MESTIZOS, INDIANS AND LORDS: BETWEEN DANCERS AND ALTARPIECES

ECHOES OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF JOSÉ MARÍA ARGUEDAS IN CONTEMPORARY TESTIMONIES

Abstract

My aim is to study the way in which the ethnographic production of José María Arguedas evidences the displacement among the identification of mestizos, indians and lords in the formation of citizenship in the mid-20^th century in Perú. Such process occurs, first, through cultural devices such as, dances and altarpieces, and, then, by the way these devices influence the contemporary testimony on civil war during the 21^st century. In order to reach this aim, I will use the contributions of the Latin American theory and criticism (Cornejo Polar, Bueno Chávez, Lienhard), the Andean studies (Ulfe, Mamani Macedo), and the performance (Taylor). Furthermore, I pretend to use the methodological proposal of the contrastive comparativism (Pizarro) which allows to observe the testimonial system synchronically and diachronically.  The result this approach gives account of how the Arguedian writing, which combines both, a poetical view and an ethnological record, works as a cultural matrix which appears re-updated in the Andean testimony about the recent political violence.