The London School of Economics and Political Science Mixing and Its
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The London School of Economics and Political Science Mixing and its challenges: an ethnography of race, kinship and history in a village of Afro-indigenous descent in coastal Peru Tamara Hale A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, June 2014 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 91,637 words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Eona Bell. 2 In Latin America, politics is the water you swim in. —Olivia Harris To her memory 3 Abstract This thesis, based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, is about ordinary Peruvians of mixed African slave and indigenous descent. It shows that villagers in Yapatera, northern Peru, have responded to contradictory historical forces through everyday practices of ‘mixing’. Villagers live in a society that officially downplays the significance of race while it simultaneously discriminates against non-white ‘others’. The thesis finds that villagers reject the ethnic (‘Afro- Peruvian’) and racial (‘black’) labels cast upon them by outsiders, and instead illustrates how villagers are engaged in a variety of social practices and local narratives which stress the cultural, social, religious, political and economic integration of the community into the local region, and which seek to de- emphasise its potential ethnic distinctiveness. ‘Mixing’ permeates through villagers’ ideas and practices relating to human physiology, procreation, descent, marriage, personhood, historicity, religion, place-making, local politics, and relations with the state. However, mixing is ultimately a fragile project. ‘Race’, as a social divider, reappears often in the very practices or domains where mixing occurs. Mixing itself can be understood as an attempt to overcome thinly-veiled local racist discourses. It is also an attempt to negotiate oneself out of the very undesirable category of ‘black’, and as such it bears continuities with historical social practices. Mixing is not so much an outright resistance to racism, nor is it a straightforward appropriation of nationalist ideologies. Instead mixing is to be understood as an alternative form of knowledge: an autochthonous attempt to engage with these external forces. By bridging the gap between Andean anthropology and the study of Afro-descendants in a variety of disciplines, the thesis helps fill a gap on mestizaje as a form of lived experience. By highlighting the central role of kinship in ideas and practices of mixing, it also indicates the wider implications of mixing for anthropological theory. 4 Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................. 4 List of Figures........................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements................................................................................................ 8 Note on Translations, Figures and Pseudonyms.................................................. 10 Glossary ............................................................................................................... 11 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 14 A historic apology........................................................................................................ 14 No more dolphins! ....................................................................................................... 16 Yapatera on camera, Yapatera off camera................................................................... 18 Negritud vs. negrura.................................................................................................... 20 The village of Yapatera ............................................................................................... 24 The Hacienda Yapatera................................................................................................ 27 Arriving in Yapatera and methods............................................................................... 30 Outline of the chapters................................................................................................. 34 Chapter I. Mixing, race and ethnicity in historical and regional perspective ...... 37 In the Lima mansion .................................................................................................... 37 Historical constructions of difference.......................................................................... 39 Race and ethnicity in contemporary Latin America.................................................... 44 Afro-indigenous relations, mixed people and others................................................... 48 Ethnic despecification.................................................................................................. 51 Heterogeneity and mixing in kinship and marriage..................................................... 54 Mixing, race and ethnicity in Peru............................................................................... 56 Racism in Peru............................................................................................................. 62 Peruvian slavery and manumission ............................................................................. 65 Afro-Peruvian ethnic mobilisation .............................................................................. 70 A note on the absence of ‘identity’.............................................................................. 74 Chapter II. A folk theory of race: Mixing, categorisation and racial essentialism ............................................................................................................................. 78 Fernando’s cumanana.................................................................................................. 78 Overview of racial/colour terms .................................................................................. 80 Racism ......................................................................................................................... 84 A folk theory of race.................................................................................................... 90 Race and social categorisation..................................................................................... 97 Despecification and mixing as a historical process ................................................... 102 Essentialism and experimental tasks ......................................................................... 105 Design of Custom Task 1 .......................................................................................... 108 Design of Custom Task 2 .......................................................................................... 110 Results of Custom Task 1.......................................................................................... 111 Results of Custom Task 2.......................................................................................... 112 Discussion of results.................................................................................................. 113 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 115 5 Chapter III. Carried in the heart: Surnames and bilaterality in kinship, marriage and personhood .................................................................................................. 118 Tumba, Urpi, Cazombon ........................................................................................... 118 Double surnames: natural, civilised and good to think with ..................................... 120 Bilateral descent and marriage................................................................................... 129 Carried in the heart: bilateral ideology and logic ...................................................... 137 Bilateral personhood.................................................................................................. 142 ‘Bilateral race’ in Yapatera........................................................................................ 145 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 148 Chapter IV. Keeping their tombs warm: Remembrance practices, sociality and the saint-like dead .............................................................................................. 151 Negros veletos: fanciful blacks.................................................................................. 151 Engaging with uncertainty........................................................................................