Rodrigo Chocano (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú)
This paper studies how class and ethnic prejudices permeated participation politics in the nomination process of Afro-Andean Atajo de Negritos to the UNESCO ICH Representative List. Urban educated Afro-Peruvian activists advanced this nomination to raise national awareness about Afro-Peruvian culture in general. This approach nevertheless downplayed the local agendas of underprivileged grassroots 'bearers' at the center of the nomination. While urban Afro-Peruvians expected local populations to engage in the nomination out of a shared ethnic consciousness, the latter developed instead a reluctant form of participation that challenged this ethnic solidarity based on a perceived, class-informed, power imbalance.
Part of 14-01 Heritage Studies and Folkloristics, Part II: Nationalism, Class, and Heritage Policies, Monday, October 18, 2:15 pm–3:45 pm