Juan Javier Rivera Andía, born in Lima, Peru, in 1977. Ph.D. from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Postdoctoral researcher of Anthropology of America at the University of Bonn.
EURIAS Junior Fellow (1 September 2013 – 30 June 2014)
ETHNIC ASSESSMENTS OF TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE ANDES: INDIGENOUS RITUALS AND NARRATIVES OF CULTURAL CHANGES
Research Question
What kind of ideology is used by the indigenous peoples of the Andes when they evaluate the transformations in their rituals or narratives? What can we learn from these indigenous points of views when we try to understand rural peasant societies in Latin America?
Project Description
This ongoing project is interested in exploring perceptions and experiences of cultural and social transformations among the inhabitants of two specific regions of Peru. The project will explore this in the cases of two different Quechua ethnic groups of the Andes in which I have previously conducted fieldwork: Chancay (central Andes, 1999-2003) and Cañaris (northern Andes, 2008-2011). I will compare Andean self-representations and local narratives on contemporary changes through their ritual practices and oral traditions. A secondary goal of this analysis is to bring insights and understandings to how people in the Central and Northern Peruvian Andes represent alterity.
Selected Publications
1) La fiesta del ganado en el valle de Chancay (1962-2002). Religión y ritual en los Andes: etnografía, documentos inéditos e interpretación [Cattle feast in Chancay Valley. Religion and ritual in the Andes], Catholic University of Peru, Lima, 2003.