Navigating ethnicity in Peru: a framework for measuring multiple self-identification among indigenous Quechua women

ABSTRACT

This article maps the particular statistical representation of diversity that becomes visible when Quechua ethnoracial identification in Peru is framed as multiple. It does so against a backdrop of uncertainty regarding how to categorize the heterogeneity and complexity of subpopulations, which arise when multiple ascriptions are considered. Using the 2007–2008 Peruvian Demographic and Health Surveys, which provide data of women of reproductive age, the study examines how indigenous Quechua women self-identify and what factors affect their choices. We modeled the relationship between a number of cultural and sociodemographic variables and a self-identification measure that offered respondents the opportunity to identify with multiple ethnoracial categories and to ascribe to them with different degrees of intensity. Challenging the prevailing contraposition between indigeneity and mestizaje, the study reveals that multiple self-identification can yield relevant insights into cultural diversity and sociodemographic variability within the Quechua population, and offers an acceptable trade-off between the reductionism of single option self-identification and the maximized validity of unprompted open response methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnicity
• identity
• indigenous
• Quechua
• race
• surveys

Notes

1. We adopt the term ‘ethnicity/race’ or ‘ethnoracial,’ understanding that beliefs of inherited cultural difference have a corporeal significance, and that ‘race’ as a set of markers that refer to phenotypical characteristics (skin color) is used to maintain and revise ethnic and other social boundaries through identification and categorization structures, processes, and events.

2. The section on ethnicity was included as part of the project ‘Raising Awareness on the Connection between Race/Ethnicity, Discrimination, Poverty and Health Inequalities in Peru,’ a joint initiative of GRADE and the Peruvian Cayetano Heredia University, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. After a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions in urban and rural sites in Lima and Cusco regions (Planas and Valdivia 2007, 2009), a repertoire of locally salient proxies for ethnicity was identified and part of these indicators was included in the survey section.

3. Two ethnoracial categories – criollo and cholo – were included in the 2007–2008 ENDES, but have been excluded from our analysis since our interest was to compare results with conventional categories used in official national databases in Peru. See N. Valdivia (2012) for a detailed description of available databases in Peru.

4. Because of the small N, we do not acknowledge respondents in the total sample who speak Aymara and other Amazonian indigenous languages and self-identified whether as Quechua (N = 72) or as non-Quechua (N = 636).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria-Elena Planas

Maria-Elena Planas is at the Interculturality and Gender Unit, School of Public Health and Administration, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Av. Honorio Delgado 430, Lima 430, Peru (Email: [email protected])

Barend Middelkoop

Barend Middelkoop is at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Postzone VO-P, Postbus 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands (Email: [email protected])

Viviana Cruzado

Viviana Cruzado is at the Peruvian Ministry of Economy and Finances, Jr. Junin 319, Cercado de Lima, Peru (Email: [email protected])

Annemiek Richters

Annemiek Richters is at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Postzone VO-P, Postbus 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands (Email: [email protected])