Devil in the Water, Lights on the Mountain: Climate Change in Andean Peru by Elena Stewart Turevon Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Orin Starn, Supervisor ___________________________ Anne Allison ___________________________ Marisol de la Cadena ___________________________ Charles Piot Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 ABSTRACT Devil in the Water, Lights on the Mountain: Climate Change in Andean Peru by Elena Stewart Turevon Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Orin Starn, Supervisor ___________________________ Anne Allison ___________________________ Marisol de la Cadena ___________________________ Charles Piot An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 Copyright by Elena Stewart Turevon 2018 Abstract This dissertation examines everyday life and storytelling in Peru's Huaylas Valley: a transnational mining hub beneath melting Andean glaciers. During one year of ethnographic fieldwork, I listened to city dwellers and villagers narrate personal stories, gory rumors, and mythic tales: of a ruined Inca city that glows at night, a disappearing water devil, wild lakes turning tame, a Christ whose powers are shrinking. Rather than evincing ontological alterity, Huaylas stories reveal distinctive capitalist imaginaries and their ancient genealogies. They convey a popular sense of marginalization at a time of rapid, mineral-fueled growth, along with high hopes for a wealthy, developed future. And, their motifs and imagery attest to centuries of intercultural exchange, showing how capitalism took root in the Andes through indigenous cosmology, even as it developed through American colonization. Today, storytellers imagine and relate to their once- animate landscape as a banal means of accumulation, enlivening it through modern dreams that herald this future by banishing the superfluous—fantastic beings, and even themselves— from their Valley. If only by aspiration, then, storytellers in the Huaylas Valley form part of a planetary capitalist culture that accelerates global warming, raises mass living standards, and circulates fantasies of material redemption. While climate change is typically construed as a challenge for scientists and consumers to solve, this dissertation shows instead that global warming is a historical, cultural problem about the ends that more and more of humankind imagines, and strives to achieve. iv Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... vii 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Andean Quests ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Story and World ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.3 The Huaylas Valley ....................................................................................................................... 8 1.4 Method .......................................................................................................................................... 15 1.4.1 Fieldwork ................................................................................................................................................. 15 1.4.2 Stories ....................................................................................................................................................... 17 1.5 Story-Worlds ................................................................................................................................ 21 1.5.1 The Plot .................................................................................................................................................... 21 1.5.2 Light, Satan, God, and Lakes ............................................................................................................ 23 2. The Lights of Winaq ........................................................................................................... 27 2.1 Arrivals .......................................................................................................................................... 27 2.2 Lights ............................................................................................................................................. 33 2.3 Hunger ........................................................................................................................................... 41 2.4 Bullfights ....................................................................................................................................... 44 2.5 Freedom ........................................................................................................................................ 47 2.6 Ends and Time ............................................................................................................................. 49 3. The Ichic Ollqo .................................................................................................................... 57 3.1 The Little Man ............................................................................................................................. 57 3.2 Devil in the Water ....................................................................................................................... 59 3.2.1 Esteban’s Aunt ....................................................................................................................................... 66 3.3 Ichic Ollqo Surfaces ................................................................................................................... 69 3.3.1 Loss ............................................................................................................................................................ 70 3.3.2 Lures .......................................................................................................................................................... 72 3.3.3 Victory ...................................................................................................................................................... 74 3.3.4 Storms ....................................................................................................................................................... 80 3.4 Ichic Ollqo Disappears ............................................................................................................... 85 3.5 Mastering Time ........................................................................................................................... 91 4. God in the Andes ................................................................................................................. 95 4.1 The Lord of Solitude .................................................................................................................. 95 4.2 Cosmic Landscapes ..................................................................................................................... 97 4.3 Surfacing .................................................................................................................................... 100 4.4 Soledad's Shadow ..................................................................................................................... 109 4.5 The Lord of Rataquenua ........................................................................................................ 115 v 4.6 Andean Afterlife ....................................................................................................................... 124 5. Wild Lakes ......................................................................................................................... 130 5.1 Wildness and Want .................................................................................................................. 130 5.2 Dead Woman Lake .................................................................................................................. 133 5.3 Lake of the Mass ...................................................................................................................... 143 5.3.1 Interlude: Other Beings and Ontologies? .................................................................................... 154 5.4 Sacrifice ...................................................................................................................................... 156 5.5 Just Nature ................................................................................................................................ 162 6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 166 7. References .........................................................................................................................