SOCIETY
Population
Peruvians are predominantly mestizo (a mixture of Spanish and indigenous heritage) and Andean Indian, but the population is a true melting pot of ethnic groups. Significantly Afro-Peruvians (descendants of African slaves), Japanese and Chinese populations among the largest in South America, and smaller groups of Europeans, including Italians and Germans, are among Peru’s 27 million people.
Religion
Peruvians are mostly of the Roman Catholic faith (89.03% of the population), another religion in the country that have been winning converts is Evangelical (6.73% of the population). Animalistic religious practices (worship of deities representing nature) inherited from the Incas and others have been incorporated into the daily lives of many Peruvians and can be seen in festivals and small individual rituals such as offerings of food and beverage to Pachamama, or Mother Earth.
Language
Spanish is the official language of Peru. The Amerindian languages Quechua and Aymara are spoken primarily in the highlands. As part of its rich cultural tradition, Peru features many other different languages. In addition, other languages are spoken such as Aymara (in Puno) and a startling variety of dialects in the Amazon jungle, which are divided up into 15 linguistic families and 43 different languages.
ARTS AND CULTURE
Music and Dance
Music and dance are fundamental to the very fabric of Peru, a fact to which the country’s innumerable colourful festivals will attest. Music and dance forms, like dress, vary greatly by region.
Amerindian-altiplano and andina (highland)-music, played on wind instruments such as bamboo panpipes, quena flutes, bright-sounding and guitarlike charangos, and other instruments, are known worldwide. The classic Andean highland tune El Condor Pasa, adapted by Simon and Gardunkel in the 1970s, is world famous.
There is evidence of music in Peru dating back 10,000 years, and each region has its own sistinct sounds and dance. Musical historians have identified more than 1,000 genres of music in Peru.
Dances associated with Afro-Peruvian music include lively and sensual festejo dances, in which participants respond to striking of the cajon, one of the Peruvian music essential instruments. The Alcatraz is an extremely erotic dance. Females enter the dance floor with tissue on their posteriors. The men, meanwhile, dance with lit candles. The not so subtle goal on the dance floor is for the man to light the woman’s fire (and thus become her partner).
The huayno is the essential dance in the Andes, with pre-Columbian origins fused with Western influences. Couples dancing the huayno perform sharp turns, hops and tap-like zapeteos to keep time. Huayno music is played on quena, charango, harp and violin.
The marinera, a sleek, sexy, and complex dance of highly coordinated choreography, is derivative of other folkloric dances in Peru. Marinera festivals are held across Peru, but the most celebrated one is in Trujillo in January.
Lastly, one of the most captivating dance in Peru, is performed by the scissors dancers. Their danza de las Tijeras is an exercise in athleticism and balance. Dancers perform gymnastic leaps and daring stunts to the sounds of harp and violin. The main instrument played to accompany the dance is the pair of scissors, made up of two independent sheets of metal around 25 centimetres long.
Festivals
In Peru about 3000 typical fiestas are celebrated every year. The majority of those are organized to celebrate the day of a santo patron (a saint). Those saints originally formed part of the Christian calender in the Colonial Period but they were always mixed with the magical religion of the Andean regions. A good example of this “cultural syncretism” is the Festivity of Corpus Christi in Cusco. This religious day, originally introduced by the Spaniards, was accepted by the Peruvian inhabitants as for them it had little to do with Catholicism, so much more with an old Inca ritual.
Especially in the traditional village high up in the mountains or in the jungle, there are several traditional celebrations, that related to ancient myths and/or important agricultural dates.
Peruvian Textiles
Textiles played an important role in Andean society. Textile arts were extremely labor intensive and required extraordinary skill. A single tunic might be made from 6 to 9 miles of different colour thread. Textiles were valued more than gold or silver, unlike the precious metal the Spaniards coveted, and signified the wearer's high social status and political power. The Incas gave textiles as the highest form of tribute.
Sacred fabrics were also for important persons who were buried and wrapped in elaborately woven and embroidered mummy bundles and were meant to accompany the wearer to the next world. Gravesites were located in the coastal dunes, which are the world's driest coastal desert. This was the main reason that Andean textiles were so well preserved, with some stretching back to 3000 BCE. Many fabrics were also created for ritual sacrifice and were burned as offerings to the sun (Inti-Inca sun god) who was considered the highest of the celestial powers.
These ancient textiles were created with a very high technological and intellectual point of view and were very sophisticated. One piece often incorporated several techniques. The artist was representing spiritual or intellectual meaning, not trying to describe a literal truth. . Reverence of animals, transformation and communication between this world and the spiritual world were probably the intention of the composite human/animal images.
These ancient textiles are surprisingly complex as the design may be of an orderly and repetitive bird design on a solid background—but no two images are alike. The works of the Spanish Colonial Period are a synthesis of indigenous and European styles. Circular compositions are prominent rather than the horizontal reorganization of the Andean aesthetic.
References:
http://www.culturalexpeditions.com/history_peru_textiles.html
http://www.amautaspanish.com/amautaspanish/english/peru/fiestas.asp
Frommer's Peru
Life Among the Incas by Reader's Digest
