Translating cultures and the legislated mediation of indigenous rights in Peru

该项目将审查国家与秘鲁安第斯和亚马逊地区土著居民之间目前正在进行的谈判中法律的跨文化交流问题，过去三年来，谈判的规模不断扩大。2011年新当选政府通过的《事先协商权法》规定了这些谈判的框架，该法回应了国际立法规定的土著人民就其土地的工业发展问题，特别是涉及自然资源开采的问题进行协商的权利。在秘鲁这样一个多语言和多文化的国家，除了西班牙语这一多数语言之外，还使用属于大约16个语系的美洲印第安语言，在执行事先协商原则时，产生了跨语言和文化界限的沟通问题，目前正在通过若干手段解决这些问题。根据《事先协商法》的规定，必须遵守《语言权利法》（也是在2011年通过的），国家必须提供笔译和口译人员，以传达该法的信息，并调解跨文化边界的协商。《事先协商法》的文本已被翻译成五种土著语言，目前正在准备更多的翻译。在跨文化副部长办公室（也是在2011年创建的）的主持下，国家正在实施一项口译培训方案，100多名讲西班牙语和大约20种美洲印第安语言的双语者已经毕业，并正在签约为协商会议工作。秘鲁社会政策中关注土著人民语言权利和事先协商权的这种趋同，将法律、卫生和环境等领域结合在一起，给国家以及围绕平等问题与农村人口密切接触的非政府组织带来了新的挑战。在拟议的项目中，调查人员（两名来自英国，一名来自秘鲁）采取跨学科的方法研究文本产品（法律翻译）以及在这一新形势下出现的社会，文化和语言过程（口译培训和实践）。为了使范围易于管理，我们将集中精力将法律文本翻译成四种语言，两种高地语言（盖丘亚语和艾马拉语）和两种亚马孙地区语言（阿沙宁卡语和阿丘阿尔语）;我们将得到受过语言培训和有翻译经验的双语顾问的协助。我们将利用人类语言学、翻译和口译研究以及秘鲁土著语言社会语言学的工具来解决首要问题：在秘鲁国家与土著社区之间进行调解的笔译和口译工作在多大程度上实现了更平等待遇的表面目标，在一个等级森严的后殖民社会中，促进国家与土著居民之间更和谐的关系，同时允许在各方都满意的条件下实现可持续经济发展？为了更好地了解这些进程的背景，我们将与两个项目合作伙伴（一个政府部门和一个能够接触土著社区的非政府组织）合作。我们将采用混合方法收集和分析数据，使用ELAN软件协助处理。我们将通过在秘鲁和英国举办的讲习班和专题讨论会，以及通过专门的项目网站和学术期刊上的出版物传播成果。我们将通过在协商地区（库斯科和伊基托斯）举办公共活动，确保在秘鲁产生影响。

This project will examine issues of cross-cultural communication of the law in negotiations that are currently taking place, on an escalated scale over the last three years, between the state and the indigenous populations of the Andean and Amazonian regions of Peru. These negotiations are framed by a Law on the Right to Prior Consultation, passed in 2011 under a newly elected government, which answers the internationally legislated right of indigenous peoples to be consulted on matters regarding the industrial development of their land, particularly where extraction of natural resources is at stake. The implementation of the principle of prior consultation in a multilingual and multicultural country like Peru, where Amerindian languages belonging to some 16 language families are spoken in addition to the majority language, Spanish, raises problems of communication across language and cultural boundaries, which are being addressed by a number of means. Under the terms of the Law on Prior Consultation adherence must be made to the Law of Language Rights (also passed in 2011), whereby the state must provide translators and interpreters to transmit the message of the Law and to mediate the consultations across cultural boundaries. The text of the Prior Consultation law has been translated into five indigenous languages, and more translations are being prepared. The state, under the aegis of the Viceministry of Interculturality (also created in 2011), is delivering an interpreter training programme from which more than a hundred bilingual speakers of Spanish with some twenty Amerindian languages between them have already graduated and are being contracted to work on the consultation sessions as they arise. This convergence in Peruvian social policy of concern with language rights of indigenous peoples and the right to prior consultation, brings together the spheres of law, health and the environment, in a way that creates new challenges for the state, as well as for the non-governmental organisations working in close contact with the rural populations around issues of equality. With the proposed project the investigators (two from the UK and one from Peru), take an interdisciplinary approach to researching the textual products (translations of the Law) and the social, cultural and linguistic processes (interpreter training and practice) that are emerging in this new conjuncture. To keep the scope manageable, we shall focus on translation of the text of the Law into four languages, two of the highlands (Quechua and Aymara) and two of Amazonia (Asháninka and Achuar); we shall be assisted in the task by bilingual consultants with linguistic training and experience of translation. We shall bring the tools of anthropological linguistics, Translation and Interpreting Studies, and sociolinguistics of Peruvian indigenous languages, to bear in addressing the overarching question: to what extent is translation and interpreting in contexts of mediation between the state and the indigenous communities in Peru achieving its ostensive aim of greater equality of treatment, contributing to more harmonious relations between state and indigenous populations in a hierarchical postcolonial society, while allowing sustainable economic development to take place in conditions satisfactory to all sides? To come close to the contexts in which the processes are taking place, we shall work with two Project Partners (a government ministry and a non-governmental organisation with access to the indigenous communities). We shall apply a mixed-method approach to data collection and analysis, using ELAN software to assist processing. We shall disseminate results through workshops and symposia in Peru and in the UK, as well as via a dedicated Project website and publications in academic journals. We shall ensure impact in Peru through public events in the regions where the consultations are taking place (Cuzco and Iquitos).