01658nas a2200205   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653008300043653002100126653000900147653003300156653001000189653001800199100001500217245015900232856011800391300001200509490000800521520092300529                                       d10a(from the AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus and Library of Congress subject headings)10aAfrican diaspora10aPeru10aIntangible cultural heritage10aMusic10aparticipation1 aR. Chocano00aStrategic Skepticism: The Politics of Grassroots Participation in an Afro-Andean Nomination to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative List  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85166255195&partnerID=40&md5=877e2193a31f40f9361f1dc6ae5e8b7c  a249-2730 v1363 aThis article analyzes the grassroots participation politics in the nomination of a set of Afro-Andean musical and dance practices—atajo de negritos and pallitas—to the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. These are performed during the Catholic celebration of Christmas in the Ica region in Peru. I suggest that the participation of grassroots practitioners in this case study featured a behavior pattern I label“strategic skepticism.” This behavior is a critical but passive form of grassroots engagement, alternative to both compliance and resistance, which allows a form of local agency that clashes with the neoliberal logics of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage process. The article, based on fieldwork conducted in the region of Ica in Peru between 2017 and 2018, includes perspectives from grassroots practitioners and state Intangible Cultural Heritage officials. Copyright