 Since
pre-Columbian times Peruvians have been divided by nature. From
the arid deserts of the coast, the Andean Sierra rises up to 19,700
feet. The highlands comprise about a quarter of Peru's territory,
but are home to about half of Peru's population. This mountain
mass poses major problems for development and integration into
a single society. The result is dramatic regional diversity, and
considerable inequalities in services and living standards. Health,
education and law enforcement programs are unevenly distributed
across Peru.
At first sight, Peruvian culture may seem brutally
divided between indigenous and colonial societies - the mountains
and the city. Elite white creoles trace their bloodlines back
to the Spanish Conquest in 1536. Like generations before them,
most live in Lima, where a European visitor will feel a comfortable
familiarity in the cafes and supermarkets.
On the other side, rural communities now also
aspire to ownership of televisions and blue jeans but this comes
into conflict with their traditional cultural values. The people
of the Andes are maintaining the traditional practices of their
ancestors in a  rapidly
changing world. Their livelihood continues to be based on family-owned
fields or charkas which are farmed by hand or with the assistance
of draft animals.
The social organization of communities in the
Andes differs greatly from that of Europeanized creole culture.
Work, marriage and land-ownership are centered around a complex
extended family organization called the ayllu in Quechua which
dates back to at least Inca times. One of the main functions of
ayllus is to organize reciprocal work exchange.
Over the past 400 years, there has been a long
process of inter-cultural mixing, creating the mestizo of part-American
Indian, part-European heritage. Today the majority of Peruvians
would fall into this category. In Peru, you can become mestizo
not only by birth but by choice. Peruvian social divisions can
thus be said to be not so much racially as culturally defined.
The Andes have two large ethnolinguistic groups:
the larger of the two speaks Quechua; the smaller group speaks
Aymara and is settled around Lake Titicaca and also in neighboring
Bolivia. Beyond these global  distinctions,
other complexities arise. There are "white" ethnic groups
called the Morochucos of Pampa Cangallo who have light-colored
eyes and hair and speak Quechua.
The misti, the dominant social class in the Andes,
may speak Quechua and share other cultural traits but enjoy access
to education and the luxuries of the modernization. Meanwhile
in the Amazon jungle, there are at least 53 ethnolinguistic groups,
although only around 5 percent of Peru's population live in the
Selva (the tropical region east of the Andes in the jungle).
Due to its New World history, Peru also enjoys
a rich cultural diversity. Up to the 19th Century, landowners
brought in African blacks to serve as slaves on their haciendas
and frequently used them to repress the local Indians. Between
1850 and 1920, Chinese and Japanese laborers provided the hands
and backs to build railways over the Andes and farm the land where
there was a scarcity of labor.
A large majority of highland people live a marginal
and impoverished existence and are removed from the modern benefits
of the national economy. While retaining an unchanged loyalty
to their ancestral heritage, so well identified to the outside
world through their bright homemade costumes, the poor of the
Andes are nevertheless equally eager to share in the luxuries
of a "modern" lifestyle which includes  education,
electricity, sewage and running potable water. But rather than
improving, the economic conditions of these communities is deteriorating,
leading to massive urban migration.
Peru's middle class is the most difficult to
define. In the 1970's, with the integration of modernization,
the middle class grew into its own, both in Lima and in provincial
cities. This growth was due to the diversification of the economy
and to the expansion of the Peruvian state, both as a purveyor
of public services and as an entrepreneur. During this period,
roads penetrating into the Sierra and the Amazon Basin started
to link the hinterland with Lima and important coastal markets.
Mass communication began to reach out to new audiences.
Today, Lima, the capital has come to represent
all that went wrong with Peruvian development. One city now concentrates
most of country's services and other resources, but they are grossly
inadequate to sustain its 8 million inhabitants.
A striking feature of contemporary Peruvian society
is the massive scale of the informal economy. The decay of the
national economy has led to an abundance of traditional market
street trade and bartering at market stalls as an integral part
of daily life. Ambulantes (street vendors) can be found on every
corner selling a huge variety of goods.
Despite decades of political upheaval and social
unrest, Peru can now be seen to be entering a more stable phase
in its history. An increasing level of governmental consistency
and growing economic strength has led to growing confidence from
within.
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