Peru
Peru is situated in the Andean region of South America and is a country of enormous diversity, both cultural - because it is home to more than 50 indigenous peoples - and biological - as it comprises three great ecological areas: the Pacific coast, the Andean mountains with peaks of more than 6,000 metres and, in the east, the Amazon rainforest. In the past, the Peruvian Andes was the heart not only of the Inca Empire, with its capital at Cusco, but also of other civilisations that grew up in the region. The current capital of Peru is in Lima and this was also the capital of the viceroyship of Peru in colonial times, until independence and the birth of the Peruvian Republic. The indigenous population remains substantial, forming a majority in some areas of the country. From a linguistic point of view, to the millions of Quechua and Aymara speakers of the southern highlands must also be added almost half a million speakers of 14 linguistic families of the forest region. The State, however, is reluctant to recognise these peoples’ forms of political expression or to move towards a plurinational State, as in other countries of the Americas, undoubtedly hindered by its colonial legacy as former seat of the viceroyship, the effects of which are still felt to this day.
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Indigenous peoples in Peru
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From The Indigenous World 2009 (pdf)
From The Indigenous World 2010 (pdf) |
