This valuable book views modern Peruvian narratives of ethnic conflict through the prism of transculturation - the mutual influences of indigenous and criollo (Spanish American) cultures. It challenges the popular assumption that modernization and democratization go hand in hand and asserts that an imposed modernization has only increased inequality in Peru. To Kokotovic (Univ. of California, San Diego), cultural reciprocity is essential to bridging the ethnic chasm that separates the two Perus. He focuses on Peru's famous Indianist writer José María Arguedas, who rejected absorption of the Indian and incorporated the language, music, and worldview of Andean Peru into his multilayered narratives. Such hybridity is anathema to Peru's criollo elite, who regard the Indian as an atavistic dead weight. For Arguedas, however, indigenous peoples are autonomous actors capable of negotiating modernization. Thus, to transculturalists, indigenous culture and modernity are not contradictory; the problem lies not with the Indian but with criollo prejudices and an alien modernization. Kokotovic's compelling point is that narrative transculturation produces a heterogeneity that enriches literature and suggests ways of achieving a more just society. Though Kokotovic is somewhat hard on those who do not share his views, his insightful study will benefit students of Latin America and modernization alike. Highly recommended.'
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