Social Sciences and the Novel in Peru: A Study of Identity and Nomenclature in Todas las Sangres by José María Arguedas

Abstract

Comparing the methodology of José María Arguedas with that of other anthropologists and writers in Peru in the 1960s, shows how his particular approach, which merges anthropological and literary epistemologies, not to mention his empirical and intuitive, and also professional, knowledge of the Andean region, distanced itself from hegemonic political and academic discourses of the time. The article examines this in the light of a series of Round Table discussions held halfway through the decade, and focuses on the theme of identity, taking as specific points of reference Arguedas's penultimate novel, Todas las sangres, published in 1964, and his anthropological work, in particular his doctoral thesis on the peasant communities of Zamora in Spain. In the latter, Arguedas reveals that rather than resist social changes, isolated communities are in dynamic articulation with them and actively respond to them. This is reflected in the process of socio-economic and cultural stratification, that is, in the fragmentation of ethnic groups and local sense of identity. Arguedas captures this in his novel through a nomenclature which accentuates cultural ambiguity, thereby also dismantling the traditional indigenista thesis based on the señores-indios dichotomy.