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Groundbreaking interdisciplinary insights into gender studies in Andean Latin America, addressing transformative societal shifts and anti-genderism.

The collection Decolonising Andean Identities presents ground-breaking work from scholars carrying out social science research in and from Andean Latin America. It addresses themes of central importance to contemporary perspectives on interdisciplinary gender studies and politics in societies undergoing significant social transformation, by bringing together several in-depth ethnographic accounts and a diverse range of methodologies that will appeal to a wide audience. Taken together, its essays offer insights into the transformative role of gender in Latin America, providing the first academic collection of scholarship to give critical context for the rise of anti-genderism in the Andes.

Decolonising Andean Identities aims to develop the field of decolonial gender studies by showcasing interdisciplinary work at the forefront of scholarship. It draws on international expertise through its diverse contributors, including predominately Latin American scholars. In this way, it addresses the urgent need to broaden the perspectives on gender and gender-based activism in Latin America beyond the Southern Cone and Mexico, so that scholars can bring the region as a whole into dialogue with global scholarship.
 

Planning Quechua Families: Indigenous Reproduction and the Peruvian State examines how reproductive health is shaped by a history of colonial power, state intervention, and social upheaval. This ethnography is centered on the experiences of Indigenous women in the Andes. The book situates contemporary family planning within the legacy of forced sterilizations and political violence during the era of Shining Path terrorism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Rebecca Irons brings together the perspectives of both Quechua women and the health-care workers who serve them, offering a nuanced account of how reproductive services are experienced, negotiated, and contested in rural clinics.

The book explores how reproductive health is embedded within broader processes of social change, including “Incanization,” shifting ideas of citizenship, and efforts to integrate marginalized communities into the Peruvian nation. Irons demonstrates how Indigenous understandings of kinship, health, and identity intersect with state policies and biomedical practices, revealing forms of violence that are often less visible but deeply consequential. 

By placing Indigenous reproductive experiences within a wider cultural and political context, Planning Quechua Families provides a critical perspective on how power operates through intimate aspects of life in the contemporary Andes.