Tactics of Intersubjectivity and Boundary Construction in Language Policy: An Andean Case

Based on an ethnography of a language policy in the region of Apurímac in the Peruvian Andes, I analyze the boundaries that are constructed by a community of practice of Quechua “experts” in a context where resources in the indigenous language become more valuable. Although the declared wish is to build a regional “us,” Quechua experts end up establishing identity divisions between “us” and “them” through tactics of intersubjectivity based on ethnic difference, authority and authenticity. This work follows earlier studies about language ideological battles in relation to Quechua and shows that, after several decades, the former top-down language policies coming from the capital city are now being recursively reproduced within the Quechua-speaking social actors themselves, and the conflict has diversified into new dilemmas.