ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how movement in space can be related to a reconfiguration of social categories and identities that people sometimes attempt to negotiate the way they are positioned in such social categories. In Jerusaln, people seem to associate the notion of progress with the life standard of the middle class, or modernization, industrialization and economic growth. The quest for mobility and progress seems to be associated in many respects with becoming more mestizo-like also through the acquisition of cultural capital of a certain kind, like education or urban manners of speech, dress and behaviour. Many people worry about being discriminated against because of their Andean background, and therefore are always careful about how they dress when they go to the centre of the city, particularly before encounters at public offices. In Peru, the same person may be considered a mestizo in the highlands and a serrano in the city, thus illustrating the situational and contextual dimension of identification.
