Review essay: The southern Andes and the peasant communities of contemporary Peru. About the "practical" relations between anthropology and history

Bibliographic critical essay

Abstract

The Peruvian south is the area in which the vast majority of peasant communities in contemporary Peru are concentrated. This region of Peru, which in its pre-republican history extended beyond Lake Titicaca, has been the object of study by a significant number of social scientists: historians, anthropologists, economists, geographers, etc. In the present work we will chronologically review the main studies that have been developed on this region and its peasant communities since the 1970s. In this way, we will give an account of the main lines of research developed in the Peruvian Social Sciences since that date: lines that, on the other hand, do not fail to show a particular seal: the continuous dialogue between Anthropology and History that has been taking place in the Peruvian social sciences since that date. In this way, and based on the analysis of a specific case, we aim to account for the benefits that an interdisciplinary perspective brings to the understanding of, at least, the social reality of southern Peru.