Indigenous peoples of the Andean countries: cultural and political aspects
Dan RosengrenFeelings of difference in relation to the ruling elite and of sameness in relation to fellow indigenous peoples are important aspects of the current ethnic consciousness. The experience of colonial subjugation that indigenous peoples share should, however, not conceal that there also are important social and cultural differences among them. The indigenous movement, stresses, accordingly, that since they constitute a number of distinct peoples they cannot be uniformly treated as if they were an undifferentiated category of ‘people’ or ‘population.’ The cultural and ethnic aspects of indigenousness are, hence, taken as the point of departure for this paper. Although indigenous peoples as a rule belong to the poorest sections of the national populations, this condition follows primarily from being colonized which is a political cause rather than an economic.
The study is divided into two principal parts. In the first part a general sketch of ecological, social and cultural conditions and the historical development till the present is outlined. The second part describes the development of the indigenous …