Identity and indigenous education in peruvian amazonia

Abstract

Throughout Peruvian Amazonia, state-backed educational institutions and pedagogical strategies have seldom emphasized the retention of indigenous knowledge. This in turn has historically undermined the cultural survival of the region's culturally diverse indigenous peoples. Indeed, the story of formal “modern” indigenous education in the Peruvian Amazon is intimately related to state-driven introductions of Occidental concepts of “progressive” development, eventually anchored to incorporation into global markets. While it is clear that prospects for indigenous peoples' cultural survival may be analyzed in general sweeping terms, it is also evident that a close analysis of each local or regional case reveals significant differences in approaches to contextualizing inter-cultural education and indigenous identity politics. Taking my cue from Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition, which provides a basis for understanding and critiquing neo-liberal commoditization of education, I explore some of these contradIctions as they find expression “on the ground” among indigenous peoples from Alto Amazonas, (Loreto, Peru). The chapter concludes by asserting that the intercultural educational environment in Peru must be formulated to include systems of Indigenous Knowledge that synergize both the school and the community's well-being.