Indigenous Peru - Peru - page 1076

were reduced to near-slave status through debt peonage and, later, in the silver mines of
Bolivia. Within Peru, they are clustered in the area around Puno and Lake Titicaca.
While identification with indigenous custom
is strong, Spanish elements are present in spir-
itual life. Indígenas have largely adapted Cath-
olic deities to their own beliefs. Like the
Quechua, many Aymara practice syncretic reli-
gious beliefs that closely link indigenous cus-
tom to Catholic thought. In Puno, there is a
large festival in honor of La Virgen de la Can-
delaria every February 2 (Candlemas). The
Virgin, however, is closely identified with
Pachamama, as well as natural elements such as lightning and fertility.

For a well-written examination of Quechua life in
Peru, pick up a copy of Catherine Allen's The Hold
Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean
Community . This intriguing ethnography, last up-
dated in 2002, covers everything from belief sys-
tems to the rituals of daily life in the southern high-
lands.

Cultures of the Amazon
The vast Peruvian Amazon is home to more than 330,000 indigenous people, representing
more than five dozen different ethnicities - some of which are closely related, others of
which couldn't be more different in terms of tradition and language.
Within this group, the biggest demographic is comprised of the Asháninka people (also
known as Campa). Comprising roughly a quarter of the indigenous population in the Per-
uvian Amazon, they inhabit numerous river valleys east of the central highlands. (Because
of this location, the Asháninka suffered mightily during the Internal Conflict, when the
Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) made incursions to the east.)
The second-largest Amazon group is the Aguaruna, who occupy the Marañón, Nieva
and Santiago River valleys to the north. The group not only resisted Inca attempts at con-
quest, they also fended off the Spanish. In fact, they still occupy their pre-conquest lands,
and survive by practicing horticulture, hunting and fishing.
There are countless other smaller ethnic groups, including the Shipibo, Matsiguenka,
and the small, so-called 'uncontacted tribes' that have made headlines in recent years.
These groups are extremely vulnerable to land loss and pollution caused by oil and miner-
al extraction. For the most remote groups, the biggest problem can boil down to simple
immunity: in the 1980s, more than half of the Nahua people in the southern Amazon died
after contracting diseases from loggers and oil-company agents.
For more on Amazon cultures, Click here .