Summary from Chotuna Chornancap

About a month ago we returned from Peru with many new thoughts and impressions which we have processed during the past weeks. At the same time we have had many obligations to attend here in Sweden. However, here comes a resume of the visit and interviews in Chotuna Chornancap.

The Chotuna Chornancap project was started by the National Arachaeological Museum Brüning and Carlos Wester, who also helped us during our visit. The museum have worked at the site since 2006 so the project is just in its starting up phase. The project focuses a lot on the community around the cultural remains. The locals have many benefits from the project. Among other things, many of the local inhabitants have been able to participate in the excavations in the huaca if they wished. The coming season will however not allow any excavations, but the area have a site museum with about 4000-6000 visitors every year. The archaeological project has also helped the communities get running water and electricity as well as arranged for a paved road to be built from the town Lambayeque to the small communities. The inhabitants as well as the tourists will be able to transfer a lot faster. The road is what the inhabitants of the villages surrounding Chotuna Chornacap pointed out as the single most important change that the archaeological project creates.

Unlike San José de Moro most of the persons we interviewed around Chotuna Chornacap told us that they could participate in the project, but some chose to not since they preferred to work with farming and fishing. Many of the people that we interviewed also had ideas about how they and the community could develop with the archaeological project and the tourism that follows.

Although there are many differences between the projects in San José de Moro and Chotuna Chornancap we were able to see some similarities in the answers from the interviewed. The participants in Chotuna Cornancap pointed out that:       

•  The archaeological project has affected the children’s education in a positive manner.

• The project has affected the communities in the area in a positive manner.
• Looting has decreased to some extent in Chotuna Chornancap (even though the looting hasn’t been that pronounced as in San José de Moro).
•  Due to a wider knowledge of the archaeology and the history of the site, people value their cultural heritage a lot more than before the archaeological project begun. 

The next step for us is now to transcribe and translate all the interviews to be able to wider analyze and discuss the results of the study. We will continue with the updates in the blog as we advance with the transcriptions and conclusions.

The Site of Chotuna Chornancap

Interviews

Interviews in San José de Moro

During our time spent in the north of Peru we have heard a lot of thoughts and ideas considering archaeology, cultural heritage and its impact on the village of San José de Moro and the villages surrounding  Chotuna Chornancap. We went door knocking, and the local community members that we spoke to were very helpful and gladly answered our questions. Most of them had many interesting ideas and perspectives which made it difficult to stick to the short survey questions (which we were going to use for a quantitative analyze). We realized rather quickly that it would not work to perform the 60 questionnaires. Therefore, we decided to make the most of the situation by making fewer but more profound interviews to let the persons we met tell us their story and their thoughts about the archaeological projects. We ended up with eleven stories and perspectives from San José de Moro and parts of these we will present here later on. Some of the persons that we interviewed preferred to remain anonymous and their answers will be presented without photos.

As can be expected, the narratives that we got the opportunity to listen to varied to an extent.  However, we have already been able find some common thoughts about how the archaeological project has affected the village and its inhabitants. Without any deeper analysis of the material collected, we can mention some of the common traits that were expressed in San José de Moro:

•           The archaeological project has, at least to an extent, affected the children’s education in a positive manner.
•           Looting has decreased to a great extent in San José de Moro.
•          Due to a wider knowledge of the archaeology and the history of the site, people value their cultural heritage a lot more than before the archaeological project begun.
•         People do not think that all the inhabitants of the villages have the same opportunity to partake in the positive outcomes of the archaeological project.

In Chotuna Chornacap, outside of Lambaqeque, we performed an identical information collection as in San José de Moro. We will write about Chotuna Chornacap and our experience in the surrounding villages in the upcoming posts.

The next step for us is now to transcribe and translate all the interviews to be able to wider analyze and discuss the results of the study.

In action...

Preparations

We have spent most of the past week in sunny Lima, preparing our trip to the villages in the north of Peru where our research will be conducted. Among other things, we have worked on the language used in the questionnaires, adjusting it to the focus groups in the villages. Most of the senior inhabitants in San José de Moro lack secondary school education, whereas the younger generation has a greater access to higher education. On the contrary, the adolescents have no experience of the local community before the archaeological work started. Due to these factors, we have chosen to develop two different versions of the questionnaire.

We have had a meeting with Luis Jaime Castillo Butters at the Ministry of Culture, who started the archaeological project in San José de Moro, for more extensive background information about the local community. Further ahead we will have an interview with Castillo Butters to get his view of the development in San José de Moro. Today we met up with the Sustainable Preservation Initiative contact in Peru, Solsiré Cusicanqui, whom is helping us get in contact with the persons responsible for the project of Chotuna Chornacap, among them local politicians, project managers and archaeologically involved key individuals living in the adjacent villages.

Tonight we’re heading north with a short stop in Trujillo before we on Sunday will travel to San José e Moro to explore the local inhabitants thoughts about the archaeological project. 

Meeting with Solsire Cusicanqui and Luis Jaime Castillo

Visiting the Ministry of Culture

It begins

After a  long journey across the Atlantic Ocean we are now excited to begin our work here in Peru (see the page "our aim" for information). We are in the process of getting in touch with the persons responsible for the archaeological projects in San José de Moro and Chotuna Chornacap. The coming Monday we will meet with Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, professor at Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perù and vice Cultural minister. Castillo Butters started the excavations in San Jose de Moro in 1991. As the site was target for extensive looting, Castillo Butters employed several local looters as work force, wishing for decreased looting. As the years have gone by, the local integration in the archaeological project has increased and the looting has gladly decreased. A lot of persons in the village are now sustaining themselves economically through archaeological and/or cultural heritage related jobs. For more information, see (http://sanjosedemoro.pucp.edu.pe/) or read about the communities here on our blog.

Through this blog, we wish to share with you the journey of our project evaluating how local community integration in archaeological projects affects the communities socioeconomically. We will in this forum mainly write about everyday thoughts and reflections that we experience along the way of the study. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us!

Best regards
/Clara Alfsdotter and Maria Åkesson