Race, Status, and Biodiversity: The Social Climbing of Quinoa
This article investigates the scientific and local knowledge of biodiversity of quinoa in Peru and its association with racialized classification schemes—both for humans and for plants. While race is purportedly used as a classificatory tool, it has a deep history of negative discrimination that transcends application to people and has been applied to other species associated with racialized humans. This article reports compiled data on the nomenclature of quinoa varietals from Andean farmers from the altiplano in Puno, Peru. This research demonstrates that domesticated plants that have deep connections to human diversity and traditional cultures can be racialized. These plants are also critical to the maintenance of biological diversity.