Oswaldo Morales Tristan

Impact of Andean Cultural Values and Idiosyncrasy on Associative Model: Impact on Small Farmers in Peru Oswaldo Morales Tristan

Cultural values and idiosyncrasy1: the concept of culture is diverse among academicians. Mezias, Chen and Murphy (1999) define culture as ?beyond the programming of abstract values that people hold. They claim that culture provides the categories by which we understand the world as well as the scripts and schemes we use to guide behavior?. Cohen and Nathan (1998) say that ?culture structures our behavior, thoughts, perceptions, values, goals, morals, and cognitive processes although usually without consciousness too?. Richerson and Boyd (1996) state that ?culture is information that can affect the individual behavior that someone acquires from other members of their species through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social transmission?. Idiosyncrasy is the relative way of thinking that characterizes a person and in many cases is mentioned as a characteristic of a specific group of people, as when Lacki (1995) talks about the idiosyncrasy of the Peruvian farmer.