Society, individualism, and modernity in Peru

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the peculiar character of the constitution of individualism emerged among common people and cholo in contemporary Peru, to try to observe some possible trends. The antecedents of the cholo individualism from the beginning of last century were based on the Andean culture that facilitated its progress and slowed down social uprooting. The expansion of social individualism, as a result of the massive Andean migrations in the sixties, promoted the belief in personal development, the communal legacy in the formation of slums and the diffusion of informality. And, in recent decades, individualism has become a hybrid process combining neoliberal egocentrism, oligarchical creole vivacity, authoritarian (gamonal) violence, informality, commodification and utilitarian pragmatism. It seems that the possible developments of individualism and communalism have moved according to a dynamic of their own that links modernity and Andean cultural heritage.