“The mountains have windows,” Angel Velasquez remarks after his transition from a native village in the Cloud Forest to Lima, the urbanized capital of Peru. Angel, our tour guide during a weeklong stay in Lima, explained his culture shock after leaving the traditional way of life in his Amazon community for the westernized, modern culture of Lima. Angel described his migration to Lima as apart of a larger influx of the rural poor from indigenous communities in the highlands and Amazon Basin to Lima and other big cities. This influx generates “Pueblos Jovenes”, young towns that surround Lima or other cities that lack water, electricity, and other basic services. Angel spent his first years in Lima living in one of these Pueblos Jovenes or shantytowns outside Lima, while working at a Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food chain and studying to become a tour guide—a seemingly promising career however with little or no job security.
Angel recalls the squatter settlement survival tactics of community assistance. Many shantytowns have a communal kitchen. These towns are government recognized yet residents do not pay taxes. There are no waste disposal, plumbing, or trash systems. Despite the lack of these basic services, one million Peruvians live in shantytowns. The sense of community in these impoverished areas is very strong. The people of the fishing market on the coast hold parties to raise money to help one another, for example to raise money for someone’s operation. Extremely talented artisans with limited resources pull together to create crafts to sell and travel to exhibitions together, creating self-made opportunities. Every member of a family works hard to help support each other and this sense of community is reinforced through town celebrations and community events. The importance of community is strongly reflected in the tablas we saw by Primitivo Evanan Poma and his brothers, which include paintings on wood of community events and family stories.
Peru’s collage of cultures seems to be determined largely by geography and is reflected through the technological aspects of the diverse communities. The highlands and Andes Mountains serve as the heart of indigenous peoples and a type of refuge for impoverished indigenous peoples who practice subsistence farming. The narrow ribbon of desert coastline and major cities dotting the coast seem wealthier, more industrialized, more urbanized, and appear to have a better infrastructure. Concerning the peoples of Peru, there appears to be a clear-cut class structure with the indigenous peoples at the bottom, and the descendants of the Spanish at the top. The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor and a middle-class is almost non-existent. Almost half of Peru’s population is indigenous and very poor. Economic and political power stays in the hands of a very small Mestizo, mixed European and indigenous descent, and white elite. The people I have met in Peru seem a bit reserved, polite, patriotic, and very friendly—smiling and greeting passersby. All of my encounters with the indigenous communities, ribereños (river people), and city dwellers reflect the popular notion that family is sacred. Married sons and daughters, grandparents, and children often share the same house.
It is interesting to note how technological changes have reflected the main religious aspects of Peruvian cultures presently and in past civilizations. Religion emerges as an answer to all enigmas to which men do not find an explanation. By a set of divine elements transformed and united in several deities, followers seek the necessary answers for the existence of a society. No village I have visited, no matter how remote, has been without a church. Ronald, another tour guide in Lima, explains that while Roman Catholicism is the official religion, the Peruvian constitution permits the practice of any religion within the country’s borders. According to Ronald, nine out of ten people consider themselves Catholic. It is clear to see, especially in highland areas such as Cusco, how Peruvian Catholicism has incorporated Andean elements. Churches were often built on top of ancient foundations and many Christian holidays and celebrations were specifically organized to coincide with existing indigenous festivals. Many of the paintings in Peruvian churches are done by native Peruvian artists and include striking features of Andean paintings, such as the use of bright red paint available in Peru and darker, “muddy” colors. Looking around at images of the Virgin Mary, her triangular design offers a distinct relation between the conversion of Catholicism and the traditionally worshipped Andean mountain element. In the ancient Wari Empire, the appearance of ceramics marked one of the main technological changes, turning it into the main physical support on which the Andean people reflected their religious ideology and different elements of their culture. Arts and crafts technologies, such as pottery and textiles, have been and still are reflective of the ideology and religion of Peru’s inhabitants.
Perspectives on technology and energy differ between the urban cities and the indigenous tribal communities. While urban centers strongly reflect the modern growth perspective, most of the ribeñeros and other indigenous communities focus mostly on subsistence and sustainability. These different perspectives are closely related to the cultural background of the community itself. Technology is apart of culture; therefore the technology of particular communities reflects the cultural worldview of the community. However a large question remains—what happens when modern technology is injected into traditional ways of living? Some people may refer to this transmission of modern technology as “development,” but are these notions of progress and modern technologies ideal solutions or Trojan Horses?
During an interview with one of my tour guides in Iquitos, Roland, I asked about the quality of life of the 60,000 people living in the floating community of Belén and whether or not he has witnessed the influence of western technology and culture as helping or hindering the quality of life of these people migrating from traditional villages along Amazon tributaries. Many people, he said, think that moving to the city (Iquitos) will give them a better life and better education for their children—but their notion of better is influenced by their changing cultural worldviews. Converting from a traditionally organic and cyclical worldview to a more western, linear, growth-related perspective, changes the “wants and needs” of these people and as a result, their traditional idea of a better life is drastically altered into the modern mold. Roland explains that many people move back to their homes in the Amazon after realizing the different lifestyle, undergoing a culture shock where they no longer fit in and cannot anticipate behaviors, therefore finding it difficult to adapt. Roland insightfully argues that progress for these native peoples does not necessarily mean development solely by modern technology. The traditional rural technologies of the river communities rely on the cycles of nature, the abundance of vegetative life, and subsistence economies—creating what you need for yourself. However, this “bulletproof” localized system of rural areas changes when new western notions of progress are injected into the community. The interdependent, delocalized modern world is a more volatile system as it is dependent on foreign energy and fossil fuels instead of the formerly abiotic energy of traditional communities, such as human labor, animal labor, wind, water, and sunlight. An example of a type of modern developmental initiative is former President Fujimori’s introduction of power technology to ribereños residing in the Amazon Basin. Fujimori gave each village or community a generator to alleviate their symptoms of poverty, without realizing that these communities would benefit more from a recycled, more traditional form of energy instead of the largely western, delocalized system of energy-producing generators where fossil fuels need to be purchased each month and bills need to be paid to upkeep the modern technology. Because many communities cannot afford this, the generators end up sitting in the villages, unused or rarely used. Roland also mentioned in his interview the technological aspects of education in the Amazon villages versus the city of Iquitos. Elementary schools are present in jungle communities, but if they want a high school education or higher, they need to travel to Iquitos and many end up living in poverty-stricken Belén, where prostitution, sexual and child abuse is a big problem. In Belén, there is no notion of recycling as trash and plastic items pile up on the muddy riverbanks waiting to be washed away by the seasonal floods. The area’s waste excrement flows directly into the river, which the Belen community drinks from. However, an improvement that has been made recently is the introduction of a water tower that provides some running water for the community.
Visiting the Bora tribe, it was obvious that their technology included ancient, archaic, hands-on materials and processes. The making of string included the stripping and boiling of plants leaves, which are then dried and rolled over leg skin. Concerning the woodworking, there are no nails used at all. All buildings, supplies, blowguns, and other structures are held together by string and made by hand. The Bora hunt, gather, and fish for food, however, they do have contact with western technology and ideas ought the influx of tourism. Tourism and selling handicrafts has become a big part of their income, which is used to buy essential supplies from the city such as kerosene, matches, soap, and salt. Everything in the Bora community is recycled, such as animal skins, insides, teeth, and plants parts. Every material is used and nothing is wasted, which contrasts directly with the modern view of waste accumulation and disposability abundant in urban areas. Traditional dances of the Bora and Yahua include chanting in their native language as a way to connect young people in the tribe with their cultural heritage. These communities are incredibly inventive and creative. They have survived thousands of years as part of the original native inhabitants of the Amazon, however they are still plagued by poverty and malnourishment.
Visiting the Shipibo shops in Iquitos, it was clear that some western technology is adapted, however their culturally non-western technology is still apparent in their choice of dress, cloth-making materials, designs, and process for making textiles and ceramics. For example, they use all-natural dyes and boil the mixture to make paint. Yellow paint comes from a fruit found in the Amazon rainforest. The Shipibo use mainly traditional materials with a few exceptions. The woman we met was using a toothbrush and an umbrella tip to paint the intricate designs on cloth pieces when they traditionally used items from the rainforest to paint. The traditional designs take on several meanings and the traditional dress of the Shipibo is very colorful and uses a lot of geometric designs, however we did see people wearing western clothing as well. The Shipibo make some crafts to cater to tourists, which sometimes takes away from the once sacred process of making these textiles. With the process becoming less personal, there is less meaning attached to the end products that are sold as novelty items to tourists.
The villages that we visited around the Pacaya Samiria area, such as Nueve de Octubre and San Jorge, maintained an ecological worldview, molded aspects of their technology and culture after nature, invested in human labor and in their ecosystem, and routinely mimicked biology and nature in their technology. Before technology, you must have a particular attitude toward nature, and as a result this blurred line between nature and culture designates how available resources are used. Nueve de Octubre has a generator and power lines, yet the community decided to give up electricity because it could not afford electric payments every month, taxes on electricity, and the cost of fuel and oil to keep the generator working. Rising population growth has led the community to develop agricultural intensification within their subsistence farming, with each family working on its own chakra growing rice, beans, bananas, and yuca. There are no televisions, and no cell phones in either community. Communication is done through letter writing and carrying or short-wave radios. They have expressed their desire for new technology such as a public phone or cell phone to communicate with relatives in Nauta and Iquitos.
When discussing the technology and culture of a community, it is important to note the difference between community “wants” and “needs.” Adapting new technologies that are practical and make satisfying one’s needs easier is a much different transformation than wanting new technologies that are not essential, yet often after having it, you feel like you can’t live without it. Two years ago, no one at the Pacaya Samiria lodge had cell phones and they communicated from the lodge via people through message carriers and short-wave radios for emergencies. However, now the workers express their “need” for them. The new need for cell phones exemplifies the process of globalization and western ideas of material success influencing native tribes who have been previously technologically and culturally non-western. The transfer of technology means the simultaneous transfer of ideas, therefore with the introduction of western technology and ideas, the question remains—is it possible that the indigenous communities are losing their culture?
