Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Vesperi, Maria

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

My thesis project consists of a written ethnography, accompanied by a short ethnographic film, about a group of indigenous Andean families from Pisac, Peru. This community identifies as Runakuna, the indigenous Quechua speaking peoples native to the Andes, and is significant because, for more than twenty years, these families have engaged in grassroots cultural work to preserve their indigenous worldview and ancestral heritage. I engage in an ethnographic analysis of two of this community’s cultural preservation projects: the Kusi Kawsay Andean School, and the Kusi Ñan Organic Farm. I focus on the effects of these projects, as well as the influence of the historical forces of colonialism, and neoliberal globalization, on the complex forms of identity experienced by the youth of this community. Their stories and sentiments are significant because they highlight narratives of Runakuna youth engagement with the postmodern world. In this way, it is my goal to shed light on contemporary realities and lived experiences of indigenous Quechua youth, and highlight how these youth in particular have become empowered agents of change within their community and beyond.

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