Quechua Modern Ingenuity

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Quechua Modern Ingenuity Brooke Elmi Gettysburg
College ANTH 223-Indigenous Peoples, the
Environment, and the Global Economy
Ecological Knowledge and the Quechua Spiritual
Connection Typically the Western world looks
toward the future for potential solutions to the
current environmental crisis and climate change.
Through scientific research and technological
advancement, theorists and environmental
scientists look to construct a new and practical
model for sustainable living that can replace the
current destructive habits of the industrialized
world. Meanwhile the environmental destruction
caused by exorbitant consumerism and polluting
production practices continue to have a
disproportionately large negative effect on the
already marginalized indigenous and impoverished
peoples of the planet (Dowie 200917). In recent
years environmental theorists, anthropologists,
and other scholars have probed the idea that
currently existing indigenous societies have
interacted with the land based on systems of
socially embedded ecological knowledge that
have enabled them to live sustainably for
thousands of years on the same territory (Heyd
2005 225). The relationship between the
Quechua people and the land has been a concept
that has drawn curiosity since the earliest
Spanish chroniclers encountered the Inca
Civilization. The Quechuas spiritual connection
with the natural world is a remnant of the
religious traditions of the Inca and other
pre-Colombian groups who worshipped the
mountains, the sun, the moon, and earth deities
to ensure the success of crops. The complex
notion of interdependence between nature and the
people is an intriguing aspect of the Quechua
culture that has drawn the attention of
environmental theorists (Heyd 2005224). The
Quechua traditional agricultural practices like
irrigation, terracing, and herding have enabled
them to survive in the harsh climate of the Andes
Mountains. The agricultural practices are deeply
tied to the Quechua religious beliefs and
spiritual concept of the human-nature
relationship. Thomas Heyd has suggested that the
Quechua society can be emulated as a working
model of sustainable society based on the
traditional ecological knowledge that has allowed
them to live in harmony with their surroundings
without causing serious detriment or depletion of
natural resources. The suggestion that groups
have superior manners of integrating human
existence with the natural world calls for a
level of resistance to the forces of
modernization and development that impose new
scientific concepts and methods as beneficial
(Heyd 2005231). Scholar Eduardo Grillo Fernandez
suggests that the Quechuas symbiotic
relationship with nature means they consider
their own well being to be inextricably tied to
the harmony of the natural world, a mentality
that has served to evade environmental
degradation on a fundamental level (Grillo
Fernandez 1998128). The maintenance of this
traditional understanding will depend on how
successfully Quechua people can resist the
pervasive forces of globalization and
commodification. Aside from the extreme
difficulty of resisting the forces of
globalization, there is the further discussion of
whether the model for sustainability in one
culture can be effectively utilized by another
group. The recent support for the potential
benefits of traditional ecological knowledge is a
vital realization for the environmental movement
that will be central to the formulation of a
sustainable future. Moreover, it is a radical
divergence from past traditions that scientists
and theorists alike have begun to realize the
wealth of modern ingenuity embedded in indigenous
cultures like the Quechua people.  
Threats to Survival The struggles of the Quechua
people hail back to the colonization of South
America by the Spanish conquerors. Like other
indigenous groups in Latin America, the legacy of
the Spanish conquest continues to influence the
Quechua as they continue into the 21st century.
The Quechua culture has been traditionally
degraded by the Creole and mestizo majority.
Development projects imposed on the indigenous
groups of the Andes often clash with their
lifestyle and values. Threats to the survival of
the indigenous communities of the Andes are
varied. Once remote and secluded in the Andean
highlands, the Quechua have faced discrimination
from the Spanish speaking majorities in South
America as they are incorporated into the
national community. Their location in the Andes
Mountains means they face a constant struggle to
maintain vital and culturally valued natural
resources in the highland territories like water
and land. Water is probably the most vital
resource in danger for the Quechua people.
Political policies have created conflict over the
valuable resource. National canal projects in
Peru have appropriated water from the highland
territories to be redirected to coastal
populations causing serious periods of drought in
the 1980s (Gelles 2001212). Other less
tangible threats also exist for the Quechua. Most
of the Quechua speaking populations issues arise
from the general prejudiced assumptions that they
are backward relics of an ancient civilization
(Gelles 2001201). Highland peasant communities
have become new centers attracting eco-tourism.
Tourism is a contested issue in itself, and it
has certainly had an affect on certain Quechua
communities that have been transformed into
model communities of their indigenous heritage
to be featured for curious tourists. Members of
the communities perform in public displays of
craft making and events for the tourist visitors
(Zorn 2005157). While tourism can have a
positive effect on the economies of hitherto
isolated communities, turning a community into a
cultural display can have the effect of
perpetuating stereotypes and prejudice against
the Quechua people. Many of the challenges the
Quechua face indicated are the result of
misconstrued and judgmental stereotypes, and the
effect of turning indigenous communities into
tourist attractions can be counteractive to the
goals of breaking down cultural prejudice and
ideas of otherness.
From the website GloboTreks
Background Information Settled in the Andes
Mountains, the Quechua people are descendants of
pre-Colombian groups who inhabited the land for
thousands of years. There are many indigenous
Quechua and Aymara people living in the highlands
who speak both Quechua and Spanish. The Inca are
perhaps the most recognizable of the Quechua
ancestors, for the architectural relics of their
great civilization that still attract thousands
of visitors to the Andean territory. The Quechua
people continue to occupy the Andean highlands.
They live at elevations over 10,000 feet above
sea level in parts of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
(Gelles 2001205). In order to survive in the
Andes, it is necessary to conserve, share, and
efficiently regulate the use of certain vital
resources such as water, sunlight, and food. It
makes sense then, that the core values and
spiritual beliefs of the Quechua people are ones
that reinforce how they manage the land in order
to survive. The values such as reciprocity,
transformation, and collectivity are ones that
enable the people to share, manage, and
efficiently use the natural terrain and its
resources. Most Quechua speaking people live in
peasant farming communities. The Quechua speaking
indigenous groups rely on domesticated plants
like maize and potatoes and herd animals like
alpacas and llamas. Their agriculture practices
are enabled by a system of irrigation and
terracing in order to create hospitable
microclimates for plant cultivation on the
mountainous terrain (Gelles 2001 209).
Irrigation is a communally managed resource that
enables the Quechua to effectively distribute a
scarce resource. Tied to the agricultural
practices are the religious practices that
worship, represent, or are meant to harness the
natural elements through means of offerings and
veneration. The Quechua tradition worships
Pachamama, the earth mother, and considers the
geographic formations like the mountains and
rivers to be inhabited by the spiritual ancestors
of their people, but their spiritual beliefs are
also affected by Catholic tradition brought over
by the Spanish colonists (Valladolid Rivera 1998
51). Following the Spanish conquest of the
Americas, the Quechua speaking populations of the
Andes declined by nearly three-quarters (Gelles
2001205). Much of the vast terraced land has
been abandoned, but recent infrastructure
programs have linked the isolated highland
communities to larger cities (Gelles 2001208).
the very notion of progress must be difficult
to conceive by the communities whose members
never remember having experienced any improvement
in the conditions of their lives, but rather,
prolonged stasis with periods of regression
(Llosa 1983 36).
References Cited Apffel-Marglin,
Frédérique 1998 Knowledge and Life Revisited. In
The Spirit of Regeneration Andean Culture
Confronting Western Notions of Development.
Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, ed. Pp.1-50. London
Zed Books Dowie, Mark 2009 Conservation Refugees
The Hundred-Year Conflict Between Global
Conservation and Native Peoples. Cambridge The
MIT Press Gelles, Paul H. 2001 The Quechua of the
Peruvian Andes. In Endangered Peoples of Latin
America Struggles to Survive and Thrive. Susan
C. Stonich, ed. Pp. 205-217. Westport Greenwood
Press. GloboTreks Traditional Quechua
Women-Cuzco Peru. Weekly Snapshot by Norbert.
http//www.globotreks.com/weekly-snapshot/weekly-s
napshot-traditional-quechua-women/ (accessed May
4, 2011) Grillo Fernandez, Eduardo 1998 Developmen
t or Cultural Affirmation in the Andes? In The
Spirit of Regeneration Andean Culture
Confronting Western Notions of Development.
Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, ed. Pp. 124-145.
London Zed Books Heyd, Thomas 2005 Sustainabilit
y, Culture and Ethics Models from Latin America.
Ethics Place and Environment 8(2)
223-234 Valladolid Rivera, Julio 1998 Andean
Peasant Agriculture Nurturing a Diversity of
Life in the Chacra. In The Spirit of
Regeneration Andean Culture Confronting Western
Notions of Development. Frédérique
Apffel-Marglin, ed. Pp. 51-88. London Zed
Books Vargas, Llosa 1983 Inquest in the Andes.
New York Times Magazine. July 31 36. Wikiversity
Quechua Woman. (Public Domain) Jpg.
http//en.wikiversity.org/wiki/FileQuechuaWoman.j
pg (accessed May 4, 2011) Zorn, Elayne 2005 From
Political Prison to Tourist Village Tourism,
Gender, Indigeneity, and the State on Taquile
Island, Peru. In Natives Making Nation Gender,
Indigeneity and the State in the Andes. Andrew
Canessa, ed. Pp. 156-180. Tucson The University
of Arizona Press
PRATEC PRATEC (Proyecto Andino de Tecnologias
Campesinas/Andean Project of Peasant
Technologies) is a Non-Governmental Organization
that works with Andean and Amazonian cultures to
promote and protect indigenous or peasant
technology and resist development projects. The
members of PRATEC believe that development has
failed at effectively, practically, or humanely
facilitating Andean peasant life (Apffel-Marglin
19983). The organization defends the superiority
of peasant indigenous agricultural practices over
the imposition of Western technologies through
expository and persuasive writing about Andean
cultures and collective action. Their efforts
encompass various causes including climate
change, education, land rights, and political
policy. For further information visit the
website http//www.pratecnet.org/
From the website Wikiversity