Research Article
Lima’s Criolla Music, A Polyhedron of Thousand Points:
A Conversation with Bruno Benavides Allaín on Representation and the Self in Visual Anthropology
Luis Andres Caceres Alvarez*
Issue:
Volume 12, Issue 1, March 2026
Pages:
1-16
Received:
26 December 2025
Accepted:
14 January 2026
Published:
30 January 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ash.20261201.11
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Abstract: Criollismo and criolla music appear on the academic agenda in an intermittent manner: they emerge forcefully, only to later dissolve once again. In his master’s thesis in Visual Anthropology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), Bruno Benavides Allaín weaves together family memory with a critical gaze that distrusts fixed definitions. His research, Idyllic Landscapes: The criollo within me, begins with a documentary dedicated to his grandfather, the painter Óscar Allaín, and expands into a broader exploration of criollismo as an affective, performative, and deeply urban experience. Benavides Allaín understands that “the criollo” does not refer to a single category, but rather to a field of tensions in which class, memory, nostalgia, humor, exclusions, and everyday gestures coexist. He acknowledges the dilemma of studying which constitutes him: family heritage, the figure of the grandfather, the codes of the jarana. He also observes how the audiovisual makes it possible to capture nuances that escape textual analysis: rhythms, silences, bonds, and ways of being together. His work proposes approaching criollismo not as a static tradition, nor as a golden myth of a lost Lima, but as a mobile polyhedron in which each generation projects different meanings. The research reclaims performance, domestic archive, and autoethnography as legitimate pathways for thinking about identity. From the camera and through reflection, it invites a reconsideration of criollismo as an emotional territory that still pulses, even if from the fragility of its memories.
Abstract: Criollismo and criolla music appear on the academic agenda in an intermittent manner: they emerge forcefully, only to later dissolve once again. In his master’s thesis in Visual Anthropology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), Bruno Benavides Allaín weaves together family memory with a critical gaze that distrusts fixed definition...
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Research Article
The Journey of Spanish Silvers in China: The Legal Evaluation of Currency Sovereignty During the Qing Dynasty
Yang Yang*
Issue:
Volume 12, Issue 1, March 2026
Pages:
17-27
Received:
9 January 2026
Accepted:
19 January 2026
Published:
30 January 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ash.20261201.12
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: In ancient China, copper coins were legal currency. From the mid-Ming Dynasty onwards, China established close trade ties with the world through merchant ships between Fu Jian and Manila, utilizing goods such as silk, tea, and porcelain, and participating in the early globalization process led by Spain, silver gradually replaced copper coins as the standard currency. Spanish silvers played a crucial role in the aspects of domestic life and international trade: they were the earliest foreign currency introduced to China, circulated most widely, and were used for the longest period. They served as the transaction currency in economically developed regions of ancient China, such as Guang Dong, Guang Xi, Shang Hai, Fu Jian, Macau, and Jiang Su, and were widely used by residents in real estate transactions, temple repairs, canal construction, and civil engineering projects. They were the international settlement currency for the Maritime Silk Road and served as the model for silver coins minted independently by the Qing Dynasty, remaining in use for 300 years until their withdrawal from China in 1935. This article, based on materials from the China Customs Museum, the China Fiscal and Tax Museum, and the Guang Dong Museum, uses historical analysis, comparative analysis, and legal analysis, employing scenario-based descriptions as source material, to attempt to demonstrate the legal significance of national sovereignty and monetary sovereignty. The gradual loss of currency sovereignty reflects the ignorance of the emperors in the Forbidden City, the indifference of the vast bureaucracy, the microcosm of the country becoming a colony, and evidence of China’s economic backwardness since the 19th century.
Abstract: In ancient China, copper coins were legal currency. From the mid-Ming Dynasty onwards, China established close trade ties with the world through merchant ships between Fu Jian and Manila, utilizing goods such as silk, tea, and porcelain, and participating in the early globalization process led by Spain, silver gradually replaced copper coins as the...
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