Hip hop Huancayo: Youth identities, performative sites, and the politics of legitimation

Kyle E Jones, Purdue University

Abstract

This thesis explores the individual and collective ways in which hip hop is involved in the shaping of social and cultural worlds among youth in Huancayo, Peru. Through the lenses of identity and performative sites, this thesis examines the intersections of agency, politics, and power in the practices and performance of hip hop in Huancayo. Anthropological theories of youth, identity, and globalization are utilized to examine the ways in which hip-hoppers forge identities through hip hop culture and discourses of authenticity, and rearticulate their own senses of cultural identity and difference. An analysis of the narratives of the historical development and specific sites of performance of hip hop in Huancayo highlights the localized experiences and contexts which shape youth identities and hip hop performance. The linking of articulations of identities to the tensions of performative sites illustrates how hip-hoppers negotiate numerous points of authority and levels of politics through a process of legitimation, which shapes their capacity for individual and collective action and expression through hip hop.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Kelly, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Cultural anthropology|Latin American Studies

COinS