From the Corner of the Dead. Mythical Thought in Ayacucho

The book analyzes an aspect generally neglected in development policies: the way in which the population of a region constructs mental categories to understand its reality and act upon it. It invites us to take mythical thinking seriously, as a coherent language with its own logic that has been the conceptual instrument of the peasantry, allowing it, even amid all the historical vicissitudes generated by conquest and colonial domination, to maintain control of its social relations and guide its production activities. The work proposes a historical and cultural approach to regional development, contributing to the debate on what constitutes precisely one of the thematic areas of the Grupo de Estudios para el Desarrollo. The work does not claim to provide practical guidelines for immediate application, but it opens a perspective that, if absorbed by development agents, would allow many errors in working with the highland peasantry to be avoided. (Excerpt from presentation).