Water and power in highland Peru : the cultural politics of irrigation and development / Paul H. Gelles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gelles, Paul H., 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quechua Indians--Agriculture--Peru--Cabanaconde.

Quechua Indians.

Irrigation--Social aspects--Peru--Cabanaconde.

Irrigation.

Ethnicity.

Irrigation--Social aspects.

Quechua Indians--Agriculture.

Cabanaconde (Peru)--Politics and government.

Cabanaconde (Peru).

Cabanaconde (Peru)--Ethnic relations.

Quechua Indians--Peru--Ethnic identity.

Peru.

Peru--Cabanaconde.

Physical Description:

xvii, 233 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2000]

Summary:

In Andean society, as in many other areas of the world, irrigation water carries broad cultural significance and has long been a source of conflict. Nowhere is the struggle over irrigation and over the cultural meanings of water more apparent than in Cabanaconde, a large peasant community located in the arid highlands of southern Peru. Using historical materials and richly detailed ethnographic reporting, Paul H. Gelles shows that water, ethnicity, and power in Cabanaconde, as elsewhere in the Andes, must be understood against the backdrop of the region's colonial past and contemporary nation-builing in Peru.Sifting through the layers of meaning found in the local, ritualized model of irrigation and the secular, monetary model put forth by the Peruvian state, Gelles shows that these models embody fundamentally different cultural rationales concerning natural resources, power, equity, and efficiency. Local models of irrigation, which previously served indigenous and Iberian states, have now become powerful tools of resistance against interference by local elites and the national government.

Contents:

Introduction: Channels of Power, Fields of Contention 1

1 History, Community, and Ethnicity in Cabanaconde 26

2 The Political Ecology and Cultural Politics of Irrigation and Land Recovery 46

3 Earth Mother, Cabildos, and Water Ritual 75

4 Dual Organization: Equilibrium, Extraction, and the Cargo of Water Mayor 98

5 The Power of the Pen: Patriarchs, Pudientes, and the State Model of Irrigation 118

6 Water Politics and Distribution on the Ground 138

Conclusion: the Cultural Politics of Irrigation, Community, and Development in the Andes 154.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-222) and index.

ISBN:

0813528062

0813528070

OCLC:

42598476