Water and power in highland Peru : the cultural politics of irrigation and development PDF
Preview Water and power in highland Peru : the cultural politics of irrigation and development
Page iii Water and Power in Highland Peru The Cultural Politics of Irrigation and Development Paul H. Gelles Page iv Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Gelles, Paul H., 1957– Water and power in highland Peru : the cultural politics of irrigation and development / Paul H. Gelles. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0813528062 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0813528070 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Quechua Indians—Agriculture—Peru—Cabanaconde. 2. Irrigation— Social aspects—Peru—Cabanaconde. 3. Cabanaconde (Peru)—Politics and government. 4. Cabanaconde (Peru)—Ethnic relations. 5. Quechua Indians—Peru—Ethnic identity. I. Title F3429.3.I77 G45 2000 333.91'3'098532—dc21 99049069 British CataloginginPublication data for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2000 by Paul H. Gelles All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 088548099. The only exception to this prohibition is "fair use" as defined by U.S. copyright law. Manufactured in the United States of America Page v for my mother, father, brother, and sister and for my friends in the Andes and in Lima Page vii Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Note to the Reader xvii Introduction: Channels of Power, Fields of Contention 1 1 History, Community, and Ethnicity in Cabanaconde 26 2 The Political Ecology and Cultural Politics of Irrigation and Land Recovery 46 3 Earth Mother, Cabildos, and Water Ritual 75 4 Dual Organization: Equilibrium, Extraction, and the Cargo of Water Mayor 98 5 The Power of the Pen: Patriarchs, Pudientes, and the State Model of Irrigation 118 6 Water Politics and Distribution on the Ground 138 Conclusion: the Cultural Politics of Irrigation, Community, and Development in the Andes 154 Epilogue 162 Page viii Appendices 165 Notes 173 Glossary 195 Bibliography 207 Index 223 Page ix Illustrations Maps and Figures 1.1. The Central Andes 2 1.1. The Cavana and Collaguas Polities 27 1.2. Contraction of the Cavana Polity 31 1.3. Cabanaconde and Surrounding Area 36 2.1. Production Zones in Cabanaconde 49 2.2. Cabanaconde's Irrigation System 53 2.3. Oblique View of Production Zones 56 2.4. Majes Project's Map of the Region 60 2.5. Local Representation of Land Recovery 67 2.6. Different Models of Water Management 69 2.7. State Versus Local Models of Water Distribution 70 2.8. Local Representation of Saya Divisions 72 2.9. Generic Representation of Saya Divisions 73 4.1. Duel Division of Cabanaconde's Production Zones 100 4.2. Suyus and Sayas of the Inka State 109 4.3. The Extent of the Inka State and Saya Divisions 111 Page x 4.4. Old Saya Division of Town of Cabanaconde 113 6.1. Cast of Characters 140 Photographs (pages 93 through 97) 1. Cabanaconde and Environs 2. Irrigation Water in Street 3. Irrigation Water Coursing over Terraces 4. Majes Canal 5. Water Mayor Overseeing Irrigation 6. Women and Children 7. Vicuña Fetus and Q'apa 8. Mount HualcaHualca 9. Harvest Q'apa (Mother and Daughter) 10. The Two Water Mayors Page xi Preface But were the seas made of ink And the sky a little white page And my fist a tiny paintbrush To write this watersong. Hualina from the community of Huachupampa, Huarochirí In the Peruvian Andes, as in many other parts of the world, irrigation water is a key element of production as well as a source of great meaning and conflict. I believe that to understand irrigation we must understand community. One of the predominant social forms and sites of cultural production in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, the Andean community must be understood as an inherently conflicted entity, as well as one that is constituted, in part, by a cultural orientation that joins local identity and production to sacred landscapes. My analysis insists that Andean irrigation must also be understood in terms of the ways that larger regional, national, and international forces enter the community and in terms of a wide cultural divide that exists in contemporary Peruvian society. Studying the historical roots, cultural logics, and political forces of state and local models of irrigation in the highland community of Cabanaconde, I show that different fields of contention—among members of a differentiated community on the one hand and between the state and the community on the other—are intimately bound together. My analysis of these contested domains sheds light on Peruvian cultural politics and "development," Andean communities and production, and the different means by which highland peasants defend their resources and cultural identities. Page xii If there is magic in the world, it is found in water. I have always thought as much, having grown up in the arid southwestern United States. I remember the magic I felt, at eleven years old, watching a "water witch" divine a well on a relative's property. His switch occasionally twitching as he walked here and there, it finally and definitively bent at ground zero, raising shadowy visions of underground lakes and rivers. Other tantalizing images associated with water filtered through my formative years. So when, in 1979, as an undergraduate exchange student in Peru, I first participated in an elaborate ritual celebrating water, it struck a chord deep within me. The "Water Fiesta" (Fiesta de Agua), the physical cleaning and spiritual blessing of an irrigation system, is a cultural form found in hundreds of Andean communities. The horse racing, feasting, dancing, singing, and ceremonial divisioning of the community during the fiesta, as well as the ritual offerings to mountains, springs, and ancestor deities, gave me an immediate appreciation of the spiritual, social, and emotional centrality of water in the Andes. I returned to Peru and carried out six months of fieldwork in the central highland town of San Pedro de Casta, located in the Huarochirí region, while pursuing a master's degree in anthropology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Lima from 1982 to 1984. 1 It was during this research that I first encountered the conflict between local and state models of irrigation. In Casta, the statesponsored Irrigators Commission ordained a new form of water management that challenged the cultural orientations and model of authority found in the Water Fiesta. Similar conflicts in neighboring communities convinced me that the clash between state and local models of irrigation was a widespread and significant process in highland society and that it deserved further study. I first visited Cabanaconde, the community examined in this book, in 1985. Since that brief first visit, I have returned many times. My longest stay in the community was for my dissertation research, from July 1987 to December 1988. I have since gone back for short stays, in 1991, 1994, 1997, and 1998. My research methods have consisted primarily of "deep hanging out," as Clifford Geertz has put it: that is, participant observation, informal interviews, and immersion in the community's lifeways. I also under
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