The Chavín Ruins

So, I'll get pictures of the ruins up when I can--I moved hotels today,
to a place that has a better cellular connection (the other place was
behind the mountain, although 50' away, the cell reception was
excellent), but the internet is still moving (rather, stumbling), like
one of the inebriated gentlemen I saw lurching up the main drag in town
here this evening.

The Chavín culture is pretty old--we're taking about 900BC or so to
600AD, if I remember correctly--a lot older than the Inca culture, which
was only a couple hundred years when a pig herder named Pizarro showed
up in 1520 or so and screwed everything up for those folks.

Typically, when I go to places like this, I like to buy a guidebook to
the side and skip the guided tour--I get bored by movies, television
programs, and guided tours of archaeological ruins. Here in Chavín,
there are almost no such services--not even a museum shop, but I was
able to buy a pirated copy (that is, photocopied and spiral bound) of
what I understand to be *the* work for popular consumption on
Chavín--_Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilizatin_, by Richard
Burger, from an indigenous guy hanging around the front gate. A pretty
good deal, for 10 soles. I would feel guilty, if I had seen anything
else for sale along the lines of a book there, but the only things you
can get are knickknacks...

Anyways, one theory about the origin of the Chavín society goes
something like this:

1. An egalitarian group of semi-nomadic pastoralists and farmers
settles in the region, and everything goes great.
2. Somebody figures out that they can gain a privileged position by
claiming access to divine knowledge.
3. It works.
4. The resulting stratified civilization finds that, as a relatively
well-organized group along a major trade route between the coast and the
jungle. they have the power to tax traders traveling through their
territory.
5. A good time is had by all.

An interesting story about the way in which beliefs (correct or not) can
have an impact on rationality. It probably seemed rational for the
peasants to pay tribute to the priest-kings of Chavín, since the
priest-kings would call down the wrath of god on their heads if they
didn't. On the other hand, that doesn't seem very rational at all to
your average ethical monotheist. Or, for that matter, to the average
member of the cult of the market.

In this case, it does indeed look like there were benefits to most of
the local citizens of the resulting stratified society, but in many
cases (the Inca come to mind), the benefits may have been small, indeed.

Of course, I disclaim any understanding of this area. I'm no
archaeologist. I study modern local governments.

Pakistan, the Taliban, other nouns that end in "an"...

So, a couple of days ago, Zane posted about the situation in Swat, in
Pakistan, with the Pakistani government signing a truce with the Taliban.

Zane noted that Mancur Olson's work suggests that, if we perceive the
Taliban as "the bandit," this may be good for things. While the roving
bandit has an incentive to pillage (and frankly, who doesn't love to
pillage), the stationary bandit has an incentive to make things richer
in the territory he/she controls (although, of course, there isn't a lot
of female leadership in the Taliban).

On one hand (sounding like an economist, unfortunately), I think this
might be accurate. There might also be a couple of other beneficial
effects of the Taliban taking over, too. First, they might do what the
neo-Wahabbi (sp?) fundamentalists did in Anbar, in Iraq, and end up
getting rolled over by the locals, who eventually decide that they like
things like non-religious music and alcohol. Second, they might become
more pragmatic through the act of governance--deciding that they might
have to allow things like alcohol in order to stay in control of the
situation.

However. I wonder about three things.

First, can we characterize the Taliban as "bandit-like"? Isn't one of
their appeals to the locals the fact that they _don't_ pillage? Taliban
rule is perceived, by some, as beneficial, because although their rules
are draconian, they're honest, and they really enforce their rules
impartially, so, for example, all women showing their ankles are stoned
to death, not just the poor, politically-unconnected ones.

Second, I wonder about a potentially missing cognitive component.
Olson's theory assumes that the "stationary bandit" _knows_ how to
improve the situation. Does he? Do the poorly-educated, mostly
illiterate people who run the T-ban really know enough about how the
world works to generate economic growth in the region of the world that
they now control? Maybe the answer is yes--I don't know. Maybe all
that's really needed is some good sexual-deviant stoning, and the
occasional loose-woman burning. In all seriousness, though, maybe all
that's needed is some law and order (of the kind that the Taliban will
undoubtedly bring).

Finally, I wonder if it's accurate to describe the "stationary bandit's"
incentives as beneficial to the population at large. There are clearly
some "stationary bandits" in places around the world. A couple in
Africa, for one thing. Robert Mugabe comes to mind. But the reality of
his rule has been very different from the positive spillovers we might
assume would take place from Olson's theory. If the Taliban are, in
fact, bandits (and the only Bandit I'm willing to recognize without
further examination was played by Burt Reynolds) then will they behave
like Robert Mugabe, or like someone more desirable as a ruler, like
(say) Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia? Or, for that matter, Ernesto
Villa?

Chavín de Huantar

Made it to Chavín de Huantar today. All the locals just call it Chavín,
but that could be a problem as there is at least one other "Chavín,"
Chavín de Pariarca, in the area.

The bus trip out here is simply amazing! It really reminds me of
driving through the Alaska range, and at times, it really resembled
parts of Colorado--one particular spot reminded me of that hairpin turn
on the far side of Loveland Pass. The difference is that there aren't
any sheepherder's huts going over Loveland Pass. I got some pretty good
pictures--I'll put them up when I have a better internet connection,
though that will probably be a while.

Just a couple of interesting notes...

The first thing is that I managed to miss my stop on the bus, and ended
up going over a bit. This was not a major problem--I was able to take a
combi (shared van) back to Chavín--but it added a little bit of
adventure to the day.

The combi was particularly easy to catch, because the road was blocked
in between Chavín and San Marcos, the next town, due to a paving
project. I asked the combi driver about that.

"Yeah. The road's blocked for two days. It was closed yesterday, too.
It will be open tomorrow."

Seriously? There are other ways to get to the towns on the other side
of that road, but not via paved roads, and the alternative is probably a
10 or 12 hour ride, rather than two or three. So those people,
basically, are cut off from the rest of the country for a couple of days.

This is probably not as big a deal as I make it out to be--there are
landslides that block these roads all the time--but it never ceases to
amaze me the myriad ways in which things operate differently down here.

Of course, at least they get the government to pave the road for them.
A number of the places I visited in Carhuaz received no such
services--if there was a road, the locals had built it (and maintain it)
themselves, by hand. Paving is out of the question--they simply don't
have the capital.

Once I got to town, I found a room, and dropped my stuff. The good
thing about the room is that I have a balcony on the Plaza de Armas,
with a beautiful view. The bad thing is that they are now performing
one of the Carnaval traditions out in the Plaza, which involves rather
loud music, and the ubiquitous bottle rockets. The other bad thing is
the absence of a good cell connection--ironically, thirty steps away, I
get a great cellular connection, but there appears to be a small rise
blocking my view of the tower.

On the up-side, the town itself is really pretty--even this far out in
the sticks, they really know how to put together a Plaza. And it doesn't
hurt that there are huge, pre-Incan ruins right outside of town. From
the Chavín culture, incidentally, hence the name.

We'll see how friendly people are at the muni. tomorrow, but so far, so
good.

Carnaval

Today is carnaval down here. This means that I'm more or less trapped in the hostel, as I'm not too keen on getting soaked in the countrywide water-fight that breaks out today. I've been watching these little girls (maybe 10 years old) all day standing on the roof of the house across the street, dumping buckets of water on unsuspecting passers-by.

Dodged a couple of water balloons earler, though I've (fortunately) so far avoided the attention of the roving bands of university students with buckets that (occasionally) are broken up by the police.

All of the gringo cafés are closed today, so I'm not able to get by Belgian Waffles and carafe of french-press coffee at the "California Café." I can't complain about the food in Carhuaz--generally, I've had it pretty good over the last week or so--but I can't pass up a chance at waffles, and although the coffee here is great, they never give you enough of it (enormous, Starbucks-sized cups haven't caught on here yet).

Hopefully, tomorrow.

In other news, I finally got the registration for my copy of Stat/Transfer for Mac. This has been an onging saga for a couple of weeks, but the end result is that I've spent the day at the Peruvian INEI (National Institute of Information and Statistics) web site. The data store, as they say, is open. It's totally amazing what they've got here. Although it's weird that they seem to use SPSS, and none of their files are available in .txt or .csv format. But they have household surveys of, among other things, poverty, education, political participation, services, ninja skills... You get the idea. Forget a dissertation. One could make a career out of doing data analysis on this stuff.

I suppose they must have a reliable place where they can buy bootleg copies of SPSS. I'll have to track it down next time I'm in Lima.

Vicos

Pictures of Vicos are up. Check out the album by clicking on the link in the sidebar.

Sunset

Lovely, lovely Carhuaz. Carhuaz, by the way, really is lovely, unlike Huaraz, which is kind of a dump, but in a nice place.

...it's good to be back on the road again...

So, I've about worn out my welcome here in the muni (That is, in the municipal building. In town, people are super-friendly), and I've pretty much gotten the story on the situation here in Carhuaz. Moving on tomorrow back to Huaraz, then on to Chavín de Huantar on Thursday, to continue with the interviews. I've gotten in about 15 interviews here, plus numerous informal conversations, a couple of hikes, a visit to Vicos, and about four hair-raising encounters with angry dogs.

All of the locals think I'm nuts to be carrying a cane, but what can I say? Los perros no les gustan los gringos. Especialmente ellos con bigotes.

The story on Carhuaz is pretty much as follows:

Most of the people I've talked to either think the mayor is (a) incompetent, (b) corrupt, or most likely, (c) both. He got voted in by taking strategic advantage of the nationalist/pro-indigenous tide that swept Peru in the last election, and hasn't done much since, except for print glossy brochures and hire a professional public relations guy.

Okay, I exaggerate, but let it suffice to say that the policy here has not impressed me.

On the other hand, the civil society actors are really on the ball. Which leads me to believe that he'll have a hard time of it the next time around. However, there are two problems:

1. No checks and balances. The Peruvian electoral laws say that the municipal council always consists of at least a majority of the party of which the mayor is a member. This is supposed to generate efficient policy making and less gridlock, but what it seems to do in Carhuaz is make sure that nobody's looking over the Mayor's shoulder.
2. Too many parties, no run off, etc... When the mayor is running against 15 others, he doesn't need a majority to win. In this case, he only needs about 25%. This makes it a lot easier to buy off your cronies and get them to vote for you.

Nevertheless, we'll see what happens. I haven't been impressed by the government here, but as I said, the citizens are quite well informed, at least about their local government, and they seem to be pretty well organized. I'm looking forward to following this municipality in the future!

Man oh man... You all should have seen the sunrise that I just watched out of my window. We'll see if the pictures come out.

New Pictures Up

Hi all,

I've put up some new pictures of lovely Carhuaz and environs. Click on the picture in the sidebar to get to the album. I'll write more about my adventures in getting these pictures tomorrow.

Civil Society and Rationality

In an interview today, one of my interview subjects talked a bit about the reasons for the decline of an important participatory forum here in Carhuaz. In between comments about "kids today" and questions about life in the states, she said that there were two reasons for this decline.

And as it turns out, this middle class Peruvian from a small town in the Andes is a rational choicer.

First, there is a cost associated with participating in such an organization, both in terms of time and in terms of money (in many cases, at least). These costs can deter many people from getting involved in the first place.

However, there are benefits to belonging to such an organization—among other things, there is the opportunity to press for policy change at the local level in a particular form that may be more advantageous to you. This is a real possibility in a small place like this, where you might be one of only a couple real movers and shakers in the political scene.

So basically, your probability of joining such an organization would be a function of the utility you were likely to receive from joining. But if your opportunity to shape policy is lower, than there is less of an incentive to join, because you lose that piece of the utility you would get from participating.

So broadly, if you have a mayor or local government uninterested in what your organization has to say, there will be fewer people interested in participating.

As such, one might argue that the presence of a strong civil society is contingent upon the existence of a fair degree of give and take between government and civil society. A democratic government might need a strong civil society to be effective, but a strong civil society also needs government.

This is a little different from my take on government in the rural areas, where there is no state presence, so your probability of participating in a “participatory forum” that resolves local problems might be much higher.

I’m an anarcho-communitarian again.

Notes

A couple of things:
1. Some more new pictures of Carhuaz are going up--you can get to them by clicking on the (same) picture in the sidebar.
2. I took some of the links to my older photo albums down, but you can still get to those albums by clicking on the one photo link, then looking at the new albums at the photo web site.
3. I love the pineapple soda, especially when it's not adulterated with rancid goat blood.
4. Aubrey, just because I want to rub it in--I want you to know, I'm staying at the most expensive hotel in town again (I didn't plan it that way--every other place was full), and although it's a little more expensive here in Peru, it's still only costing me $26/night. Breakfast's included. Breakfast includes homemade bread.

So, I got in a couple of more interviews in today--two or three, depending on what you call an "interview." The line gets pretty fuzzy sometimes. But I talked to two people in the muni, including the municipal public relations official.

Yeah, you read that right. This primarily agricultural rural Peruvian town, where 70% of the population lives below the (Peruvian) poverty line and 40% of the population is considered malnourished has a PR guy. And some glossy brochures to back him up. They also have a tourism official who only speaks Spanish. Go figure.

So, perhaps my new found Anarcho-Communitarian belief system is losing some of its luster. I kid, of course. I'm a revolutionary syndicalist.

Anyways, although the people at the muni. are plenty nice, they are also extremely vague. And their vagueness seems to correspond rather nicely to the story that all of the citizens and community leaders I've talked to so far have told me--that the mayor and his people aren't doing a good job.

There is, however, a possible explanation for this that might be a little bit more optimistic. Maybe he's doing works out in the rural areas. And maybe this is an interest group story--maybe his constituency is the rural population. That certainly is what he's claiming. Of course, the muni's glossy brochure is also taking credit for the ATM installed in the Plaza de Armas by the Banco Comercial de Peru. Hmm...

Anyways, I need to get out into the boonies here, anyways, including possibly making a trip to nearby Vicos, Peru, of Ron Brunner fame. Time to see what a Laswellian paradise really looks like. In theory, there should also be a Peace Corps volunteer wandering around out there somewhere as well, working in agriculture. I should look him up. Just what I need.