The Quechua on MTV's Exiled

The group that caught my eye the most was the Quechua. This exclusive group of people can only be found in the highlands of South America. Peru and Ecuador are the areas where you would mostly find them in their natural surroundings without interference from cameras and large scale societies. I was first introduced to this fascinating culture through a video. The culture lives mostly along the regions of South America and Quechua is actually the official language of the Inca Empire.

The culture is considered isolated by topography but they do have access to modern material goods. This unique fact is crucial because this means that their culture is really susceptible to disease from the larger scale societies. A couple of days later I was watching MTV when I came across a show called "Exiled." As I continued watching I started to understand that the show sent spoiled girls and boys to places that are far off the map. The show I was watching had sent an eighteen year old girl to go live with the Quechua for one week so that she could appreciate her blessed life style that she took way past for granted.

In the show she was sent to the high altitude region of Peru. When she first arrived she needed the ambulances assistance because she was too high in the mountains and needed oxygen assistance from the paramedics. She worked side by side farming with Quechua family that she had to spend the week with and she gained more appreciation for the young girl that was in the family because she worked for food that was put on her plate alongside her family.

My boyfriend and I watched this episode together and brought up that these people are an isolated culture and I did not understand why MTV would bring their cameras in without doing any research on the community and how much danger bringing in someone from a large society could great affect their culture even if it was only for week. His response was people are well aware of this societies that are out there and have kept tradition because MTV continued this spinoff sending spoiled teenagers to alls sorts of locations with seven different cultures that included South Pacific island of Vanuatu, mountains of Peru, hot desert sands of Morocco with the Berber tribe, frozen tundra of Norway to live with the Sami tribe, remote hills of Thailand, and the plains of Kenya with members of the Massai tribe.

This show was more interesting to me because I knew what culture they were talking about. I think it would be a really interesting show to expose to the class but because it is on MTV I am sure that a lot of people have seen it. My told my mom about the show and she agreed that television shows would be selfish enough to enter a isolated society just for a new show or an increased rating. The both of us wanted to know whether the society was facing any king of mishap after MTV had filmed in the mountains, but they did not follow up on the family. If the society dies out from a disease it could have been avoided if they didn't film the show. My mom said although they probably offered the family money that they would never understand what a danger it was to accept the offer.