Andean Cosmologies Through Time: Persistence and Emergence

Concerned with Andean cosmology both as the manifestation of a system of belief and as a way of thinking or worldview that orders the social environment, this volume advances an explanation of why Andean indigenous communities are still recognizably Andean after a half-millennium of forced exposure to Western systems of thought and belief. Dealing with cultural authenticity in an Andean context, the essays describe a process facilitated by a cosmology which readily integrates the accoutrements of non-Andean community. At issue is not so much what is authentic but, rather, how it is perceived to be authentic and how it is so maintained. The nine authors explore a model in which a consistent and persistent cosmological discourse leads, not to an emergent social order, but to a social order which continually emerges as a peculiarly Andean phenomenon.

Author: Robert V. H. Dover
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 06/22/1992
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.31lbs
Size: 9.33h x 6.37w x 1.04d
ISBN: 9780253318152