A.I.D. Evaluation Special Study No.7 THE VICOS EXPERIMENT A Study of the Impacts of the Cornell-Peru Project in a Highland Community Aprill982 U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) PN-AAJ-616 THE VICOS EXPERIMENT A STUDY OF THE IMPACTS OF THE CORNELL-PERU PROJECT IN A HIGHLAND COMMUNITY by Barbara D. Lynch A.I.D. Evaluation Special Study No. 7 Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean U.S. Agency for International Development April 1982 This report, prepayed under A.I.D. Contract No. AID/LAC-0044-C-00-1023-00, was submitted in June 1981. The views and interpretations expressed in the report are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Agency for International Development. A.I.D. EVALUATION PUBLICATIONS A complete list of reports issued in the A.I.D. Evaluation Publication series is included in the last three pages of this document, together with information for ordering reports. PREFACE "The Vicos Experiment," prepared by Barbara D. Lynch for the Development Programs Office of the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, examines one of the earliest efforts to bring about planned social change. The experiment was an action-oriented research program aimed ~t improving the quality of life of a highland hacienda community in Peru. It was initiated in 1952, under the auspices of Cornell Uni­ versity and the Instituto Indigenista Peruano, and continued into the mid-sixties. Implementation was closely monitored by a team of Cor­ nell social scientists, whose reports served as the basis for this study. The study examines the success of the program in achieving its broad range of development goals, e.g., to raise agricultural pro­ ductivity, to improve health and nutrition, to increase literacy and to increase Vicosinos' sense of self-worth. It also looks at some of the unintended effects of the intervention. The report con­ cludes that on balance the standard of living in Vicos was raised and the impact of the project was more positive than negative. The most serious shortcoming, in the author's view, was the . failure to anticipate the effects of innovations on the distribution of wealth within the community. The Vicos study is one of a series organized by LAC/DP. to look more closely at the social impact of development activities. The abundance of material on implementat~on activities generated by social scientist project managers provided a unique opportunity to examine thoroughly a wide range of direct and indirect consequences of a community-level developm~cess. David Director Office of ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Cornell-Peru Project was an attempt to create a laboratory for the anthropological study of social change. In 1952, Cornell University and the Institute Indigenista Peruano, a Peruvian govern­ ment agency, entered into a formal agreement to lease a highland hacienda and to undertake a program of research and development which would lead to the refinement of the study of social change as well as the improvement of the quality of life of hacienda residents and to their integration as a productive force in Peruvian society. This report is an assessment of the impacts of the project on the Quechua­ speaking hacienda population, based on an extensive review of the literature and materials in the Cornell University Library Department of Manuscripts and Archives. Hacienda Vices was owned by a semipublic charitable organiza­ tion in Huaraz, capital of the Department of Ancash, and rented for five- to ten-year terms to the highest bidder. Rent from Vices and other properties was used to support the Huaraz hospital. Before the project began, renters were primarily interested in the hacienda as a source of labor to be used outside of Vices. Only about 10 percent of the land was cultivated for the patron; the rest was parcelled out to peons in holdings differing widely in both quality and size. Vicosinos were bound to the hacienda by highly restrictive labor re­ quirements, but they had relatively secure usufruct rights to some arable land and to extensive pastures. At the outset of the project, they were taken advantage of by both the patron and by mestizos in Marcara, the nearby district capital. They had no legal protection from local governmental agencies. Their diet was poor, living stand­ ards low; they were uniformly illiterate and only in a few isolated instances could they communicate in Spanish. Allan R. Holmberg, a Cornell University anthropologist and project director, believed that the quality of life at Vices could be measurably improved with the integration of the hacienda into the national economy and society. He planned a series of activities designed to reverse a negative spiral of effects suppressing the Indian population. He sought to increase literacy, to familiarize Vicosinos with the larger society, to encourage migration, to raise agricultural productivity, to improve health and nutrition, and to increase Vicosinos' sense of self-worth, and their faith in progress and each other. Finally, he hoped to train Vicosinos to take control of their own destiny, to regain control of the hacienda, and to govern it themselves. iii Project activities included the introduction of improved potato seed, new technologies, and a credit package, other agricul­ tural activities designed to improve crops and to introduce new sources of income, improvement and enlargement of the school, mili­ tary recruitment, a series of public health and nutrition programs and the creation of a new set of political institutions. Most of these activities were undertaken with the participation and support of Peruvian government agencies. The new seed potato program and supervised agricultural credit resulted in the accumulation of a capital fund for community develop­ ment and for a down payment on the hacienda when it was transferred to the community in 1962. The program also stimulated the commercial­ ization of production in the subsistence sector. By 1954, Vices had become one of the largest potato producers in the region. The program resulted in an increase of cash in the community, dietary improvements, an increase in commercial activity, a proliferation of occupational spe.cialties and in an improved economic position in the region. However, the new technology was available only to wealthy and middle class Vicosinos. Those with very small holdings were un­ able to participate in the program. Thus their relative position in the community deteriorated. The influx of cash into the economy led to a decline in reciprocal labor obligations and redistribution after harvest. On 'the other hand, fiesta sponsorship and other acts of generosity became more common. Project educational activities resulted in substantial in­ creases in literacy and Spanish speaking ability. By the 1960s, a number of Vices boys had gone on to secondary school. Education in­ creased the ability of a number of Vicosinos to engage in trans­ actions in the mestizo world on a relatively equal footing. However, differential educational opportunities for men and women led to a deterioration in the status of women in the community. As formal education superseded informal education, and as educated children were encouraged to take increasing roles in household decision­ making, the status of the aged also .declined. Secondary schooling was seen as a mixed blessing in Vices: individuals could increase their social mobility through education, but lack of jobs for graduates in the community meant that in most cases the investments made by family and community in education did not pay off in Vices. Regularization of the military status of Vicosinos resulted in the creation of a power bloc of veterans, by and large committed to increased integration and social and economic innovation. The emergence of the veterans as a political force helped to weaken the traditional Vicosino elite and institutions of fictive kinship. Regularization of military status enabled Vicosinos to use local government institutions. This too lessened dependence on traditional elites. The transfer of authority from .the patron and traditional elites to an elected council of delegates and to a governing body iv of literate Vicosinos was by and large successful. However, clien­ telistic political bonds were more tenacious than the project had anticipated. The result was a decline in traditional authority in favor of charismatic authority. For example, even after the creation of new institutions, a well-liked Peruvian field director has enormous power in the community because of his personal prestige. The project did not have a significant impact on values or on the traditional world view. It did change the cultural identity of the community and had a positive effect on self-esteem. Vicosinos were less frequently defined as Indians (a reference to inferior class s'tatus, rather than a racial definition in the Peruvian case), and their localism was intensified by attention to the project and concrete symbols of development. On the other hand, status and role ambiguity increased as a result of the project. The successes of the project were qualified. The project was constrained by regional and national economic, social and political structures. Development remained dependent upon the good will of national and international development agencies. Relations with mestizos in the Callejon de Huaylas improved, but equality was not achieved. Integration into the national society resulted in the reproduction of inequalities in the local society. The status of women deteriorated, and even as wealth spread from a small Vicosino elite to a larger midqle class, the gap between rich and poor seems to have widened. On the balance, however, the standard of living in Vicos was raised, and the impacts of the project seem to have been more positive than negative. About the Author Barbara D. Lynch is a Ph.D. candidate in Development Sociology in the Department of Rural Sociology, Cornell University.