Improving Oneself

Abstract

Among rural-to-urban migrants in Peru, the concept of "improving oneself" (superar) refers to the process of overcoming poverty through dedicated efforts at self-improvement. This individual effort is situated as a moral act, occurring within a relational web of persons who should also benefit. It is described as a family project and a moral imperative for young people, and they internalize their role in this group effort. The concept is the economic, social, and moral foundation of the kinship strategy of child circulation, a practice in which children grow up outside of their natal homes. "Improving oneself" is a reason for relocating children into the homes of better-off urban relatives, as well as the justification for placing children with less-well-off rural relatives so that a parent can pursue the same goal.Peru is an impoverished and divided country in which great expectations are invested in young people. One way that these expectations are articulated and realized is through the extremely common but understudied kinship strategy 1 of child circulation. In child circulation, young people (ranging from approximately 4 to 18 years old) from small villages and towns are sent to live with city-based relatives. In this migration of the young, children provide assistance in the home of the receiving family, who in turn provide for their care and upbringing. In highland Peru such child circulation is commonly labeled "companionship" (acompañar), suggesting that the primary purpose of a child's movement into another's home is to relieve the other person's solitude, but it can often be viewed as providing the child an opportunity for education or better living conditions. Thus, child circulation is also frequently referred to by the child or his or her family using the Spanish word superar (to improve oneself or to get ahead). 2 Improving oneself is a cultural process that is central to the coming of age of many young urban Andeans. As children in this population come of age, they feel and articulate the limitations of their socioeconomic positioning and work Jessaca B. Leinaweaver is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Between

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