El espacio de la identificación cultural. Notas sobre el nacimiento político del orden de la diversidad cultural en los países andinos (Ecuador y Perú)

Abstract

The essay introduces a theoretical reflection on the genesis of a representational order of the social, cultural diversity, in the Andean region, and on the role the Social Sciences had in this process. The centrality of indigenous identities and their political demands in Latin America, more precisely in Ecuador, is presented as a typical case of the culturally diverse order. The text argues that a better understanding of those processes of identification, and of their absence, requires to pose a question about the socio-historical construction of different ideas of equality linked to two concepts of culture: culture as a process of cibilization and culture as difference. The theoretical argument is supported by the empirical research carried out in peripherical urban areas of Lima and Quito.