The experiment was a research program aimed at improving the quality of life of a highland hacienda community in Peru. The study examines the success of the program in achieving its broad range of development goals, to raise agricultural productivity, to improve health and nutrition, to increase literacy and to increase Vicosinos' sense of self-worth. The project did not have a significant impact on values or on the traditional world view. During that five year period from 1951-1956, the Vicos community changed from one of drastic under the rule of a "sponsor," to that of an independent, self-governing and economically practical community
Under Allan R. Holmberg's strong leadership, the Cornell Peru Project introduced primary education, modern agricultural techniques and government by consent to "Vicosinos." At the same time, the former hacienda became something of a laboratory for social science research. Studying the effects enabled him to advance anthropological understanding of community change processes. The population was surveyed psychologically, physiologically, and economically. Holmberg believed that the quality of life at Vicos could be measurably improved with the integration of the hacienda into the national economy and society. He planned a series of activities designed to reverse a negative spiral of effects suppressing the Indian population. He sought to increase literacy, to familiarize Vicosinos with the larger society, to encourage migration, to raise agricultural productivity, to improve health and nutrition, and to increase “Vicosinos” sense of self-worth, and their faith in progress and each other. Also, he hoped to train Vicosinos to take control of their own destiny, to regain control of the hacienda, and to govern it themselves.
In the video clip Holmberg used the expression “participant intervention.”
