Rehearsing Identities.

State and Indigenous Peoples in Contemporary Peru

Abstract

This is not a typical review, which identifies the contents and praises the virtues of the author and the text, but rather an effort to continue some of the debates the book presents or contextually refers to. The review focuses on the political problems of the "essays" and historical constructions of identities and social categories related to "indigenousness." It is based on the discussion that took place during the book's public presentation, which included historian Laura Giraudo and political scientist and former vice minister Iván Lanegra, as well as the author, Ludwig Huber, and Raúl Hernández Asensio, director of publications at the IEP. It continues with two critical analyses of Huber's defense of the possible use of self-identification as indigenous as a resource in a highly unequal social, economic, and political struggle.