Paper short abstract:

Through an ecology of relations based on ethnographic researches, the aim of this paper is to show how the Q'eros of the Peruvian Andes modify their relations with non human entities while being confronted to climatic changes.

Paper long abstract:

The Q'eros are an indigenous group living on the oriental slope of the Cordillera Vilcanota, in the department of Cuzco. They are split into five transhumant communities spanning three 'ecological levels'. Climatic changes, especially through changes in rainfall patterns, significantly impact the agricultural productions of the Q'eros, and endanger the health and existence of their livestock.

The majority of Q'eros explain these meteorological and climatic changes through a degradation of the reciprocal relations between themselves and non-human entities, in particular their divinities, the Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Apu (the mountain spirits). This interpretation tends to make the Q'eros feel guilty, particularly for thinking only of commercialising their ceremonies for the inhabitants of Cuzco and the tourists. By abandoning these ritual practices, or by undertaking them with less rigour and participation, they have, in their opinion, broken the reciprocal relations they usually maintain with their divinities. Consequently, the rain falls ever more profusely during the rainy season, and, by contrast, does not fall sufficiently during the dry season. In turn, cultivating crops and breeding animals has become ever more difficult.

Through an ecology of relation based on ethnographic researches, the aim of this paper is to show how the Q'eros modify their relations with non-humans while being confronted to climatic changes.