Wednesday, 29 January 2014

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




Thursday, 23 January 2014

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