Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the complex and often contradictory ways in which positivist ideas have influenced indigenous policies in the Andes around the turn of the 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

The late 19th century saw the beginning of a flurry of ideas to incorporate the indigenous populations in the sacred ideal of the nation state. Pessimism about the possibilities for modernization in the new republics gave way to the conviction that progress was inevitable. A necessary prerequisite, however, was the incorporation of the popular indigenous masses. this paper explores how these objectives came together in indigenista thinking in the Andean republics, in the late 19th and early 20th century