edenic imagery, and the miracle by which Rose of Lima received her name. Two historical chapters analyze the politics of Rose of Lima’s canonization, exploring how mystical union bypasses sacramental and sacerdotal channels, poses an implicit threat to the bureaucratized church, and may be co-opted to integrate a competing claim into the Catholic canon. Virginity, austerity, mortification, eucharistic devotion, visions, expression of love through suffering, ecstasy, and mystical marriage are then studied both in themselves and in their relations to eroticism and to modern psychological disorders.Less
An in-depth study of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617), canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World, serves to explore the meanings of female mysticism and the ways in which saints are products of their cultures. The opening chapter analyzes trends in scholarship on mysticism and the interrelations of sanctity and insanity. Rose and flower poetics are then pursued into the odor of sanctity, “deflowering,” edenic imagery, and the miracle by which Rose of Lima received her name. Two historical chapters analyze the politics of Rose of Lima’s canonization, exploring how mystical union bypasses sacramental and sacerdotal channels, poses an implicit threat to the bureaucratized church, and may be co-opted to integrate a competing claim into the Catholic canon. Virginity, austerity, mortification, eucharistic devotion, visions, expression of love through suffering, ecstasy, and mystical marriage are then studied both in themselves and in their relations to eroticism and to modern psychological disorders.
Zvi Ben‐Dor Benite
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195307337
- eISBN:
- 9780199867868
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195307337.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter discusses the search for the ten tribes in the Americas. It shows how the possibility to find the tribes in the Americas was “there” even before the discovery of the Americas ” through ...
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This chapter discusses the search for the ten tribes in the Americas. It shows how the possibility to find the tribes in the Americas was “there” even before the discovery of the Americas ” through telling the story of Canary Island’s discovery several decades before. It also shows how the Ten Tribes were “removed” by European cartographers from their “original” locations in Ethiopia and Central Asia and placed in northeastern Siberia. From there they crossed the water barriers to the Americas. The chapter also discusses how the reformation affected Christian thinking about the ten tribes and heightened the debates about them among Christian thinkers, such as Sebastian Munster, John Calvin, and others. The chapter also discusses how the ten tribes became central in Spanish thinking after the conquest of America. Finally, the chapter shows how the story of the ten tribes became briefly fused with the myth of Atlantis and the history of the Scythians.Less
This chapter discusses the search for the ten tribes in the Americas. It shows how the possibility to find the tribes in the Americas was “there” even before the discovery of the Americas ” through telling the story of Canary Island’s discovery several decades before. It also shows how the Ten Tribes were “removed” by European cartographers from their “original” locations in Ethiopia and Central Asia and placed in northeastern Siberia. From there they crossed the water barriers to the Americas. The chapter also discusses how the reformation affected Christian thinking about the ten tribes and heightened the debates about them among Christian thinkers, such as Sebastian Munster, John Calvin, and others. The chapter also discusses how the ten tribes became central in Spanish thinking after the conquest of America. Finally, the chapter shows how the story of the ten tribes became briefly fused with the myth of Atlantis and the history of the Scythians.
Mark Rice
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469643533
- eISBN:
- 9781469643557
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643533.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This book examines the transformation of Machu Picchu from an obscure archaeological site into a global tourist destination and national symbol of Peru. This book illustrates how, from the very ...
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This book examines the transformation of Machu Picchu from an obscure archaeological site into a global tourist destination and national symbol of Peru. This book illustrates how, from the very start, tourism played a central role in the modern rise of Machu Picchu. The leaders of Cusco, where Machu Picchu is located, employed tourism to argue for the importance of their region at a time when Peru’s national leaders believed that the Andean interior offered little cultural and economic opportunities. Over time, Cusco increasingly looked to tourism as a source of needed development at a time of economic crisis in Peru’s southern Andes. While Cusco was successful in making Machu Picchu into a tourist destination, this created new conflicts over control over the region’s culture and economy. In summary, this book highlights how the transnational links and actors associated with tourism allowed local leaders in Cusco and Peru’s southern Andes to create their region’s touristic narrative and economy. Often locals employed the transnational connections of the tourism economy to bypass or influence the policies of the Peruvian national state. Over time, these efforts shifted the Peruvian state to embrace Machu Picchu and Cusco’s Andean culture as national symbols. The book contributes to larger debates about nationalism in Latin America by pointing to the influence of tourism in the elevation of Machu Picchu as a national symbol of Peru. It argues that in post-colonial nations like Peru, transnational forces like tourism can play influential roles in the creation of national identity.Less
This book examines the transformation of Machu Picchu from an obscure archaeological site into a global tourist destination and national symbol of Peru. This book illustrates how, from the very start, tourism played a central role in the modern rise of Machu Picchu. The leaders of Cusco, where Machu Picchu is located, employed tourism to argue for the importance of their region at a time when Peru’s national leaders believed that the Andean interior offered little cultural and economic opportunities. Over time, Cusco increasingly looked to tourism as a source of needed development at a time of economic crisis in Peru’s southern Andes. While Cusco was successful in making Machu Picchu into a tourist destination, this created new conflicts over control over the region’s culture and economy. In summary, this book highlights how the transnational links and actors associated with tourism allowed local leaders in Cusco and Peru’s southern Andes to create their region’s touristic narrative and economy. Often locals employed the transnational connections of the tourism economy to bypass or influence the policies of the Peruvian national state. Over time, these efforts shifted the Peruvian state to embrace Machu Picchu and Cusco’s Andean culture as national symbols. The book contributes to larger debates about nationalism in Latin America by pointing to the influence of tourism in the elevation of Machu Picchu as a national symbol of Peru. It argues that in post-colonial nations like Peru, transnational forces like tourism can play influential roles in the creation of national identity.
Elizabeth N. Arkush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035260
- eISBN:
- 9780813039107
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035260.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
By AD 1000, the Colla controlled the high-altitude plains near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. They fought over the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca (who ...
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By AD 1000, the Colla controlled the high-altitude plains near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. They fought over the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca (who described them as the most formidable foes they had faced) circa 1450, and then of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Like any people at war, the Colla were not engaged in active conflict all the time. But frequent warfare (perhaps over limited natural resources), along with drought and environmental changes, powerfully influenced the society's settlement choices and physical defenses, as well as their interaction with the landscape. By focusing on the pre-Inca society in this key region of the Andes, the book demonstrates how a thorough archaeological investigation of these hillfort towns reveals new ways to study the sociopolitical organization of pre-Columbian societies.Less
By AD 1000, the Colla controlled the high-altitude plains near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. They fought over the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca (who described them as the most formidable foes they had faced) circa 1450, and then of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Like any people at war, the Colla were not engaged in active conflict all the time. But frequent warfare (perhaps over limited natural resources), along with drought and environmental changes, powerfully influenced the society's settlement choices and physical defenses, as well as their interaction with the landscape. By focusing on the pre-Inca society in this key region of the Andes, the book demonstrates how a thorough archaeological investigation of these hillfort towns reveals new ways to study the sociopolitical organization of pre-Columbian societies.
Anne Lambright
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382516
- eISBN:
- 9781786945471
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382516.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Andean Truths: Transitional Justice, Ethnicity, and Cultural Production in Post-Shining Path Peru studies how literature, drama, film, and the visual arts contest the dominant narrative of national ...
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Andean Truths: Transitional Justice, Ethnicity, and Cultural Production in Post-Shining Path Peru studies how literature, drama, film, and the visual arts contest the dominant narrative of national peace and reconciliation, as constructed by Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Established in 2001, the Commission aimed to ‘investigate and make public the truth’ of the country’s twenty-year civil war, drawing upon homologous predecessors that provided a highly scripted model of truth-gathering and national healing. In this model, a predetermined collective mourning, catharsis, and reconciliation would move the nation forward in a consensually-determined fashion. Andean Truths shows that the Peruvian case proves internationally-endorsed models insufficient for arriving at the ‘truth’ of a national trauma that primarily affected disenfranchised ethnic groups, namely, the Andean Quechua speaking populations that accounted for the overwhelming majority of victims of the violence. Even as scholars recognize the importance of bringing multiple voices to the table in discussing post-Shining Path Peru, the question remains of what a more Andean-oriented transitional justice process might entail. Drawing on theories of decoloniality, intercultural communication and epistemological diversity (following scholars such as Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano and Boaventura de Sousa Santos), this book analyzes cultural products, from the theater of Yuyachkani to the narrative of Oscar Colchado Lucio, the art of Edilberto Jiménez, and other popular artistic responses, that highlight Andean understandings of the conflict and its aftermath. These cultural products challenge dominant understandings of the conflict and question Peru’s ability to overcome its collective trauma without seriously reconsidering prevailing cultural paradigms.Less
Andean Truths: Transitional Justice, Ethnicity, and Cultural Production in Post-Shining Path Peru studies how literature, drama, film, and the visual arts contest the dominant narrative of national peace and reconciliation, as constructed by Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Established in 2001, the Commission aimed to ‘investigate and make public the truth’ of the country’s twenty-year civil war, drawing upon homologous predecessors that provided a highly scripted model of truth-gathering and national healing. In this model, a predetermined collective mourning, catharsis, and reconciliation would move the nation forward in a consensually-determined fashion. Andean Truths shows that the Peruvian case proves internationally-endorsed models insufficient for arriving at the ‘truth’ of a national trauma that primarily affected disenfranchised ethnic groups, namely, the Andean Quechua speaking populations that accounted for the overwhelming majority of victims of the violence. Even as scholars recognize the importance of bringing multiple voices to the table in discussing post-Shining Path Peru, the question remains of what a more Andean-oriented transitional justice process might entail. Drawing on theories of decoloniality, intercultural communication and epistemological diversity (following scholars such as Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano and Boaventura de Sousa Santos), this book analyzes cultural products, from the theater of Yuyachkani to the narrative of Oscar Colchado Lucio, the art of Edilberto Jiménez, and other popular artistic responses, that highlight Andean understandings of the conflict and its aftermath. These cultural products challenge dominant understandings of the conflict and question Peru’s ability to overcome its collective trauma without seriously reconsidering prevailing cultural paradigms.
