ANNOTATION

"Vast, multidisciplinary collection contains previously published articles and excerpts from books on Peruvian themes. Concerns archaeology, history, political systems, resistance movements, drugs, and cultural issues. Includes ethnographic contributions of Peruvianists such as Irene Silverblatt, John Murra, Jos￯﾿ﾽe Mar￯﾿ﾽia Arguedes, Catherine Allen, Orin Starn, and others"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Sixteenth-century Spanish soldiers described it as a land filled with gold and silver, a land of untold wealth. To the Europeans who heard these stories it was a place of tantalizing mystery that mirrored dreams and desires unsatisfied by the Old World. Nineteenth-century travelers wrote of soaring Andean peaks plunging into luxuriant Amazonian canyons of orchids, pythons, and jaguars. Early twentieth-century adventurer Hiram Bingham told of the raging rivers and the wild jungles he traversed on his way to "discover" the "Lost City of the Incas," Machu Picchu. The richest treasures, the bloodiest conquest, the most poignant ballads, the most violent revolutionaries—all have been attributed to Peru.

Unparalleled in its scope, comprehensive, and written for the traveler and specialist alike, The Peru Reader offers a deeper understanding of the country that lies behind these images. Beginning with extensive historical material on topics ranging from Peru￯﾿ﾽs extraordinary pre-Columbian civilizations, through the Spanish conquest, to colonial and postcolonial rule, it weaves together a vast array of essays, folklore, historical documents, poetry, songs, short stories, autobiographical accounts, and photographs about this largest of the Andean nations. Works by contemporary Peruvian intellectuals and politicians, many translated for the first time, are presented here. The voices of the country￯﾿ﾽs often silenced underclass—peasants, street vendors, maids, Amazonian Indians, African-Peruvians—will also be found in this richly textured anthology. Blending together with the best of Western journalism and scholarship, these voices also address matters of contemporary Peruvian culture and politics such as the Maoist insurgency of the Shining Path, the cocaine economy, and the ongoing struggle for dignity and justice in a multicultural nation where Andean, African, Amazonian, and European traditions meet.

Unique among books on Latin America, intellectually ambitious, but with appeal to a wide readership, The Peru Reader provides an in-depth look at the history and cultural complexity of this Latin American nation.

About the Authors:Orin Starn is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University.

Carlos Ivan Degregori is Director of the Institute of Peruvian Studies and Professor at the National University of San Marcos, Lima.

Robin Kirk is Research Associate at Human Rights Watch -Americas and a contributing journalist to The Boston Globe, Ms., The Nation, The Progressive, and other periodicals.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

As indispensible for the first-time visitor to Peru as for the serious student of Latin American history and culture. — (Michael F. Brown, author of War of Shadows: The Struggle for Utopia in the Peruvian Amazon)

A livelier, more literate, introduction to a foreign world could not be hoped for. A Peruvian trove, indeed; so much that one hardly knows where to begin dipping into its treasures. — (Alma Guillermoprieto, author of The Heart That Bleeds: Latin America Now)

Original and lively, with indigenous and vernacular voices richly represented, this book brings together an astonishing range of primary texts to introduce readers to the cultural and political history of what is now Peru. Nothing like it exists, in English or Spanish. — (Mary Louise Pratt, author of Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation)