Mountain, Field, and Family: The Economy and Human Ecology of an Andean Valley [Reprint 2016 ed.] 9781512800982

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Mountain, Field, and Family

Mountain, Field, and Family: The Economy and Human Ecology of an Andean Valley

Stephen B. Brush

University of Pennsylvania Press / 1977

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Brush, Stephen B. 1943Mountain, field, and family. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Peru—-Economic conditions—1968 2. Indians of South America—Peru— Economic conditions. 3. Peasantry—Peru. I. Title. HC227.B79 330.9'85Oe3 77-24364 ISBN 0-8122-7728-7

Copyright

© 1977 by Stephen B. Brush

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Contents Preface

χι

Acknowledgments

ix

1 The Andean Way: Cultural Adaptation to a Mountain Environment Andean Geography Verticality: The Human Ecology of the Andes The Andean Resource System Patterns of Andean Zonation Studying Subsistence Systems among Mountain Peasants Field Methods

1

2 Uchucmarca: The Village and its People The Village of Uchucmarca The Upper Maraiion River and the Eastern Cordillera Population

22

3 The Early History of Uchucmarca Pre-Hispanic History: Chachapoyas The Prehistory of Uchucmarca Inca Domination The Spanish Conquest Uchucmarca after the Spanish Conquest Cultural Development of Uchucmarca

40

4 The Formal Organization of Uchucmarca The Peasant Community District Organization Intercommunity Conflicts Religious Organization: Saints and Celebrations

54

5 Resources For Subsistence: Land Life Zones of the Uchucmarca Valley Crop Zones and the Folk Taxonomy The Determination of Crop Zones Settlement Location in the Valley Land Tenure Land Distribution Alternatives to Ownership: Sharecropping

69

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6 Agricultural Technology and Labor Tools Farm Procedures Erosion Control and Fallow The Agricultural Calendar Phase of the Moon 7 The Exchange of Labor and Goods Reciprocal Labor Nonreciprocal Labor Exchange Mechanisms The Use of Cash Livestock 8 The Myth of the Idle Peasant The Employment Question Economists' Approach to Underemployment Economists' Critique of the Concept Anthropological Approaches to Underemployment Case Study of a Full-Employment Peasant Economy Nonagricultural Activities 9 How the Economy Works: The Role of Kinship Households Selecting a Marriage Partner The Extended Family The Role of Kinship in Sociedad: Case Studies The Role of Kinship in Sociedad: Overview Reciprocal Relationships as Action-Sets 10 A Peasant Economy in the Modern World Spatial-Demographic Adaptation Techno-Economic Adaptations Socio-Economic Adaptations Adapting to a Developing World Appendix 1 Religious Celebrations Secular Celebrations Appendix 2 Potato Varieties Appendix 3 Food Yields from Uchucmarca Agriculture Bibliography Index

List of Maps, Figures, Tables, and Illustrations Maps 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Peru Types of Andean Zonation Location Map of Uchucmarca Uchucmarca Valley Uchucmarca Life Zones of Uchucmarca Valley Crop Zones of Uchucmarca Valley (Schematic Diagram) Crop Zones of Uchucmarca Valley

3 12 23 25 27 71 75 76

Figures 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Immigration to Uchucmarca (Upper Valley Area) Immigration to Pusac Percentage of Total Population Per Age Group Perceived Environmental Hazards Beyond Crop Zones Agricultural Calendar Planning Agricultural Activity According to Plot Fertility and Phase of the Moon 7. Average Labor Demands in Field Agriculture—Per Family

34 36 38 82 100 103 131

Tables 1. Immigration and Marriage in Uchucmarca (by household) 2. Percentage of Certain Crops Planted in Different Zones during 1970 3. Acquisition of Chacras 4. Average Landholdings Per Household / Average Size Per Chacra 5. Land Under Sharecropping 6. Percentage of Households Involved in Agriculture 7. Labor Inputs Per Hectare in Man-Days 8. Percentage of Agricultural Labor by Crop 9. Timing and Nonworkdays Associated with Saints' Days vii

31 81 84 86 88 89 96 97 101

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List of Maps, Figures, Tables, and Illustrations

10. Payments in Crops Compared to Cash 11. Percentage of Crops Sold 12. Average Labor Requirements by Crop 13. Average Labor Requirements and Employment in Uchucmarca 14. Types of Kinship Relations of Socios 15. Outputs Per Man-Day and Per Hectare 16. Nutritional Values for Crops—Calories and Protein 17. Nutritional Outputs Per Man-Day and Per Hectare in Terms of Calories and Grams of Protein 18. Contributions of Crops to Available Calories and Proteins Per Day Illustrations

108 115 130 132 148 174 175 175 177

between pages 90 and 91

1. Aerial photograph (1962) of Uchucmarca. 2. Central plaza of Uchucmarca. 3. Typical house with kitchen on the left. Stairs on the right lead to a storage area where grains and tubers are kept. 4. Spinning and weaving. 5. House roofing fiesta. Women prepare a feast while the men finish the tile roof. 6. Guests at a faena feast on hominy, chicha, and mutton soup after threshing wheat. 7. Men and women along the side of the municipal building during a meeting of the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca. 8. A communal labor day to level village streets rutted during the rainy season. 9. Grandmother and her grandson. 10. A meeting of the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca. Men in foreground, women behind.

Acknowledgments The preparation of this book would not have been possible without the encouragement and wisdom of many other people. The restrictions of a preface such as this make it impossible to acknowledge all of the people who have, in one way or another, assisted me in my years as a student and traveler. The people of northern Peru have been most hospitable to me as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then as an anthropologist. They have given me hours of their time and food from their sometimes meager larders. Officials throughout the Peruvian government have been patient and helpful. Institutions that were particularly helpful include the Institute Geogräfico Militär for maps and air photographs, the Biblioteca National and the Archivo National for historical material, the Mintsterio de Relaciones Exteriores for visas, and the Prefectura del Departemente de la Libertad. Both my wife and I owe our deepest gratitude to Enrique Mayer and his family for their hospitality to us in Lima. In order to acknowledge our debt to individuals in Uchucmarca, I would have to list the Community roster. The officials of the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca, especially the President, Juan Abanto Merin, and the officials of the Municipal Council, especially the mayor, Tulio Navarro Diaz, were invaluable during the research period. Village schoolteachers were also especially helpful, particularly Ruperto Llaja Prieto and his wife Aurora Vega Rengifo, and Napoleon Navarro Prieto and his wife Maria Sanchez. Friends and neighbors surrounded us and made us feel at home in their lives. We were constantly welcome in the kitchen of Margarita Vega and her husband Gregorio Peyrera. The family of Julio Vega Navarro was kind enough to house and feed me for several weeks while I was in Pusac at the lower end of the Uchucmarca Valley. To Milciades Rojas Sagastegui and his wife Engma Rojas Navarro, I owe a special note of gratitude as my principal informants. I could extend this list out longer than anyone would care to read, but to those unnamed my debt is just as great. My work was generously funded by the National Science Foundation (grant GS-2836) and by supplementary grants from the University of Wisconsin Ibero-American Studies Ford Fellowship programs. These allowed me to stay in Peru for extra months, and a Summer Fellowship gave me time to think and write. I am also indebted to the Faculty Research Committee of the College of William and Mary for supporting my continuing research in Uchucmarca and Peru. To my friends, colleagues, and professors at the University of WisconIX

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Acknowledgments

sin and the College of William and Mary, I owe a great deal for their support and guidance. Dr. Donald Thompson, with whom we covered many adventuresome and enjoyable miles, was responsible for the funding that allowed me to conduct the research; and it was through his insights that the fascination of the eastern Andes became real to us. Dr. Arnold Strickon trained me in much of the anthropology I used in the field and later became a mentor in the preparation of this book. Dr. William Denevan primed me in cultural ecology and the importance of understanding a people's subsistence system. Dr. John Hitchcock has helped me to understand one Andean culture through his research into another mountain culture in the Himalayas. I am certain that no one writing about mountains or mountain peoples has had better or more tireless help in preparing their manuscript than that given me by Mrs. Susan Glendinning. Mrs. Sharon Vaughn helped with her preparation of Maps and Charts. Finally to my wife Peggy, I owe a debt which is impossible to repay in words. Without her constant companionship and assistance through both happy and difficult times, this book might not have ever been completed. She made a home for us in the Andes that was very hard to leave. I dedicate this book to her.

Preface "Oye . . . . Delfin," came the firm whisper and gentle tug on the heavy blanket pulled over his sleeping head. "It's early and time to go," said Rosa as she turned to go out to the kitchen where she had already laid a fire in preparation for breakfast. Delfin and Rosa did not own a radio to get the time from Radio Nacional like some of their neighbors, but the early cock's crow was warning enough that the day would soon begin. It was 4:30 AJ*., and Delfin eased himself out of the bed trying not to awaken Carlitos. Rosa was popping maize into cancha and boiling water for their usual cinnamon and molasses tea. As she patted out the wheat cakes, she reminded herself to ask Delfin to bring her a length of bamboo from the banks of the river near Santa Cruz to make a blow pipe for the fire. Carlitos had broken the last one trying to break dirt clods in front of their house as he had seen his hither do with a hoe in their fields. As Delfin pulled on his sweater and pants and fastened his rubber tire sandals, he thought of the day ahead. Yesterday, he had brought the mare from her grazing area above the village so that he would not have to waste time on that today. If he could get off before the sky became too clear, he could be well into the lower valley before mid-morning. His ultimate destination that day was the maize field in Balon owned by his cousin Praxides. They had been partners on this plot for two seasons now. Delfin's neighbor Gregorio had spotted a pair of mules from the other side of the valley browsing in the field and had managed to scare them off with some shouts, but Delfin would have to go there himself to survey the damage; he would have to find the hole in the stone and brush barricade that had let the mules through. He hoped that the mending job would not be too serious. With luck Delfin could find the mules or someone who had seen them and could identify them so that he could seek retribution from the owner. Maybe the damage was not appreciable. Delfin also wanted to check the fences around his field peas in the middle valley. From there he would climb to his other maize field; he would have to decide whether a second weeding would be necessary. If so, he would have to busy himself looking for friends and kinsmen to help him. He could at least count on his uncle, Eusebio, and on Tulio, whose crop he had helped weed last week. Besides these he would still have to hire a couple of peons. It looked like a good crop year in the lower valley with an abundance of rain. Delfin knew he had made a good decision in specializing in maize this year. If his harvest was large enough, the payments to the peons would xi

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not make a serious dent in their maize supply. He should harvest enough maize to exchange for potatoes; his own potatoes had been almost ruined by an attack of late blight. Luckily, there were always people who wanted to trade potatoes for maize. Delfin and Rosa ate in silence. As he pulled on his poncho, she reminded him about the blow pipe. He smiled at the thought of his son Carlitos trying to use the bamboo instead of a hoe. As he struck off down through the village toward the lower slopes, he reminded himself to keep an eye open for any ripe custard apples along the trail; they would make a special treat for his young wife and son. As he crossed the plaza, he greeted Geronimo who was headed to the pastures above the village with salt for his three cows. Delfin left the village alone, but he knew that he would meet several of his neighbors and kinsmen in the lower valley; this thought made him smile for the second time that day. This describes the beginning of a typical day for one family in the village of Uchucmarca in northern Peru. It briefly traces the path of one man for one day. Later that year, the direction of his path will be reversed. Instead of going down the valley to the lower crop zones, he will hike upward to work in the potato fields which lie on the upper slopes of the valley. If we followed his pathways and the pathways of his fellow villagers in the valley throughout the year, their imprints would cover the terrain like a web. This book will describe and analyze some of the features of the physical and social environment of one Andean village and valley. I hope to show how the village culture and individual inhabitants have adapted to the Andean landscape which surrounds them. In doing this, I will discuss the decisions and actions taken by individual villagers in their attempt to meet the demands placed upon them by their culture and in the face of obstacles placed before them by the factors of time, space, and the social structure within which they live. Their environment includes natural resources (principally land) and human resources (principally labor), which are available to and can be used by a particular individual. In addition, there are a number of institutions and reciprocal relationships that an individual may utilize to gain access to the resources needed for subsistence. In speaking of adaptation, I am referring to the process by which behavior is fashioned in such a way as to attain certain ends. My concern here is the set of cultural and personal patterns by which the people of one Andean valley in northern Peru produce and procure food. The natural environment in which they live is marked by tremendous diversity owing to the nature of the steep environmental gradient of the Andean landscape. The adaptations designed to produce enough food to sustain the lives of the participants in the culture are treated as two separable, but interrelated, types. On one level are cultural adaptations that allow the people of Uchucmarca to extract adequate subsistence from the Andean envi-

Preface

xiii

ronment. I will examine three such adaptations here: spatial-demographic, technological, and socio-economic. The second type of adaptation involves the day to day behavior of the individuals as they attempt to meet the need of feeding themselves. This type of adaptation is looked at as a strategic behavior for subsistence. These subsistence strategies are not only a response to the Andean environment but also a response to the socio-cultural environment of the village of Uchucmarca. The initial stages of this project began in the spring of 1969 when Dr. Donald Thompson asked me to join a team that would go to the eastern slopes of the central Andes of Peru in 1970. The object of the project was to investigate late pre-Hispanic occupation of the eastern Andes, drawing on archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources. It was hoped that all three of these would provide information about the prehistoric and modern land use patterns of the Andes. Of particular interest was how people before and after the Spanish Conquest utilized the highly diverse Andean landscape. Besides Dr. Thompson and myself, other members of the project included Dr. Rogger Ravines of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Arqueologja and Mrs. Ann Saddlemire Rovner. The first field operation in Peru was an extended survey in the area of the upper Maranon River in order to locate a site that would be satisfactory to the different members of the project. This survey, which lasted four months, covered roughly 300 kilometers of the upper Maranon River from the Department of Huanuco to the Department of Amazonas. An extended survey was conducted in the area of Llamellin in eastern Ancash. At one point my wife and I traveled by horse and foot from the high jungle area of Μοηζόη to the town of Rapayän on the western side of the Maranon. This trip took some five days and brought us within sight of the spectacular Cordillera Bianca of the Callejon de Huaylas. Our first introduction to Uchucmarca came in early October 1970. On that first trip, which lasted five days, I sensed that this village would be a good one to live in and study. The Peasant Community of Uchucmarca controlled a valley that contained many of the Andean zones we had explored further south; the factors of size and isolation were satisfactory; the village was in an area that had hitherto been unstudied by anthropologists; finally, and perhaps most importantly, the people of Uchucmarca were among the most open and hospitable we had encountered in our months of surveying. After deciding that Uchucmarca was, indeed, the place where the research would be most satisfactory, my wife Margaret and I prepared for the trip that would establish us in a permanent field station. We arrived with three mules laden with supplies in early December 1970. After renting a house from one of the village schoolteachers, laying a hearth, digging a latrine, and having a table and a couple of chairs built, the research on an An-

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dean ecosystem began. A regular schedule of interviews with friends and informants was kept, and notes were recorded at night. With the help of a paid assistant, Sr. Milciades Rojas Sagastegui, I conducted a lengthy census covering over 90 percent of the village. Later on, Milciades and I surveyed a selected number of households to determine labor inputs into and outputs from agriculture. These households were visited several times in an effort to cross-check their information. Besides these surveys, censuses, and interviews, my wife and I worked on maps of the village and of the Uchucmarca Valley, and we made as many trips as possible into the surrounding area to observe people at work in the subsistence agriculture of the community. In November 1971, after eleven months in the village, we departed from the place and people who had taught us so much. In 1974, I revisited the village from June to August, where I was greeted with the same hospitality that brought us to Uchucmarca in the first place. During the three years of my absence, the outward appearance of the village had undergone change: a cement border and walk had been completed around the plaza, construction of a market place had begun, and a vacant room under the municipality had been converted into Uchucmarca's first secondary school. These changes, I feel, are highly representative of how dynamic this "traditional peasant" village is. As I hope to show in the following pages, these changes are the latest steps in the on-going adaptation of the village to the Andean landscape and culture that surround it.

The Andean Way: Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

Unlike so many people, I was not at all depressed by a sojourn in a narrow valley where the slopes, so close to one another as to take on the look of high walls, allowed one to glimpse only a small section of the sky and to enjoy at most a few hours of sunlight. On the contrary, I found an immense vitality in the upended landscape. Instead of submitting passively to my gaze, like a picture that can be studied without one's giving anything of oneself, the mountain scene invited me to a conversation, as it were, in which we both had to give of our best. I made over to the mountains the physical effort that it cost me to explore them, and in return their true nature was revealed to me. At once rebellious and provocative, never revealing more than half of itself at any one time, keeping the other half fresh and intact for those complementary perspectives which would open up as I clambered up or down its slopes, the mountain scene joined with me in a kind of dance—and a dance in which, I felt, I could move the more freely for having so firm a grasp of the great truths which had inspired it. Claude Levi-Stiauss (1967: 334)

The environments and landscapes of the high Andes are among the most spectacular on earth, providing constant variety and challenge to inhabitants and travelers alike. The great altitudinal differences, which can be traversed in a matter of hours or days, offer a series of climates that in other parts of the world where latitude is the determining factor may take weeks and even months to cover. Mountainous terrain compresses the major climatic zones of the world into single hillsides and valleys. There are places in the Andes where one can stand in a temperate valley, surrounded by tropical crops and wild flowers and look up across a landscape where trees and other vegetation dwarf, become tundra, and eventually disappear beneath a cover of permanent snow and ice. The vitality of the land and climate constantly impresses itself upon the viewer. As one travels through the Andes, two things become apparent by their repetition. The first is the immense variety of the mountain landscape with its multiple altitudinal floors, each characterized by different microclimates and biotic communities. The second is the adaptation of the indige1

2

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

nous population to this landscape. This book examines these two factors and how they relate to one another in one Andean valley. For some eighteen months, my wife and I traveled and studied the relationship between these two factors in northern Peru. For eleven months of that time, we lived in one village which is characteristic of other isolated villages in the Peruvian Andes. The village was Uchucmarca, standing at some 3,000 meters in altitude. To the west of the village, within one long day's horse ride, flows the Maranon River, which has carved an immense canyon some 3,500 meters deep. This rugged terrain has imposed isolation on the Andean people. The fragmented landscape divides and isolates the areas which are inhabited. Footpaths, horse trails, and roads must be laboriously carved into hillsides, and some are washed out yearly in the winter rains. Distances can be deceptive. I remember standing on a pass on a clear day and looking westward over the rolling ridges which characterize the northern Andes. Within easy eyeshot were a road and some houses; they would take some twenty hours to reach by conventional transportation: walking or perhaps riding a horse or mule. By using the modern means of transportation (horse plus pickup truck), this distance might be reduced to twelve hours. Regional and national integration have been objectives of political regimes in the Andes for a thousand years. The fame of the Incas rests squarely on their success in this integration. For most Andean people, however, the links to the outside world have been too ephemeral and fragile to depend on. Thus they have adapted their cultures and economies to the local environment, creating independent and self-sufficient subsistence systems based on cultivation and herding. Andean Geography Peru has attracted some of the world's finest geographers, such as Humboldt and Raimondi, and such well-informed travelers as von Tschudi and Squier. Like contemporary scholars, these men were drawn to an area where dramatic changes in altitude yield a series of environmental shifts (variations in temperature, rainfall, drainage, exposure, and slope) that in turn directly influence the natural biotic community. As one geographical observer noted about the Andes, "nowhere else on earth are greater physical contrasts compressed within such small spaces" (Milstead 1928: 97). The descriptive and analytical challenges which this natural complexity pose are obvious. The traditional starting point for students of the Andean area has been the three major zones which characterize Peru. These are the Pacific coastal desert (costa), the Andean highlands {sierra), and the Amazon lowland forest (selva). A fourth, which has gained increasing attention as a frontier zone, is the intermediate montaha lying between the highlands and the eastern low-

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

COLUMBIA ECUADOR

BRAZIL

CHILE S VAUGHN

MAP 1. Peru

4

Cultural Adaptations

to a Mountain

Environment

lands. The literature on these zones and the respective land use patterns and cultural configurations is extensive.1 The characteristic approach has been an area-wide or macro-environmental one for the cultural geography and ecology of the area (e.g., James 1959, Sauer 1950). Whereas the general characteristics of the natural and cultural ecology are well described in macroenvironmental studies, the complexity and variety within the major zones, especially the highlands, tend to be glossed over. There are some exceptions to this (notably Bowman 1916 and Gade 1967), but the tradition of macroenvironmental studies persists (Fittkau I and II 1969). The macro-climate of the Peruvian Andes must be understood along three axes: longitude, latitude, and altitude. As one goes east to west across the Andean Cordilleras from the Amazon Basin to the Pacific, the climate becomes increasingly dry. The thin strip of coastal plain is one of the driest deserts in the world, a sharp contrast to the humid, verdant valleys of the eastern slopes of the Andes. Rain-bearing Pacific equatorial currents are diverted by the strong, cold Humboldt (Peruvian) current, and rain-bearing easterlies lose their moisture in the highlands. The heaviest rainfall occurs on the eastern slopes of the Andes, where the tropical forest begins. As latitude increases from the Equator southward, the climate tends to become drier, with less total yearly precipitation and longer dry seasons. In the northern Andes of Peru, the dry season is only three months long (June-August), while in the southern Andes, it extends from May to November. Another significant phenomenon, which is tied to latitude, is photoperiod. In the northern Andes, close to the equator, daylight hours are uniformly long (ca. twelve hours) year round, while as one moves south, they lengthen in summer (December to March) and shorten in winter. A result is greater seasonal variation in temperatures as one moves south. Related to this is the fact that the snow and frost line in the south is higher during the summer, and the upper limit of cultivation is therefore raised. The third axis, altitude, has the greatest impact on the macro-climate of the Andes. As altitude increases climatic conditions change: heat radiation increases, resulting in lower temperatures and a high diurnal temperature range; evaporation and insolation in1 Because of the complexity of the area, plant and physical geographic overviews of the Andes are usually too general to be of much use in understanding the geography of particular places. Consequently, the best geographies concern themselves with smaller regions within the Andes. In English, the reader is recommended to Bowman (1916), The Andes of Southern Peru, and Gade (1967), Plant Use and Folk Agriculture m the Vilcanota Valley of Peru. Ambitious, but not entirely successful, overviews of Andean geography include Pulgar Vidal (1946), Geographia del Peru: Las Ocho Regiones Natural del Peru, and Ford (1955), Man and Land in Peru. Perhaps the most useful attempt at a geographic overview and synthesis is the work of Carl Troll, summarized in his "The Cordilleras of the Tropical Americas" (1968: 1556). The anthropological and cultural geographic literature on Peru is extremely large in Spanish and very sizeable in English. The most complete bibliographic summaries of this literature are found in Matos Mar and Ravines (1971); Martinez, Cameo, and Ramirez (1969); Aguirre Beltran, Castillo Ardiles and Miranda Pelayo (1968); and O'Leary (1963).

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

5

crease; exposure to wind increases generally but varies on windward and leeward slopes; and orographic rainfall patterns change with leeward slopes and intermontane valleys receiving generally less moisture than windward slopes and high valley areas. The micro-climate of a particular place must be understood primarily in terms of altitude. The effect of changing climatic conditions related to altitude on the vegetation of mountainous areas is clear: a series of vegetation belts or life zones. In the Andes, as in other high mountain areas, increasing altitude is analogous to increasing latitude as one goes north or south from the equator. The succession of climatic and vegetation belts in mountainous regions is unique because of the steepness of the environmental gradient. Numerous zones are often found on single hillsides. Referring to southern Peru, Isaiah Bowman noted in 1916: The greatest variety of climate is enjoyed by the mountain zone. Its deeper valleys and basins descend to tropical levels; its higher ranges and peaks are snow-covered. Between are the climates of half the world compressed, it may be, between 6,000 and 15,000 feet of elevation and with extremes only a day's journey apart (p. 122).

Depending on altitude and the steepness of the valley terrain, small Andean valleys may contain a half a dozen or more clearly defined climatic and vegetation belts. The particular belts which are found in a valley depend on the altitude range of the valley and on where it is situated in relation to the prevailing easterlies, which carry all of the Andean precipitation. Valley floors on the western slopes of the Andean chain, as well as intermontane regions, are hot and dry. These fall within the rain shadow of the higher Cordilleras. Valley floors on the eastern slopes are humid since they are on the windward side of the Andes and out of the rain shadow. As one moves up from the valley bottoms, above 1,500 meters, he passes through a series of belts, most of which are variations on montane and subalpine temperate forests. Reaching the upper slopes, around 3,500 meters, he enters into the Andean version of the Alp: the puna, high rolling grasslands with tundra vegetation. In the south, these are situated in the great intermontane plateau of the Andes: the alttplano. In the north, where the altiplano disappears in the more broken terrain, the tundra is of the more humid paramo variety, known locally as "jalka." The high grassland area is marked by a diurnal temperature climate with cool daytime temperatures and regular frost at night (Troll 1968). Because of elevation and nightly frosts, vegetation in this area is dwarfed and predominately of the hardy bunch grass and sedge type. Trees and cultigens are confined to lower elevations, below the regular frost line. The last natural zone in the Andean landscape is the nival zone of eternal snow, generally above 5,000 meters. Botanists and geographers have attempted to classify and analyze this

6

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

natural zonation in the Andes. During this century, the outstanding attempts in this regard have been those by Weberbauer, El Mundo Vegetal de los Andes Peruanos (1945); by Tosi, Zonas de Vida Natural en el Peru (1960); and by Pulgar Vidal, Geografia del Peru: Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Peril (1946). Each of these works presents a different schema of Andean zonation. Weberbauer's is the most complex with fifteen major ecological zones and over 150 locally defined sub-zones. Pulgar Vidal's is the simplest with only eight zones. Tosi's system, based on the Holdridge life zone concept, is the most widely used. He identifies thirty-four life zones for Peru, roughly twenty of which are in the Andes. These zones are essentially plant communities related to three climatic variables: a) the mean annual biotemperature; b) the mean annual precipitation; and c) the potential evapotranspiration ratio (Tosi and Voertman 1964). In spite of some objections concerning the Tosi system,2 it is an extremely useful reference tool in Andean geography. Verticality: The Human Ecology of the Andes The impact of this highly variable Andean geography on the human population of the area can be observed on two levels: macro and micro. On the macro level, three major regions which differ in economic development as well as in natural geography are easily discernible: the coast, highlands, and Amazon flood plain. The differences between the respective land use patterns in these three regions is striking. The coast is characterized by largescale, irrigated and mechanized plantation agriculture (sugar cane, cotton, rice) and intensive cash cropping for marketing in the urban and industrial centers of the area. The infrastructure of roads, markets, credit services, and public services such as hospitals and schools are fairly well developed. As one moves eastward into the highlands and then down again onto the Amazon flood plain, the type of land use changes markedly from that on the coast. The sierra is characterized by subsistence-oriented peasant agriculture. This has traditionally been done in the context of manor systems, 2 Two objections to Tosi's (1960) classification might be cited. First, it is questionable whether the scale employed in mapping can ever give an adequate rendition of the actual botanical conditions "on the ground". This objection is especially valid in areas of steep environmental gradients where change from one biome to another is often abrupt and is also relevant when one is trying to evaluate the assessments made by the people who actually live in and use the landscape that is being mapped. The decisions that they must make on a daily basis in their exploitation of any given set of life zones must usually be based on information and analysis far more sophisticated than Tosi's scale of 1:1,000,000 permits. The second objection to Tosi is that his classification of plant zones ignores the impact of human occupation and exploitation on the natural biotic communities. In many parts of Peru, this objection is, of course, irrelevant because the effects of human occupation are minimal. In other parts, however, the centuries of human occupation have had a crucial influence on the biotic community. Both Cook (1916: 292) and Gade (1967: 21-22) note that the deforestation of the Vilcanota Valley reflects the impact of human activity in the valley.

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

7

known as haciendas or latifundias.3 Since 1968, these have begun to break down with recent agrarian reforms of the Revolutionary Military Government. In the Andean sector, agriculture differs from that of the coast by its simplified technology, essentially nonmarket orientation and lack of a developed infrastructure of roads, markets and services. Finally, the land use in the Amazon basin is characterized by slash-and-burn horticulture combined with hunting, fishing, and gathering. As in the highlands, this system is essentially subsistence-oriented, and it goes on without a well developed infrastructure of roads, markets, and other services. The reliance on tropical tubers and the focus on the riverine environment are key factors in this area. The differences between these three macro-regions in cultural development are equally clear. The coast is an area of large urban centers with a culture consisting of the local Peruvian variation of the Spanish-American (criotto) culture as well as considerable European and North American influence. The highlands have a few small cities, but most of the population still lives in peasant villages with a peasant life-style and culture derived from the mixture of indigenous Quechua and Spanish cultures that came together in 1532. Even though he may speak Spanish, a highlander is easily recognizable by a coastal person as such: a serrano.* He comes from an area where the pace of life is slower, where a family's tie to the land is still primary, and where there is a sense of community derived from a certain homogeneity that has been lost in the cities. The eastern lowlands offer an equally marked divergence from the cultures of the coast and the highlands. Outside of the areas of penetration and colonization by Peruvian and foreign nationals, the Amazon Basin of Peru is still inhabited by small tribal cultures. Some contemporary tribal groups along the eastern rim of the Andes are known to have coexisted and traded with the great highland empire of the Incas. Today they are being incorporated into the Peruvian nation, although some remain as isolated primitive cultures. The natural variety of the Andes has a visible impact on a second level: the micro-regional one. It is on this level that the local populations of 3 The hacienda and latifundia systems of Latin America have drawn considerable attention from social scientists and historians, especially since the increased pressure for agrarian reform after 1950. Anthropological or other studies of existing haciendas are, understandably, extremely rare. For Peru, the ones available in English include Miller (1967), Holmberg (1960), and Tullis (1970). Reviews of Latin American land tenure issues, with reference to these systems in Peru include Barraclough (1973), Feder (1971), Keith (1971), Lockhart (1969), Hobsbawm (1969), and Momer (1973). 4 The contrast between coastal criollo culture and highland serrano culture are part of the general racial, ethnic, and class patterns of Peru. An extensive literature exists concerning these patterns in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America. For Peru, Stein (1972) is reasonably complete. Specific treatments of criollo and serrano subcultures include Simmons (1955) and Patch (1967). For good introductions to the importance of understanding the relation between race, class, and ethnicity in Latin America, Harris (1964) and Momer (1969) are recommended. Few historic or contemporary issues in Latin America can be understood without reference to these patterns.

8

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

the Andes must deal with the Andean landscape and climate. It is also here that the human geography of the Andes must be analyzed. The relationship between environment and culture is developed and played out on this level. In recent years, anthropologists and geographers have increasingly turned their attention to studying the relationship between culture and environment in the Andes. There are a few outstanding analyses done by earlier geographers which are a foundation of the more recent work. Among the notable ones are those by Bowman (1916) and Troll (1958). Troll recognized that the appearance of high Andean civilizations and military powers partially rested on the production of freeze-dried potatoes (chuho). This production is dependent on a particular geographic location between areas of cultivation and areas of frequent nightly frosts, a phenomenon peculiar to the southern Andes. The relationship between Andean ecology and culture is a central theme in the ethnohistory of the Andean economy as studied by John Murra (1972). Following Murra, Andeanists have used the term "verticality" and "vertical control" to describe the indigenous economies of the region. Verticality describes the ability of a single group (village or ethnic group) to exploit numerous ecological zones in the Andes. The exploitation of the varied Andean environment rests on the demarcation of different production zones which are determined according to altitude and climate. Murra's work with early Colonial documents describes an Andean ideal of simultaneous control of 'vertical archipelagoes' that are geographically distant from one another and which differ according to the complexity of economic and political organization (Murra 1972: 430). This model is one where different ethnic groups attempt to control the maximum number of ecological "floors" in an effort to achieve self-sufficiency. Systems of reciprocity and redistribution operate within the internal economies of these communities, but trade may occur on the periphery between communities. The model is applied to five pre-Columbian cases (dating from 1460 to 1560) in the Andean region and draws on ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence. The scope of the model is broad, incorporating both small highland communities, with lands in widely separated ecological zones, as well as large, complex highland kingdoms with extended trade and administrative networks covering the entire range of Andean zones from the arid Pacific coast to the western Amazon Basin. Other cases which are included in the model are coastal communities, coastal kingdoms, and isolated montane villages. The significance of the model of vertical control is that it reconstructs a native Andean type which was established to fulfill Andean needs with Andean technology and organization. There is no doubt that the system of verticality suffered greatly at the hands of the Spanish through the introduction of new crops and animals, the resettlement (reduction) of large numbers of persons in new towns that were often established to meet European

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

9

rather than Andean needs, the destruction of the native administrative system, and the destruction, through disease and maltreatment, of the majority of the Andean population.5 Perhaps the strength of the model is best supported by the fact that after over four hundred years of European influence and complete reorganization of much of Andean life, there still are many communities whose subsistence economies are organized along the same lines of vertical control as Murra's ethnohistorical examples. To put it another way, the fact that many Andean communities are still organized in a pattern that has roots in pre-Columbian times testifies to the resilience and resourcefulness of the Andean people and to the success of a particular mode of adaptation in a particular ecosystem. Several isolated communities found along the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes and differing greatly in ethnic and ecological characteristics, have recently been described as having "vertical" economies which correspond to Murra's ethnohistoric model.® Whereas Murra's model incorporates both the eastern and the western Andes as well as the Pacific coastal area of Peru, these contemporary systems of vertical control are found mainly along the eastern slopes of the Andes. The Andean Resource System In spite of the tremendous natural diversity of the Andes, the resource system of the indigenous population in the eastern Andes is limited to only a relatively few crop zones. These vary somewhat according to locality, but the pattern of most communities on the eastern slopes of the Andes generally involves four major crop or production zones.7 The highest is one of natural pasture, which lies outside the range of cropping because of frequent frosts. Animals pastured here include llama and alpaca in southern Peru and Bolivia, and horses, cattle and sheep throughout the Andes. Terms that are applied to this zone include puna in the south and jalka in the central and northern highlands. Lying next to this zone is one of potato and other tuber production also called puna or jalka. This zone has traditionally been the major focus of subsistence activity in the Andes. It is here that the potato and other Andean tubers such as the oca (Oxalis tuberosa) were do5 The immense dislocations and disruptions in Andean life and culture are perhaps best evidenced by the extent of depopulation suffered by the native inhabitants. Populations throughout the Americas declined precipitously for nearly 150 years after European contact For Peru, the estimates of the depopulation ratio for this period range between 7 - 8 to 1 on the conservative side and 20-25 to 1 at the other side. Dobyns (1966) provides a useful summary and bibliography of the issue of prehistoric Latin American demography. For central Peru, these include the studies of the Huänuco area in the upper Huallaga and Marafion drainage area done by Mayer (1971, 1974), Fonseca Martel (1966, 1972a, b), and Burchard (1972, 1974). For southern Peru, see Webster (1971), Custred (1974), and Orlove (1974). 7 In Peattie's (1936) sense, these may be thought of as production zones.

10

Cultural Adaptations

to a Mountain

Environment

mesticated. The large number of varieties of potato, numbering over 400 indigenously-named cultivars (Ugent 1970), indicates the importance and diversity of these crops. In many parts of the Andes potato cultivation receives more attention in terms of land and labor input than all other crops combined. Ancient field and settlement patterns indicate that the potato was equally, if not more, important to prehistoric Andean people. Below the tuber zone lies the area of cereal production known throughout the Andean region as the kichwa. Pre-Hispanically, the major crop grown here was maize, but since the Conquest, European grains such as wheat and barley have made significant inroads. Although the cereals produced in the kichtva are important subsistence items in many parts of the Andes, in some communities maize (or more correctly maize beer, chicha) is used as a ceremonial rather than subsistence crop (Webster 1971). The lowest major crop zone, referred to as the montaha, yunga, or temple, is the zone which is used to grow tropical crops such as coca, plantains, manioc, sweet potatoes, citrus fruits, hot peppers (aji), and sugar cane. Many of these crops, such as coca, are important for their ritual and exchange values rather than as subsistence crops. Along the eastern slopes of the lower Andean foothills, crops are grown without irrigation; but in the intermontane valleys, where the rain shadow effect creates a hot, dry zone, irrigation is essential. The growing literature on contemporary subsistence systems in the eastern Andes as well as archaeological and ethnohistorical accounts of preHispanic subsistence systems indicate the persistence of these four major crop zones over a very wide diversity of Andean climatic patterns. In discussing the zonation of any mountain agricultural system, it is necessary to consider both environmental features (topography, exposure, altitude, precipitation) as well as the characteristics of the particular crop or crops which are cultivated (Peattie 1936: chapt. 4). As we shall see, however, the physical spacing of these crop zones may be a deciding factor in such things as settlement patterns, land tenure, economic specialization, and exchange networks. Patterns of Andean Zonation In comparing the ecological zonation of valleys and regions in different parts of the Andes, two important features are apparent. The first is the similarity between the ethnogeographical taxonomy of the crop zones in diverse areas, despite the tremendous variety of life zones. The second is the location of the zones within a single valley system. There are, of course, numerous Andean valleys having a similar spatial arrangement of zones. In surveying different types of Andean zonal arrangements and displacements, as well as human subsistence systems based on them, it appears that the relative spacing of the zones is an important factor in determining the type of exploita-

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

11

tion and corresponding socioeconomic features of the community. There are three types of zonation that can be delineated: a) the Compressed type, b) the Archipelago type, and c) the Extended type. (See Map 2.) The Compressed

Type

Uchucmarca, the valley to be described in detail here, is representative of the "Compressed" type of Andean zonation. The spacing of the crop zones in the Uchucmarca Valley is characterized by a very steep environmental gradient that places different zones close to one another.8 All of the zones are accessible to inhabitants of the village within a reasonably short travel time. One can go from the base of the Uchucmarca Valley, in the temple zone, to the montaha zone in the Huallaga River drainage in two days. The entire valley is less than 50 kilometers long, and the location of the main village of Uchucmarca in the middle of the valley complex means that all of the zones are within one day of the major settlement. The only zone which takes more than one day to reach is the montaha zone in the Huallaga River drainage. The compactness of the Uchucmarca Valley means that the people of the village can exploit the entire valley complex for subsistence items without major migration or extended trade networks and exchange systems that reach beyond the Community's territorial limits. One other example of the Compressed type is the community of Q'ero in the southern Andes of Peru near Cuzco. Q'ero's lands go from 2,000 meters to 5,000 meters altitude, and they are traversed by the people who exploit various crop zones that may be up to three days apart (Webster 1971: 174). As in Uchucmarca, the exploitation of Q'ero's lands requires constant movement between zones. Webster notes, however, that, "the community could be described as transhumant, in that any given time, season, crop, and herd determine their residence in dispersed locations. But residence outside the upper valley hamlets is considered by the Q'eros themselves (and is in fact) only temporary" (Webster 1971: 176). The Archipelago

Type

The Archipelago model is suggested by Murra (1972) for ethnohistoric cases, and it remains a common pattern in the very upper areas of the Maranon and Huallaga River drainages. Rather than continuous use of contiguous zones, this pattern involves wide separation between some of the zones that are used. The exploitation of these widely separated zones depends on sometimes lengthy migrations. Contemporary villages which correspond to this pattern include those studied by Burchard (1972), Fonseca (1972a, 1972b), and Mayer (1971, 1972) in the Departments of Pasco and Huänuco. In the upper Maranon River area, there are a series of villages, such as Rapayan in 8 Within 40 kilometers, the valley climbs over 3,500 meters. In certain places, the climb is extremely abrupt, and in others, more gentle.

12

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain

TYPES

Environment

OF ANDEAN ZONATION (Schematic Diagram)

COMPRESSED TYPE (UCHUCMARCA)

PASTURE ZONES TUBER ZONES CEREAL ZONES COCA/FRUIT ZONES POPULATION CENTERS

ARCHIPELAGO TYPE (RAPAYAN)

EXTENDED TYPE

VILCANOTA VALLEY)

S. VAUGHN

MAP 2. Types of Andean Zonation

Cultural Adaptations

to a Mountain

Environment

13

the Department of Ancash, whose populace make three to four yearly migrations from their permanent village sites to a different ecological zone in the montana region of the Huallaga River basin. These migrations usually involve treks of from four to eight days. The people of Rapayan travel some five days to the area around the town of Μοηζόη. In one of the more extended archipelagos, the people of villages around Tayabamba trek into the Tocache area, some eleven days away. The main settlements in this pattern are located in areas with relatively easy access to the ecological zones that produce the typical Andean subsistence base of potatoes, maize, wheat, and pasture for their animals. As in Uchucmarca, this is generally the interstice between the kichwa and the jalka zones at an altitude of roughly 3,000 meters. The long migrations are made to the montana that have altitudes of roughly 1,000 meters where coca, sugar cane, coffee, and fruit can be cultivated. Murra (1972) has pointed out that migrations in the vertical archipelago model involve traversing not only different ecological areas, but also different ethnic areas. In some cases, migrations may be replaced or reduced by sending out "satellite" communities which reside in the zone of migration. This may be done on either the household or the village level. The idea of archipelago is an accurate one in describing the pattern of zonation which involves traversing wide portions of the Andean landscape that are not directly exploited by those doing the migrating. It is as though they are passing from one "island" of cultivation in the highlands to another "island" in the montana. In these migrations down the flanks of the eastern cordillera of the Andes to the montana, coca is a central factor. Many households with subsistence bases in the higher zones own plots of land in the montana valleys on which they produce coca and other tropical products. The alternative for persons who do not have land in the lower zones is to harvest coca leaves on the chacras of their neighbors or kinsmen. This is done three or four times per year, with both men and women participating in the harvest. The people from the highlands who work in the coca harvests are paid in the leaf, which they then transport into the highlands along well-traveled trade routes. The coca leaf is used as a currency throughout the highlands, and it can be easily exchanged for other goods. Besides its ready exchangeability, it has the added advantage that its value inflates rapidly as one gets into the highlands away from the montana. The Extended

Type

A third type of Andean zonation is the Extended type. This is characterized by relatively long valleys which include the usual set of Andean crop zones. This type, however, is marked by an environmental gradient that is less steep than the Compressed or the Archipelago types. The zones are contigu-

14

Cultural Adaptations

to a Mountain

Environment

ous and continuously exploited. Demographically, this type also differs from the former types. Instead of the clustering of population on the upper parts of the valley where access to the jalka and kichwa zones is direct, the population in the Extended type of zonation tends to be more evenly spread throughout the valley. Instead of the direct exploitation of, and constant movement between, several zones which characterize the first two types, the products of the various zones move throughout this system through exchange networks. These are often characterized by highly developed market systems. Households which live in different parts of the valley may periodically travel to market centers where the products of various zones are concentrated. Exchange is carried out through both barter and monetary transactions. The Extended type of zonation and the corresponding type of human exploitation of that system is found in primarily the larger valleys of the eastern and central Andes. One of the clearest examples of this system is the Vilcanota Valley of southern Peru. This valley was the center of the Inca Empire, which had its capital at Cuzco near the center of the valley. The valley is some 300 kilometers long and runs between altitudes of roughly 4,300 meters to 1,000 meters. The width of the valley floor allows cultivation along much of its course. As evidenced by the impressive Inca terrace systems and ruins, the entire valley above 1,500 meters altitude has been intensively exploited since before the European Conquest. The modern settlement pattern of the valley is characterized by a series of medium size towns which intersperse smaller and virtually continuous villages, hamlets, and homesteads. Before 1968, much of the valley was controlled by haciendas. The important towns are Sicuani (altitude 3,531 meters), Urcos (3,120 meters), Calca (2,950 meters), Urubamba (2,880 meters), and Quillabamba (1,050 meters). Cuzco, which is on a tributary of the Vilcanota Valley, stands at 3,382 meters. The densest population is between Ollantaytambo (2,790 meters) and Sicuani. Gade (1967: 74) notes that, "more than 90 percent of the people in the Vilcanota Valley derive their livelihood directly from agriculture on one of several kinds of producing units which have different economic orientations." These range from haciendas to peasant subsistence agriculture. Among the latter, although there is little actual commercialization, Gade observed that there is a high degree of specialization and exchange between peasant communities: Although the agricultural economy of most small peasant farmers in the Vilcanota Valley is basically subsistent in nature, nevertheless, much exchange is carried on among them. The most active markets are those which receive products from different environmental zones. For example, at Chincheros, a village far above the valley from Huayllabamba, potatoes are the main crop and people from the depression below come to exchange their specialties for this tuber: maize, firewood, and walnut leaves are brought from Urquillos; fruit and bread from Urubamba; vegetables from Huayllabamba; and maize

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain

Environment

15

and strawberries from Yucay and Ollantaytambo. Active markets, such as the one at Sicuani, may also develop because of a tendency in many Indian communities to specialize by growing one crop in larger quantities than others. Thus, in the southern part of the valley, at least 3 communities specialize in wheat, 3 in potatoes and one in onions (Gade 1967: 76).

Although there is exchange in both the Compressed and Archipelago types of zonation, there is not the high degree of specialization of communities in different altitudinal zones. In the Extended type, these communities merge periodically in highly developed market centers in order to acquire their subsistence base. The Cuzco area is famous for its markets, which attract large numbers of tourists to observe the Indians from dispersed communities. In describing these markets, Gade observes, The exchange of products takes place in daily, weekly or yearly markets. Daily markets are set up to provide opportunities for trade of goods coming from a radius of several miles. Many towns in the valley have, in addition to these daily markets, weekly markets where not only local products are sold, but also those of the entire region. On Sundays, Pisac, Combapata, Quillabamba and Sicuani have busy markets; on Wednesday, Urubamba; on Thursday, Tinta; and on Saturday, San Pablo (Gade 1967: 78).

Besides these three types of zonation which integrate a number of zones, there are also many single communities that exploit only one ecological zone. Many of these communities are integrated into larger systems through much simpler exchange networks than those in the Extended type. There may be no regular market, and people in these communities must trade with nonspecialized subsistence communities. In the Andean area, communities that exploit only one zone are usually found at either extreme of the environment gradient. At the lower altitudes, communities specialize in tropical products such as coca, sugar cane, and fruit. The town of Pusac, located at the base of the Uchucmarca Valley, is one such town, specializing in the manufacture of crude sugar (chancaca), coca, and fruit, which are marketed or exchanged for food products from unspecialized communities, such as Uchucmarca, in the higher altitudes. In the higher altitudes, there are communities specializing in such things as mining and herding. One such herding community, Alccavitoria, in southern Peru participates in both exchange and marketing to obtain cereals not produced locally (Custred 1972). The heuristic typology developed here describes different ecologicalsubsistence systems on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes. There are, undoubtedly, additional t),pes of Andean integration that should be apparent when geographic areas beyond the eastern slopes are considered. One may conclude, however, that in spite of the tremendous upheaval caused by the Spanish Conquest, the patterns of vertical control which Murra has analyzed for the Andean highlands at the time of the Conquest have analogous patterns that operate today. The actual operations of the system of verticality depends in part on the particular landscape within which it functions. In

16

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain

Environment

some communities with steep environmental gradients, such as Uchucmaraca, it can operate without markets and through a system of community control and reciprocity. In other areas of the Andes, where the environmental gradient is less steep, it operates with long migrations and complex market systems. The three types of Andean zonation (Compressed, Archipelago, and Extended) outlined here are based on different ways of integrating the complex Andean resource system. This book will examine in detail how the inhabitants of the Uchucmarca Valley utilize their mountainous environment in ways similar to other Andean populations in both prehistoric and modern times. Studying Subsistence Systems Among Mountain Peasants The study of verticality in the Andes reflects a growing interest among anthropologists in the nature of cultural adaptation to different environments. Although previous generations of Andeanist anthropologists were aware of the significance of adaptation to the mountain environment, most concentrated on social relations rather than on the relations between Andean culture and environment. Ever since the pioneering theoretical work of Julian Steward (1936) on "cultural ecology," adaptation of indigenous, "low energy" societies has been a major theme in cultural anthropology.9 Adaptation, or coping with the environment, takes place on all levels of culture— from primitive hunters and gatherers to modern industrial societies. However, it is within societies with simple subsistence economies, where production is for use rather than for exchange, that the environment and man/land relationships are equally, if not more, important than purely socio-economic relationships. 10 These economies do not usually have the technological or man-power capabilities necessary to affect appreciable changes in the environment. Consequently, the environment may play a more positive role in the economies of these societies than in more technologically advanced ones. The study of all agrarian economies involves the analysis of two sets of relationships. First is the relationship of the society to its environment. This necessarily requires a detailed study of elements of the environment—climate, soils, water resources, and vegetation—to be combined with the study of how they are utilized by a particular culture. In anthropology, such topics have generally been viewed as problems of ecological anthropology or cultural ecology. Second is the social relationship between the people function9 The roots of contemporary ecological anthropology go far back into the history of ideas concerning the nature of man and his environment (Malefijt 1974). More recent roots have been traced to the works of nineteenth century evolutionists (Harris 1968). 10 See Sahlins (1972) and Vayda and McCay(1975) for two different approaches that converge on this same point.

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain

Environment

17

ing in the given agrarian economy. This set of relationships involves such elements as land tenure, human resources, and the structure of production. Anthropology has a rich tradition of research in the economies of peasant and primitive groups practicing some form of subsistence agriculture (Netting 1974). In many anthropological studies of agrarian subsistence economies, these two sets of relationships, man/land and man/man, are bifurcated with the former being the purview of ecological anthropology and the latter being that of economic anthropology. This separation between ecological and economic anthropology may be useful for some theoretical and analytical purposes. Whereas the former generally concerns itself with a level of analysis above the individual, the latter has investigated phenomena at both this level and on the level of the individual actor. One may argue, however, that such bifurcation is artificial and expedient rather than natural and logical. In most instances, behavior within a subsistence economy can and should be understood in terms of both sets of relationships, because both are parts of the same process. The environment that surrounds the individual has natural as well as social facets, and the individual culture as well as the individual person must adapt to both. Therefore, the study of the subsistence system and traditional economy of a peasant society such as the one described here must draw on two traditions in anthropology: economic and ecological anthropology. The starting point in this research is the environment and a culture's adaptation to it. Relevant environmental factors are defined as the "effective environment" of the culture. Cultural adaptations of subsistence economies to the environment include the inventory of plants and animals, wild and domesticated, and the technology of food gathering, producing, and storing. On an abstract level, anthropologists argue that the environment and the culture both determine the parameters of individual subsistence activities. Bennett (1969: 14) envisions these two factors as determining "adaptive strategies" for individuals. Within mountain environments, the outstanding feature of the effective environment for subsistence systems of peasant farmers is the steepness of the environmental gradient. Other features include a diurnal temperature climate (rather than a seasonal one) in tropical mountain areas and steep slopes that are easily eroded. The steep environmental gradient, which derives from abrupt changes in altitude, presents the local population with a wide range of micro-climates and vegetation belts. Thus a single community in a mountainous region like the Andes may be able to produce a spectrum of plants that depend on different climates. One result is a tendency among mountain peasants to have locally self-sufficient agrarian economies producing a relatively wide range of foods. As in the Andes, other steep mountains like the Himalayas and the Alps provide local populations with four differ-

18

Cultural Adaptations

to a Mountain

Environment

ent micro-climates: warm to hot valley bottoms, temperate mid-valley areas, cool high valley and plateau areas, and nival belts." The cultural adaptation to this environment is a mixed agro-pastoral economy with a number of crops and animals suited to different climatic zones. Subsistence inventories include fruits and other cultigens that prefer warm and tropical areas, cereals that do best in temperate climates where rainfall is certain, tubers that do well in cool temperate climates, and animals that are grazed on natural pastures above the line of cultivation. The basic technology of the culture is a knowledge of the productive capabilities of different micro-climatic belts within the mountain environment. This technology recognizes the effective zonation of this environment into productive zones. Whereas it is very difficult to define absolute limits to cultigens, effective limits of production are certainly defined by peasant cultivators (Gade 1967; 154). Specific technologies are utilized in each production zone and for each crop and animal species. Beyond these technologies, most mountain peasant cultures also have adaptive strategies that cope with the steep and easily eroded slopes and with the diurnal temperature climates. An example of the former is terracing and quasiterracing (Brush 1977a). An example of the latter is the production of freeze-dried potatoes (chuho) in the Andes (Troll 1958). The next research objective, beyond a description of the effective environment and the basic cultural adaptations to it, is to describe and analyze the production and distribution of food and materials; that is, the specific provisioning of the society.12 If the environment and cultural ecology of a society indicate what resources exist and generally how they are to be used, it is the economy of the society that decides specifically how they are to be used, by whom, and what will be done with the results of that use. In all agrarian societies, the control over the use of resources is mediated in large part by social convention, by such things as land tenure and water rights. Moreover, peasant societies, like more advanced ones, are characterized by inequalities of distribution of productive resources, and thereby of goods. The economies of such societies are, in large part, devoted to the distribution of resources and goods so that each household will be able to provision itself. The study of these economies may be undertaken on two levels. First is that of the general rules applying to the control and use of resources and the distribution of goods. Second is that of how specific households and individuals obtain access to resources and goods. Relevant questions here include: what social institutions and mechanisms are used to obtain access to necessary resources; what alliances are formed for the use of those re11 Brush (1976a) summarizes some of the correlations that may be made between adaptations to various mountain environments by different cultures. 12 Such an economic focus is customarily referred to as "substantive" economics (Dalton 1961; Sahlins 1972).

Cultural Adaptations

to a Mountain

Environment

19

sources; and what exchange relationships are established to provide distribution of goods and services. In studying the subsistence economy of Uchucmarca, I dealt extensively with the process of decisionmaking and strategies which individuals used to procure enough food for themselves and those who depended upon them. A question I repeatedly asked myself was, "If I were an Uchucmarquino, what would I do?" During the research and the subsequent analysis, it became apparent that two types of data were emerging. On the one hand, there were ethnographic patterns that fit the description of the community as a whole. Included here were such things as the fact that the community controlled one Andean resource system with tremendous variety and that the community had a set of institutions such as the Peasant Community and municipal organization. On the other hand, there were those ethnographic facts that seemed to fit the description of individual behavior within the community. Included here were such factors as specific relations with kinsmen and the types and sizes of fields claimed by the household. Thus, data was collected and analyzed on two levels, those of the community and of the individual. This division is useful for focusing on different ethnographic problems. On the community level, it allowed me to look at adaptations which were made by the village as a whole to such things as the Andean resource configuration and to larger economic and political systems. The ethnohistory of Uchucmarca is also looked at on this level. Description of community institutions and culture, however, does not elucidate all of the ethnographic phenomena observable in places like Uchucmarca. For this we have to turn to individual behavior. Individuals must adapt their behavior not only to the Andean resources surrounding them, but also to the society of other individuals of which they are a part. Decision making and strategies concern themselves with social relationships as often as they do with ecological variables. The resources, institutions, and economic system of the community provide a number of both opportunities and constraints influencing the decision making and strategies of any one individual. Every person in Uchucmarca has a unique constellation of characteristics that determine, to a significant degree, the course he will follow in his subsistence strategies. Some of these are his kinship position and that of his spouse, the number and sex of his children, inheritance of land, education, capital accumulation, and skills (tile making, carpentry, masonry). Although the village as a whole appears to have an adequate resource base for its population, there is a very real disparity between the distribution of resources. Many of the strategies developed by individual households attempt to correct this imbalance using reciprocal relationships which are part of the village culture. Just as the community has adapted to the Andean environment with a particular tech-

20

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain Environment

nology, so too have individuals adapted their behavior to the economic and social environment of the village with a particular set of strategies. Field Methods The objectives of my research were to obtain data that was appropriate to both economic and ecological analysis of the subsistence system of Uchucmarca and hopefully to be able to understand why people acted in particular ways under certain circumstances. In order to meet these objectives, a number of different field methods were used. As an anthropologist, I was aware that the basis of this data collection was to live in the village as long as possible and to maintain close personal contact with as many of the inhabitants as possible. There were a number of circumstances tempering our approach to living in Uchucmarca. As North Americans, my wife and I felt the need of some privacy, something most Uchucmarquinos are concerned about but many houses are unable to provide. Moreover, the demands of writing field notes and working with other data meant that I would need work room. Although many houses are spacious and their inhabitants hospitable, we felt that our presence within a household would burden it beyond the point where friendship could survive. Finally, the relative isolation of Uchucmarca meant that travel to and from the village was always more problematic and time-consuming than we wished. Thus, maintaining as good health as possible was necessary for ourselves as well as for data collecting. W e concluded that one major way of promoting good health was to do as much of our own cooking as our time, food networks, and village protocol would permit. We rented two upstairs rooms in a vacant house close to the village plaza from a school teacher for what the villagers considered the outrageous sum of $7.00 per month. Off a small patio behind the house was a small kitchen in which we built a raised hearth. To the bewilderment of the villagers, we also built a latrine, the second of its kind in the history of the village. W e contracted a village carpenter to build a table and two chairs for the kitchen. The schoolteacher provided us with a table, bench, and a wooden cot for our living and working quarters. With the help of neighbors, my wife was able to set up an effective network of people who would supply us with bulk quantities of foods: twenty-five pounds each of potatoes, beans, wheat, and com that would last for a couple of months. Other networks provided fresh foods and other daily necessities: onions, cabbage, eggs, mutton, and firewood. Our life was made easier by a few items carefully carried into the village: a Petromax kerosene pressure lamp, a small shortwave radio, down sleeping bags, and a small stash of medical supplies. A great deal of field work is always involved in informal activities: casual conversations, touring the village and local region, and quiet observation

Cultural Adaptations to a Mountain

Environment

21

of the daily activities of friends and neighbors. I attempted to make regular daily rounds of the village and to seek out people who had been informative as well as talkative. These observations, which Freilich (1970) refers to as "passive research," were always made from a point of naivete on my part, and they proved to be an essential part of data gathering. Formal data collection comprised the other essential source of information. My first project was to map the village. Following this, I conducted a census that sought information on household composition and on agricultural aspects of the household. This census reached almost 95 percent of the households of Uchucmarca. It was conducted with the aid of a field assistant who later became my principal informant and closest friend in the village. Using the census as a starting point, I selected a sample number of households on which to do a more detailed study of agricultural and other economic activities. This study looked at such things as land tenure, labor inputs, outputs, relationships that were used in production and exchange, and livestock production. In studying the agricultural economics of the valley, I was immeasurably aided by the use of enlarged aerial photographs of the district provided by the Institute Geografico Militär of the Peruvian Government. On these, my field assistant and I were able to identify and measure the vast majority of fields in the valley. Beyond these censuses, I conducted numerous formal interviews with village officials, health workers, schoolteachers, midwives, and policemen.

—

2

—

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

The road into the Andes of northern Peru takes a spectacular route: through light green rice paddies under white sand dunes of the Jequetepeque Valley, up through narrow mountain gorges, across high rolling grasslands above 12,000 feet, and finally into the broad Cajamarca Valley. Here, in 1532, the Spaniards scored their first decisive victory over the Incas when Pizarro captured Atahualpa, the powerful pretender to the Inca throne. Traveling east from the ancient Inca city of Cajamarca, the roads become poorer and less traveled, and the increasing importance of horses and mules becomes evident (Map 3). After some five hours covering 100 kilometers of dirt road, on a bus of the only company running east from Cajamarca, one reaches the town of Celendin, the terminal point for most of the traffic. Celendin is a provincial capital with 9,000 inhabitants served by a good market, a movie theater, electric light, and a small clinic. Beyond Celendin a pickup truck replaces the bus from Cajamarca. The road climbs out of the broad valley dotted with eucalyptus trees and tiled roofs to the line of peaks which divide this hospitable valley from the Maranon Valley: a canyon over 3,500 meters deep. From these peaks, CiroAlegria's "golden serpent," the Maran on River, appears as a brown ribbon far below. As one drops deeper into the canyon, the climate becomes hot and very dry. It takes four more hours, following a switchback road, to reach the river.1 By horse or foot it takes twenty-four hours. The road, which is in constant danger of washing out during the rainy season, was built in 1961 as a link to Chachapoyas and the Department of Amazonas to the northeast. The suspension bridge spanning the turbulent Maranon has replaced the balsa rafts at Balsas, which had served as the fragile link to the eastern part of Peru. Local inhabitants, however, still build and use these rafts. At Balsas the road divides. Turning north, it begins a precipitous route to Chachapoyas. Turning south, it follows the river bank for some 20 kilom1 Hegen (1966: 127) reports that this road between Celendin and the Maranon covers an air distance of only 18 kilometers, although the traveler must wind down a road 52 kilometers long with 6 8 0 curves I

22

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

MAP 3. Location Map of Uchucmarca

23

24

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its Feople

eters and then turns east for another 20 kilometers to the small town of Pusac. This road was intended to be the first link in a longer road to Bolivar, the capital of the province in which Uchucmarca is located. A combination of bottlenecks, political intrigues and corrupt contractors made Pusac a terminal point rather than the mere way station, which it was originally intended to be. Thus after two days of bus and truck travel from Cajamarca, one comes to the end of the road and to the beginning of the Uchucmarca Valley (Map 4). Pusac is obviously a new town of houses gathered around a dusty plaza. Many of the simplest amenities of the Peruvian highlands are missing in this frontier-like village. One enterprising individual has converted his loft on the plaza into a hotel by providing some wooden plank beds and thin straw mattresses. Anyone without a back yard or field to use as a bathroom is hard put. The town is squeezed against the bare rocky hills in an attempt to save as much land as possible for the lucrative cash crops of sugar cane, coca, and citrus fruit grown on irrigated lands. For most of the people who have hung onto the back of the pickup truck from Celendin, Pusac is a staging area for the final leg of their trip into the sierra east of the Mararion River. Perhaps the most common sight in Pusac is pack trains of mules, horses, and burros loading and unloading people and material going to and coming from the highland villages and towns. Sugar, fruit, kerosene, beer, and manufactured clothing are loaded onto mules that have brought potatoes, cereals, and other crops out of the upland crop zones. Pusac is at the point of confluence of three small rivers running toward the Maranon. Three trails lead out from the town to three valleys and small towns located in the higher altitudes where the staples of wheat, maize, and potatoes can be grown. One of these valleys contains the community of Uchucmarca. If one has had the foresight to have sent a telegram to a friend or relative in the higher villages asking for horses, an unpleasant night on a lumpy bed in Pusac may be avoided. If not, it may take two or three days to get mounts for the trip up the valley. The climb out of Pusac begins abruptly on a narrow trail etched into the side of rock walls, which may plunge 200 meters at some points. There are places along these cliffs where two loaded horses cannot pass. Trees decorated with hanging bromeliaceas cling to the craggy rocks. The steep mountain slopes and aridity from the rain shadow effect make cultivation too difficult for the local population in this part of the valley, but chacras (cultivated plots) can be seen perched on the tops of hills above the trail. The first part of the horse trip is the most precipitous, and after an hour of threading one's way along cliffs, the traveler comes out to a small

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

25

I

26

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

scrub-covered plain that has been cleared in parts for cultivation. The trail follows the small Pusac River, rising gently through areas of more and more cultivation. The trail weaves back and forth across the narrow valley, fording the river several times. Hills still tower above this part of the valley, making one wonder if he will ever reach the next line of peaks. At times the trail ascends steeply in a series of switchbacks, but for the most part it follows a gently rising path. As the trail goes higher, it passes out of the rain shadow of the Marafion River basin into ever greener areas. In the lower valley, the scattered houses are constructed of wattle and daub because the insulating effect of the narrow valley keeps the climate hot. With the falling temperatures of higher elevations, house construction becomes rammed earth (tapxa). Evidence of more and more human occupation coincides with falling temperatures and more rainfall. Fields, houses, and people are encountered with increasing frequency. After four hours of riding, the valley becomes narrow again, and the trail begins to ascend sharply. The final hour of the trip covers two long series of switchbacks. Uchucmarca sits on a narrow shelf that breaks the steep hillsides, and it cannot be seen until the rider or hiker tops a crest and finds himself among houses at the entrance of the village. After making this trip several times, one realizes that the hills standing immediately above the village can be seen from the line of peaks on the other side of the Marafion above Celendih. The trip in between these two points takes fifteen to twenty hours, depending on connections, roads, and horses. The Village of Uchucmarca The Central Area The village is gathered around a grassy plaza, and like most Andean towns it is constructed on a grid laid out by the Spanish. The regular grid pattern extends two blocks in any direction from the plaza, but population growth has pushed the village beyond the original grid. Beyond a couple of blocks, houses are built along meandering steep trails. A smaller plaza has been built above the larger one to accommodate the newer houses. The streets in the original grid run virtually north-south and east-west, which happens to be the best use of the natural table on which the village sits. (See Map 5.) The most prominent building on the plaza is the church, built in 1692. A free standing bell tower was tom down in 1964 to allow construction of a municipal building. Above the main portal of the church are two scrolls painted by the original builders. On the right is the testimony of the builder: "This Church was built in the year 1692, under the direction of Don Luis Jose de Castro Demonte, Priest and Vicar, Ecclesiastical Judge and Commissioner of the Holy Cross of this Province of Cajamarquilla and Delegated

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

27

MAP 5. Uchucmarca

Examiner of the Diocese of Trujillo." On the left, beside the shield of Saint John the Baptist, is the testimony of the man who founded the church long before it was built: "That famous Don Juan Perez de Guevara was my founder, and for his faith I am named. It was he, with so much elan after general Service, who faithfully conquered me and became my encomendero. And his grandson who was a priest raised my walls." The municipal building of the District of Uchucmarca stands next to the church on the southern side of the plaza. The lower half of this building doubles as a meeting and dance hall for village business and social events. The second floor holds the office of the municipal council. It is furnished with a desk, wooden chairs and benches, a typewriter, and three wooden cabinets for storing the documents and official papers. The walls are decorated with posters proclaiming the agrarian reform and other revolutionary measures instituted by the federal government. Adjacent to the municipal building is the post of the Guardia Civil, Peru's national police force, which houses three guardias. The post has one small windowless room which can be bolted and locked from the outside to serve as a jail. Just down the street is the telegraph and post office which is housed in one room of a private

28

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

home. Mail arives once a week on the mule of the posteon who walks the 75 kilometers between Balsas and Uchucmarca plus the 28 kilometers to the province capital, Bolivar. The posteon is contracted by the national mail service, and walks the same route over a six day period throughout the year. His routine is so regular that one can almost set his watch according to his arrival. One lone strand of wire connects a barely audible telephone to Balsas where messages can be relayed to the outside. The plaza is crossed by two stone-lined ditches which carry water down the dirt streets in an attempt to reduce erosion. All of the streets running toward the hills above have these ditches, but their effectiveness is minimal during the torrential rains which pour down from January to April. Drinking water trickles out of five spigots, located in different parts of the village, that are connected to a small reservoir. Potable water of reasonable quality is channeled to the reservoir by a long canal running from a spring high above the village. During the rainy season this water often becomes clouded with silt, reducing the output of the spigots to drops. There are fourteen blocks in the original grid of the village, but many streets have been lengthened to extend its area. An average block in the original grid measures roughly 55 meters on a side, and none is completely filled with houses. Most streets have three or four houses built along their edge, leaving large areas in the center of the block which serve as gardens, chacras and corrals. Some blocks have only one house on them. Houses The vast majority of houses are of rammed earth construction with steeply pitched roofs. Most houses are simple one or two room affairs, often divided by a curtain. Virtually every house has a loft for the storage of grains and potatoes. In order of increasing prestige, roofs are thatched, tiled, or covered with galvanized tin or calamina. The great advantage of tin roofs is that they do not leak as frequently as tile and do not harbor rodents like thatch does. In some houses, the loft has been converted into a true second story. A few of the houses have been plastered and whitewashed. This is usually done to the exterior before the interior. The vast majority of floors are made of packed earth, but a few affluent people such as schoolteachers have poured cement floors. Some families with second stories have laid wooden floors of eucalyptus. Kitchens are always set apart from the main living quarters in separate structures. Most of these are thatched to permit the smoke from cooking fires to filter out without the benefit of a chimney. Although kitchens are the most heavily used part of any house, they are usually the crudest part. Cooking is commonly done over a fire set among three rocks on the floor, although some women have built raised hearths. Clay pots are imported into the village in exchange for an equivalent volume of cereals, and aluminum and iron pots are being introduced

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

29

with increasing frequency. The only cooking utensils are wooden spoons, and food is eaten out of metal bowls with spoons. There is usually a small table with a couple of wooden chairs and a bench or log to sit on. A wood pile in the corner provides shelter for bevies of cuyes (guinea pigs), which are eaten on fiestas and other special occasions. Wooden pegs are driven into the walls of the kitchen to provide a warm place to hang saddles and leather braided ropes so that they will remain pliable. Every kitchen is equipped with a stone mortar and pestle to grind aji and other condiments. The main house is roofed in such a way as to provide an overhang over the front door. Wooden poles are slung from this overhang as a place to hang wet saddles, ponchos, and shawls. Baskets of potatoes skewered onto sticks are also hung here to dry. The typical house is windowless with the only light coming through the doorway. Furniture is sparse and decoration is usually confined to a few dated calendars on the wall picturing people and places far removed from Uchucmarca. An inventory of furniture may list a table, wooden chairs and benches, a wooden trunk to store family treasures, and a plank bed covered with sheep skins and the heavy blankets woven in the village. Candle holders are hung on the unplastered walls, and wooden pegs driven into the wall provide places to hang ponchos, ropes, and clothes. Among the most prestigious possessions a family can have in this room are a transistor radio and a treadle sewing machine. The house and kitchen are usually associated with a patio of some type where all sorts of important activities take place from saddling horses to diying wheat for grinding. Many households keep a few animals such as pigs, chickens, and turkeys here, and sheep may be brought for fattening and slaughtering. During the rainy season, most of these patios tum into mires, worsened by the presence of horses, sheep, and pigs. Besides the house and kitchen, the only other structure commonly found in this complex is a small shed housing a beehive-shaped oven built on an adobe and stone platform about 1 meter high. These ovens are heated by building a fire inside and letting it bum down to coals, which are then swept to one side. Small breads and specialities like squash are baked. Often, several households share a single oven since one firing is usually sufficient to bake bread for each. Family Clusters and

N^hborhoods

Although most households are independent, there are a number of families occupying houses associated in an extended family compound. Roughly 20 percent of the households in the village exist within such compounds. The most typical pattern for these has separate houses and kitchens for each nuclear family (parents and dependent children) and a common patio shared by all. It is extremely rare for two nuclear families to share a kitchen or hearth, although there are a few arrangements in which different nuclear families occupy separate rooms in the same house. Many families desire a

30

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

house where they can plant a garden and a chacra next to the house. The result is that most of the area within the town is not occupied by houses but rather by gardens and chacras. Although most families have found the extended family compound to be too confining, the strength of family ties and the advantages of living next to kinsmen are such that when a family does move out of a compound, it often looks for a place to build as close to the houses of parents and siblings as possible. Parents may have several "lots" near their house, which they will give to children to build houses on. One family owns an entire block in the village that is slowly being taken up with the separate houses of the extended family. The result of this practice is a pattern of family neighborhoods in which most of the neighbors happen to also be kinsmen. These neighborhoods are not exclusive, although it may be difficult for a nonkinsman to find a place to build his house. Within the village of Uchucmarca, there are five such family neighborhoods. The Upper Maranon River and the Eastern Cordillera The Maranon is one of the five great rivers that flow out of the Peruvian highlands to join other rivers from the eastern Andes and form the Amazon River. It begins in Lake Lauricocha in the Department of Huanuco, and flows north through the middle of the central highlands before turning east near the rapids of the Pongo de Manseriche. The Maranon River, known as the Jatun Mayo before the Spanish Conquest, has always been a major geographic and political landmark in the central highlands of Peru. Along its entire length smaller tributaries feed into it. These tributaries, like the river flowing past Uchucmarca, create valley systems that rise from the Maranon River to the line of peaks on either side. In the region of Uchucmarca, the altitude of the Maranon River is only 750 meters above sea level. The peaks on either side of the valley are over 4,500 meters, meaning that the tributary valleys traverse some 3,500 meters of altitude. To the east of the Maranon stands the cloud-shrouded line of peaks that mark the watershed between it and the Huallaga River. If one continues eastward, he begins the steep descent through the ceja de montana (the "eyebrow of the jungle") into the uninhabited high jungle above the Huallaga River. Rain-bearing winds move east to west across the great Amazon plain and drop a good deal of their precipitation in this region. As these winds move westward toward the Maranon basin, they lose much of their moisture. Thus the upper ends of the valleys flowing into the Maranon from the east are very moist while the lower ends are dry. This rain shadow effect is characteristic of the entire Upper Maranon Valley. These two great geographic features, the Maranon River and the eastern Cordillera, dominate the

Uchuanarca: The Village and Its People

31

landscape of the region around Uchucmarca and loom large in the peoples' own stories about themselves and their town. Between the two landmarks, the villagers traverse land that runs from 800 to 4,300 meters in altitude. Needless to say, this gives them an extremely diversified landscape. Uchucmarquinos recognize and use seven different natural and agricultural zones. The landscape, which has been molded by human occupation since long before Atahualpa was captured by Pizarro to the east in Cajamarca, is not unlike a kaleidoscope with myriad small fields cut into hillsides with different hues of brown, green, and yellow. The village sits on a small table in one of the narrowest parts of the upper valley. As shall be discussed later, its location is optimal for access to the crop zones used by the village. As one goes either up or down the valley, it widens for grazing above and cereal cultivation below. There are six trails leading out of the village. Two of them descend to the river. One of these climbs again to a grazing area across a single range of hills, while the other heads down toward Pusac. Along the river there are several mills, three of which operate regularly to grind wheat and barley for the village. Mill stones are cut from rocks in the river. One of the mills has a worn stone in front that was carved by the Spanish in the eighteenth century. The other four trails take the traveler above the village to communal grazing lands and to other towns and hamlets. The longest one leads to the province capital, Bolivar, which is some 28 kilometers away and takes four or five hours by horse to reach. Within the District of Uchucmarca, there are four small hamlets besides the larger villages of Uchucmarca and Pusac. (See Map 4.) The largest of these has some twenty-five households in a very loose cluster, and the other three are smaller, ranging from ten to twenty households. The larger hamlet is situated between the cereal and potato crop zones in a similar fashion to Uchucmarca. The other three hamlets are located on the upper edge of the highest crop zone, the potato zone, and close to the grazing areas for the livestock of Uchucmarca. Most of the inhabitants of these hamlets are full-time herders, specializing in livestock and trading for food. Many raise potatoes, and some cultivate cereals in the lower parts of the valley. Besides these hamlets, there are scattered homesteads throughout the valley. Some of these homesteads are composed of an extended family, but many are occupied by single nuclear families. A number of these families are either specialists in herding or in one type of cultivation and choose to live next to their chacras. The most isolated house in the district is that of a herder who lives in the ceja de montaha, seven hours by horse from the village of Uchucmarca. This family, like many of the other herders, care for the cattle of people who live in Uchucmarca and who do not have the time to tend their own cattle. They are paid in cash, crops, and cattle.

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

32

Population In 1971 the nucleated village of Uchucmarca had some 2 3 0 separate households with a total population of 940 persons. An average household has slightly over four persons. This relatively low figure may result from the existence of a significant number of households with single persons such as elderly people who do not have children living with them. Pusac has roughly 100 households with a population of 493 persons. Outside of these two villages, there are 167 households in smaller hamlets and scattered homesteads with an additional 835 persons. The total population of the District of Uchucmarca in 1971 was 2,278 persons. The national census for Peru reports that in 1941 the population of the District was 1,121 and in 1961 it was reported to be 1,985, a twenty-year growth of 77 percent, or 3.9 percent per year. The growth of the District slowed considerably between 1961 and 1971 to a total of 15 percent, or 1.5 percent per year. Looking at the municipal records of births and deaths, and using the 1961 figure as a base, it appears that the rate of natural increase of the population is 3.4 percent per year for the decade 1961-71. This is in line with the national figures for Peru. 2 T h e contradiction between the real growth of 1.5 percent per year and the rate of natural increase of 3.4 percent per year can be resolved by looking at migration.

Migration to and from

Uchucmarca

The difference between the rate of natural increase and real growth is a function of migration in and out of the District. Like most peasant villages, Uchucmarca is experiencing the pull of the urban, industrialized sector of Peru. Following the paths of former neighbors and kinsmen who have migrated to the coast, especially Trujillo and Lima, individuals and families load their belongings onto horses and buses for the long trek to the cosmopolitan world. Some return to Uchucmarca discouraged and disillusioned by the lack of their preparation for the city and of the city for them. The more tenacious, especially young men and women without a family to worry about, leave Uchucmarca for good except for infrequent visits to celebrate a fiesta or to attend a major family event such as a wedding or a funeral. Virtually every person in the village has at least one close relative who has emigrated to the coast on either a temporary or permanent basis. There are 178 adult Uchucmarquinos who have migrated permanently. Thirtyeight percent of the households in the village have immediate kin who have emigrated permanently, and 31 percent have members who have emigrated temporarily but have returned to the village. Temporary migration is espe2 This rate of natural increase for the village population is close to the national rate of 3.2 per annum between 1970 and 1974 (United Nations 1975:108).

Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

33

cially prevalent among young adults (from 20 to 30 years old) who go to the coast as an adventure before settling down to raise a family in the village. During the early 1960s there was a surge of emigration from the village because of the fear that it was in imminent danger of burial by landslide. This fear arose during the rainy season of 1962 when four crevices (grietas) opened the hillside 200 meters above the town. These are up to 150 meters long, and in places they are 50 centimeters wide. The village immediately sent a commmission to Lima to the Carta Geologica Nacional for advice. The two geologists who came to Uchucmarca reported that the village was indeed in imminent danger of destruction and that it should be abandoned and reconstructed in a different area as soon as possible (Jaen and Vargas 1963). Understandably, this report caused consternation and fear in Uchucmarca, and a number of families left town. Others doubted the conclusions of the geologists, and the village hired another geologist from Trujillo who advised them that the danger of a landslide could be abated by planting eucalyptus trees in the area of the crevices. This was done, and although most people keep a watchful eye on the crevices during the rainy season, people no longer leave town because of fear of a landslide. The other major type of migration effecting Uchucmarca is immigration to the valley. There are some 280 adult immigrants in the district, comprising roughly 46 percent of the adult population.3 The impact of this in migration is strongly felt by all local residents, but the relative density of migrants varies considerably in different parts of the District. Immigration to Uchucmarca has occurred in two waves. The first, occurring between 1930 and 1960, was comprised of immigrants who moved into the town of Uchucmarca and the upper part of the Uchucmarca Valley. The second wave of migration began in the late 1950s and continues now. The second migration is very different from the first in that these immigrants tended to remain in and around the town of Pusac, whereas the former immigrants settled predominantly in the higher zones. Immigration to Pusac was relatively greater than that to Uchucmarca. Above Pusac, 35 percent of the males and 25 percent of the females are immigrants to the Uchucmarca Valley. In Pusac, 78 percent of the males and 82 percent of the females are immigrants. Pusac, a new town, was thus formed mainly by immigrants. The immigration to these two areas varies also in terms of source and integration into the existing valley community of Uchucmarca. Migrants in the first wave, that is those arriving in the upper valley be3 It is difficult to compare the figures on immigration to Uchucmarca to other regions for Peru because of the lack of information concerning population dynamics which are internal to the rural sectors of the Andes. Although migration in Peru has been well studied, the overwhelming interest has been on rural to urban migration (Dobyns and Vasquez 1963). Indeed, in most studies, the highland rural sector is treated as though it were a single, monolithic one with no internal movement. See Brush (1977c).

34

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Uchucmarca: The Village and Its People

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tween 1930 and 1960, came predominantly from districts which are adjacent to Uchucmarca. Sixty-two percent of the immigrant males and 60 percent of the immigrant females during this period were from adjacent districts. This migration slowed considerably after 1961 as indicated by the fact that only 5 percent of the immigrant families in the upper valley arrived after that year (Figure 1). The remaining immigrants came from the adjacent Department of Amazonas and from the Department of Cajamarca, on the other side of the Marafion River. The two sources which figure predominantly here are Chüquibamba, in the Department of Amazonas, which is adjacent to Uchucmarca, and the area around Celendin in Cajamarca. The specific reasons for this migration differ with individual cases, but most of the migrants refer to regional economic differences as being the general cause in their decisions to move to the Uchucmarca Valley. These differences are described by a low population density and a relative abundance of arable land in Uchucmarca compared to a shortage of land in the districts from which the migrants came (Brush 1977c). A clear example of this regional economic difference can be seen in a comparison between the Districts of Bolivar and Uchucmarca. The most important difference between the Districts of Bolivar and Uchucmarca is the fact that Bolivar contains a number of large haciendas, while Uchucmarca, since colonial times, has been a "free" community.4 The result of this difference has been to make Uchucmarca attractive to people of Bolivar. Haciendas controlled virtually all of the grazing lands of the District of Bolivar, denying free use of one of the four main production zones to the residents. Moreover, many peasants who were allowed to use hacienda property before 1945 were evicted when new owners of the hacienda decided that their property would be more productive and safe from possible land reform without tenants. The District of Uchucmarca experienced its second wave of migration from the late 1950s until the late 1960s (Figure 2). This wave differed from the first both in terms of origin and final destination of the immigrants. The focus of this second wave was the hot, lower valley around the hamlet of Pusac. Until the mid 1950s, this area, like many other intermontane valleys of the Andes, was virtually uninhabitable because of malaria (Gade 1973). Between 1957 and 1959, this disease was eradicated by a joint UNESCO Peruvian campaign of DDT fumigation. There is still a full-time government agent in Pusac who fumigates and dispenses antimalaria medicine. Prior to the eradication of malaria, the lower valley was only sparsely occupied by a very few families who grew sugar cane, coca, and fruit, which they traded for grains and tubers from the higher crop zones. After the introduction of DDT to the valley, a few families from Uchucmarca and the surrounding 4 The demographic imbalance created by the juxtaposition of free communities and haciendas has caused considerable tension throughout the Andes of Peru. This tension and the peasant political and economic reactions have recently been treated at length by Tullis (1970) and Handleman (1975).

36

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The Village and Its People

37

Districts of Bolivar and Chuquibamba began to settle in the valley. Concurrently the Pusac area also began to receive immigrants from the region around Celendin on the other side of the Maranon. These migrants soon became the most numerous type in the area, and they have dominated Pusac ever since. One incentive for this migration was the fact that a hacienda in the District of Longotea, adjacent to Uchucmarca, parceled and sold land it had previously held in the lower valley of Uchucmarca. Some of the established residents of the lower valley had been tenants of this hacienda, and several of them purchased plots of their own from the hacienda. Another factor that made the Pusac area more attractive was the completion in 1965 of a road connection to Balsas and Celendin. Until this link was completed, the Province of Bolivar was roughly eighteen hours by horse to Celendin. The road brought increasing numbers of immigrants from the other side of the Maranon River, especially from the province of Celendin. Like the people who migrated to the upper Uchucmarca Valley from the District of Bolivar, these migrants from Celendin came from an area which contains a number of large haciendas. The immigrants to Pusac, however, maintain that it was the poverty of the soil of the Celendin Valley that was the major factor in their decision to migrate to Pusac. In addition to the opportunity to obtain a small plot of land, the appeal of Pusac was the availability of wage labor in the fruit orchards, sugar cane, and coca fields of the area. Many of the migrants complained of their inability to find regular cash paying work in Celendin and of the low pay when they did find work. A causal relationship between the existence of haciendas and the conditions of exhausted soil and depressed wage labor conditions is neither recognized by the immigrants from Celendin nor demonstrated by statistical measures. It is relevant to note, however, that Hobsbawm (1969) has been able to demonstrate the role of haciendas in depressing the wage level in southern Peru.

Net Growth The overall migration into the District for the period 1960 - 1971 was some 179 persons, increasing the population by 13 percent or 1.3 percent per year. Added to the 3.4 percent rate of natural increase per year, the average yearly potential growth rate of the District was 4.7 percent for the decade of the 1960s. The difference between this figure and the actual growth rate of 1.5 percent per year is 3.2 percent; this is the average rate of emigration away from the District for the period. In spite of the growth of Pusac, there was net emigration from Uchucmarca between 1960 and 1971. The sudden exodus of people from Uchucmarca because of the fear of a landslide certainly had its impact on these figures, but the net drain is characteristic of many rural towns. It must be remembered, however, that the population is

Uchucmarca:

38

The Village

and Its

People

F I G U R E 3 Percentage of Total Population Per Age Croup

Males

Females

% 9c

Age

0.

0.7

75 +

0.4

0.3

70-74

0.7

0.6

65-69

1.0

1.2

60-64

1.1

1.6

55-59

1.7

0.8

50-54

2.1

2.2

45-49

2.6

2.1

40^14

2.9

3.0

35-39

2.2

3.0

30-34

2.4

3.1

25-29

3.0

2.9

20-24

3.1

4.1

15-19

8.0

7.2

10-14

7.9

9.1

5-9

11.0

7.7

0-4

Males

Females

39

Uchucmarca: The Village anil Its People TABLE 1 Immigration and Marriage in Uchucmarca (by household)

Single adults Male Female Nuclear families Male local/female local Male immigrant/female immigrant Male local/female immigrant Male immigrant/female local Total

Locally

Bom

No.

%

17 23

7 10

92

41

132

58

Mixed

NÖ

%

19 42

9 18

61

27

Immigrant

No.

%

4 10

2 4

21

9

35

15

still increasing at a rate of 1.5 percent per year, and that this rate may actually increase as the fears of a landslide subside. Composition

of the

Population

The age structure of the population is characteristic of one with a relatively high rate of natural increase. It is marked with a broad-based pyramid, which is narrow at the top. The decreasing width of the age structure depicted in the pyramid is due to relatively high infant mortality. Figure 3 gives the age structure pyramid using the percentages of age and sex groups from the village of Uchucmarca. The significant factor here is the predominance of children and the relatively small number of adults in the population. Within Uchucmarca there is a slight demographic imbalance that weights the sex ratio toward the female side. Although more males are born, there is a greater infant mortality rate for males than females. Added to this natural differential is the fact that adolescent and young adult males tend to emigrate from the village at a higher rate than females. The result of these two factors is that for the fifteen to thirty-nine year age group, there is 8 percent deficit of males. This is the age group most concerned with finding spouses, and immigrant males may help to correct this demographic imbalance. Such an imbalance tends to lessen the competition for wives. Fourteen percent more migrant males than females have settled in the village. The demographic imbalance may be noted in the preponderance of single female households in Table 1. With so many single females, the marriage pool remains open and accessible to immigrant males.

The Early History of Uchucmarca The rugged Andean landscape which has isolated villages like Uchucmarca and made them self-sufficient has also buffered them from much of the recorded history of Peru. The isolation, however, has not been total, and the people of Uchucmarca remain a part of the nation that surrounds them. Thus political, military, and economic events and trends have very real impacts on the lives of the villagers. People still talk of the band of marauding soldiers who pillaged and robbed Uchucmarca and other nearby villages after the War of the Pacific in 1879. One man in the village was on the front during the war between Ecuador and Peru in 1942. More recently, the political and economic reforms of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces are known and discussed, although they have yet had little direct impact on the village. Economic phenomena, such as inflation, often are keenly felt in these villages where people have a generally low earning capacity and little means of effecting outside markets. Although the isolation of places like Uchucmarca is not absolute, the inhabitants often feel as though the larger nation sweeps past them. At best, they feel marginally involved in events occurring on a larger stage. At worst, they see themselves as victims of these events. As phrased by the inhabitants, Uchucmarca is a "pueblo olvidado"—a forgotten town. Only minor government officials, who have their eye on the centers of power and prestige on the coast, come to places like Uchucmarca. A Prefect of the Department of La Libertad has never traversed the District. Petitions to the government for redress of grievances must be carried for four or five days to offices where they are often brushed aside because of the obvious unsophistication and "country bumpkin" appearance of the bearer. These obstacles and aggravations seem to be lessening with the new revolutionary government of Peru. The marginality of forgotten towns like Uchucmarca is reflected in the paucity of information on their history. The growing interest in the ethnohistory of the highland peoples (Murra 1970) is often hampered by the inaccessibility and destruction of documents and other historical material. In searching for historical material on the village, two questions dominated.1 ' T h e initial search for historical material was undertaken by my wife and I in provincial and parochial archives in the town of Bolivar. Later my wife spent two months in national

40

The Early History of

Uchucmarca

41

First was the prehistory of the area. Events preceding the Spanish Conquest seen to have had great influence on subsequent history. Second was the Conquest period, the traumatic watershed of Andean history. This period initiated the modern development of the village. PreHispanic History: Chachapoyas The outlines of Andean prehistory have been clearly defined by archaeologists2 Finer details of that prehistory become available for late Inca times as they were recorded by the Spanish chroniclers of the Conquest. For many areas and time periods, however, our knowledge of this prehistory remains fragmentary. Such is the case with the northeastern Andes, where relatively little archaeological or ethnohistorical research has been done. The highlands were occupied by peasant agriculturalists who exploited different altitudinal zones in ways similar to contemporary populations. The major economic focus of this population was on subsistence, and the organization was based primarily on kinship. The key unit was a corporate and hierarchical kin group controlling territory, the ayllu. About one millenium before Christ, city states and religious cults grew and began to extend their influence over larger regional areas. The Chavin cult, known for its fine pottery and distinctive art, gained hegemony in the central Andes around 900 B.C. The rise and fall of different cults and incipient states in the area is recorded in a series of artistic and architectural "horizons." Because the prehistoric Andean population was illiterate, the only culture history extending deeper than the memories and legends of persons living when the Europeans arrived is art history. Much of this history remains buried. Around 500 A.D., the cyclical ebb and flow of cults and incipient state organizations of regional cultures transformed to full fledged states whose genius seemed to lie in political organization and military expansion. During the next thousand years, four major states dominated different areas of the Andes: the Tiahuanaco, Hauri, Chimu, and Inca empires. Each of these gained military, political, religious, and economic hegemony over large portions of the Andean region, from the coast to the Amazon basin. Smaller regional states arose in different areas, frequently to be absorbed into the larger empires. The most far-flung and highly organized of these four empires was the last, the Inca Empire, which began its military expansion in 1438. In less than 100 years, the Incas dominated a territory stretching from southern Colombia to northwestern Argentina and central Chile (Rowe 1946). archives in Lima looking for additional material. In 1974, Mrs. Inge Schjellerup of the Danish National Museum resumed the search in provincial and notorial archives in Chuquibamba and Chachapoyas. Λ Preliminary report has been prepared (Schjellerup 1976). 2 Two recent and invaluable reviews of Andean prehistory are Lumbreras (1974) and Willey (1971).

42

The Early History of Uchucmarca

The northern Andes of Peru, between the Maranon and Huallaga rivers, saw the rise of a regional state among the Chachapoyas people during the late period of Andean prehistory. This probably occurred between 1300 and 1400 A.D. Like many other parts of the eastern Andes, only preliminary archaeological survey and analysis has been done in this area (Thompson 1972, 1973, 1974, and Savoy 1970). Very little is known about the original inhabitants, their culture or political organization. Extensive archaeological and ethnohistorical research in the Huinuco region, 300 kilometers south of Uchucmarca, shows that the eastern Andes were inhabited by numerous ethnic groups before the Inca conquest. 3 Uchucmarca and the surrounding region seem to follow this pattern. Archaeological evidence suggests that the people of the area traded as far away as the Pacific coast. Pottery remains show that they were influenced by other northern cultures from the Cajamarca region as well as by the coastal empire of the Chimu (Thompson 1972). At the time the Spanish chroniclers began their inquiries about the native Andean peoples, the inhabitants of this region were referred to as a unified ethnic group, the Chachapoyas. 4 They were famous for the beauty of their women and their dauntless resistance to the Inca expansion. Uchucmarca stands in the heart of what was the Chachapoyas ethnic area. Little is known about the specific nature of the local cultural divisions before 1532, but as more and more Conquest period documents come to light, we are becoming aware of the original complex mosaic of the Andean population. Recently, some documents dealing with the Chachapoyas nation have been published and analyzed by Peruvian ethnohistorians (Espinoza Soriano 1967 and Ravines n.d.). Both of these contain direct references to the Province of Cajamarquilla (now Bolivar) of which Uchucmarca is a part. Other sources that have proved fruitful include local records in the archives of the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca, municipal archives in Chuquibamba, parochial archives in the provincial capital of Bolivar, and documents located in the Biblioteca Nacional and the Archivo Nacional in Lima. There are also scattered references to the Chachapoyas and to Cajamarquilla by some of the cronistas who described Peru at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Chronicles which contain direct references to the Chachapoyas and to the area around modern Uchucmarca include Cieza de Leon (1880, 1962), Vazquez de Espinosa (1948), Sarmiento de Gamboa (1960), Garcilaso de la Vega (1963), and Acosta (1954). Two documents which proved to be especially important concerning the Spanish Conquest of the area are a letter written by the Chacha Juan de Alvarado around 1555 and 3 See Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizan (1966); Murra (1972); and Espinoza Soriano (1973). * Sources on pre-Incaic ethnic groups are scarce for all parts of the Peruvian highlands and extremely so for the northern highlands east of the Maraiion. One important exception to this which focuses on the Chachapoyas group and provides a good bibliography is Espinoza Soriano (1967). An earlier, but less complete, work is that of Bandelier (1907).

The Early History of Uchucmarca

43

an anonymous description of the first Spanish contact with the Chachapoyas, both published in the Relaciones Geogräficas de Indias (Jimenez de la Espada 1965). Espinoza (1967) describes the Chachapoyas as a confederation of corporate ayllus (kin groups) and pueblos (towns). These were independent and apparently fairly self-sufficient units governed by a curaca (chieftain) and a council of elders in peacetime. During war, this council elected a captain to rule by decree. There were no clerics or organized temples. Espinoza stresses the autonomy of the individual towns. He points out that the Inca conquest (ca. 1475) left the basic fabric of the ayllus intact. Local parochial records corroborate this. These records, covering baptisms, marriages and deaths, mention three cardinal points of reference for placing any one individual in the province: his ayllu, where he lived (his parcialidad or barrio), and the particular cacique who governed him. Contrary to Espinoza's conclusion that the Chachapoyas ethnic group functioned as a loose collection of autonomous villages, there are three indications that justify thinking of it as a nation with incipient state institutions. First is the fact that the Incas themselves regarded these people as a unified group capable of mounting some of the severest and most sustained resistance to Inca expansion. They were one of the last groups to be conquered, and the Incas undertook to pacify them by the forced removal of part of the population to different parts of the empire. These were known as mitimaes. Second is the extent of the Chachapoyas ethnic group, which covered some 12,500 square kilometers. Within this territory, the manner of constructing towns and the architecture of houses, tombs, and public buildings is very uniform (Savoy 1970). Towns are built on high, defensible ridges and are fortified with finished rock walls. These are frequently decorated with geometric mosaics of diamond, stepped-fret, and zig-zag patterns. Houses are always circular and usually built on platforms. They are constructed of faced stone, and although the masonry is rough, no mortar is used. Houses are also decorated with geometric mosaics. Third is the massive fortress of Cuelape, the center of the Chachapoyas nation, above the Utcubamba River. The size of the fortifications, the elegance of the stonework, and the extent of the ruins inside all indicate that this was the center of a political and military organization more complex than a loose confederation of villages. Hemming (1970: 237) describes Cuelape as one of the most impressive ruins in the Andes: Of all the myriad ruins in Peru, Cuelape is the most spectacularly defended, the strongest by European standards of military fortification. . . . Cuelape's superb outer walls, rising in places to over fifty feet, are faced with forty courses of long, rectangular granite blocks. A steep ramp overshadowed by tall, inclined re-entrant walls leads into the mysterious gloom of the fortress enclosures. There, towering out of the tangle of trees and undergrowth, are

44

The Early History of Uchucmarca the remains of the walls of inner enclosures, of watch towers, bastions and of some three hundred round houses. It has been calculated that the great walls of Cuelape contain 4 0 million cubic feet of building material—three times the volume of the Great Pyramid.

To build such a fortress, large amounts of manpower must have been employed. This indicates the existence of a centralized authority and administration. The loose confederation of villages described by Espinoza would have had neither the means nor the need to build such a fortress. The Prehistory of Uchucmarca Documents published by Espinoza (1967: 314) indicate that there were once six ayllus and two pueblos, "Llamachiban" and "Chibul." Ruins and place names corroborate the existence of these towns. Documents indicate that after the Inca conquest, the six ayllus were combined into one administrative unit, a pachaca. It is possible that this was the original unit that eventually became Uchucmarca. It is likely, however, that the actual town of Uchucmarca was Spanish-built because of the grid pattern and the north-south direction of the streets. As in many other Andean valleys, Uchucmarca is ringed by preHispanic ruins. (See Map 4.) Most of these are small settlements, but there is some monumental architecture also. Perhaps the most impressive feature of these ruins is their extensiveness. House counts here indicate that the preHispanic population may have exceeded today's. Extensive field systems no longer in use in the upper portion of the valley corroborate this. Remains of ridges, terraces and mounds indicate large-scale cultivation. These areas are now abandoned, and there is no living memory of when, how, or by whom they were cultivated. Remains of maize and potatoes uncovered in excavations above Uchucmarca show that the pre-Hispanic population used the valley in a way similar to modern inhabitants.5 Besides the extensiveness of the prehistoric ruins, archaeological excavations in Uchucmarca have revealed other things about the early inhabitants of the valley (Thompson 1972, 1973, 1974). They lived in villages concentrated in the upper parts of the valley, although they inhabited and used the entire valley. Their villages were clustered along ridge tops or in other easily defended places, and they were often ringed by walls that may have been defense perimeters. Within these walls, the people lived in circular and rectangular houses made of stone. In typical Andean fashion, their walls had niches. Beneath the floor was a stone-lined chamber whose function is unknown. These may have been storage areas where potatoes or other food was kept. Public and monumental architecture are important features of these 5 Personal communication from Mr. Dale McElrath (University of Wisconsin) who has done archaeological research on prehistoric agriculture in the Uchucmarca Valley (1973 - 74).

The Early History of

Uchucmarca

45

villages. Large D-shaped and rectangular buildings are found in the center of one village. Beneath their floors, caches of pink spondylus shell from the Pacific coast were buried. Floors and part of the walls of these buildings were plastered, and beneath the floors ran covered ditches. Whether these served to bring water or to carry it away is not known. The most spectacular prehistoric building still standing is a double tower constructed of carefully selected and faced white stone. This dominates one of the highest prehistoric villages and is visible from many of the surrounding hillsides. Within the two towers are beehived-shaped chambers, corbelled vaults. After centuries of looting, there are no remains of their original contents, but they may have once been burial places for local nobility. The parochial archives of baptisms in Bolivar record at least two ayllus for Uchucmarca, "Llama" and "Chibul," in the year 1602. These correspond to modem place names in the valley. As in other parts of the central Peruvian highlands, the barrio or moiety divisions of "Ichoq" and "Allauca" are found in ethnohistorical and contemporary contexts. The parochial records of the early Colonial period give prominent place to these divisions in defining the identity of any one individual. The provincial capital, Bolivar, is still divided into these barrios. Further south the Ichoq-Allauca division corresponds to the right and left banks of a river (Thompson and Murra 1966: 636). In Bolivar, the division seems to correspond to the two sides of the valley which run into the Maranon canyon. It may be an Inca-imposed division, although the normal division of the Inca administration was the upper and lower barrio divisions, hanan and unan. Although there is no direct application of the Ichoq-Allauca division to Uchucmarca itself, one document in the parochial archives (Anonymous 1909) indicates place names of each within the boundaries of the modern District of Uchucmarca. According to this, the southern (left) side of the valley appears to have been Allauca while the northern (right) side was Ichoq. Virtually everything that we know about pre-Hispanic life in the area is colored by two cataclysmic events which shook the lives of the Chachapoyas people: the successive conquests of the Incas from the south and the Spaniards from the west. It is probable that these took place within two generations, or about fifty years. From most accounts, it seems that the Chachapoyas were still resisting the Inca conquest when they were confronted by the Spaniards. Inca Domination Garcilaso de la Vega (1963: 347 - 50) and Vazquez de Espinosa (1948: 385) report that Tupac Inca Yupanqui ( 1 4 7 1 - 9 3 ) commanded the Inca armies that overran the Chachapoyas nation. According to Garcilaso, the army of Tupac Yupanqui fought pitched battles in all of the major towns of the northern nation. One of these was Cajamarquilla. Later the people of that

46

The Early History of Uchucmarca

province mounted a rebellion against the Inca administration of Huayna Capac ( 1 4 9 3 - 1525), who returned to the province with an army to quell the rebellion. Huayna Capac was deterred from slaughtering the people of the province only by the tearful pleas of a woman who had been in the concubinage of his father, Tupac Yupanqui. To honor the favor of leniency granted by Huayna Capac, the people of the province of Cajamarquilla built a shrine and dedicated it to Huayna Capac (Garcilaso 1963: 402 - 4). Other chroniclers (cf. Sarmiento 1960; Cieza de Leon 1880) maintain that the Chachapoyas nation was not conquered until very late in the Inca Empire, under Huayna Capac. Cieza (1880: 244) also comments on the fierce resistance offered up by the Chachapoyas in their defense against the Incas. He reports that the Incas removed a fairly large number of mitimaes to Cuzco. This community was still intact when the Spaniards arrived (Cieza 1962: 217). Besides their resistance to the Incas, the other notable thing reported about the Chachapoyas people is their fair complexion. Both Cieza de Leon and Garcilaso comment on the white skin of the people and upon the beauty of their women. This characteristic has survived until today. The people of the entire region around Chachapoyas - Celendih - Tayabamba strike one as having a significant proportion of European genes. It is not uncommon to encounter blond, blue-eyed people and men with heavy beards and bald heads. The Inca occupation of the area was brief, lasting not more than fifty years. It is difficult to determine their impact, although it appears to have been limited. The only Inca-type architecture in the Uchucmarca region is found in the small hamlet of Cochabamba roughly 15 kilometers north of Uchucmarca. Here an Inca administrative center was built to govern the Chachapoyas region. Espinoza (1967) informs us that local administrators were chosen, rather than importing ones from the royal Inca lineages of Cuzco. These ruins consist of three trapezoidal portals, a bath, and a number of scattered stones all finished in the fine Inca style. In other ruins of the area, the only remnants of the Incas' presence are a few polychrome shards. Most of the ruins in the Uchucmarca Valley were burned and abandoned prehistorically, perhaps indicating the severity of the conflict with the Incas. To the east of the valley runs the Royal Inca highway, connecting Quito and Cuzco. South of Bolivar is a tambo, or way station, on the Inca highway. This tambo is of historic construction, although it reportedly stands on the ruins of an original Inca one. It is still maintained by the local people and is an important stopping place en route to villages in the southern part of the Province of Bolivar. The Spanish Conquest It has long been known that on the eve of the Spanish Conquest, the one hundred-year-old, two thousand-mile Inca Empire was rocked by internal

The Early History of

Uchucmarca

47

division and strife. A bloody civil war between the two pretenders to the Inca throne, Atahualpa and Huascar, culminated as Pizarro and his small band rode down the Pacific coast and into the highlands. Recent ethnohistorical research in Peru indicates that the civil war between the half brothers was only one dimension of the internal struggle in the Andes that allowed the Spaniards to gain a foothold and victory over the Inca. Pre-Inca ethnic divisions survived the Inca expansion in many parts of the Andes, and some ethnic groups remained restive under Inca rule. As the work of Waldemar Espinoza (1967, 1973) shows, the hegemony of the Incas over their vast empire was only partial, and the Spaniards were able to exploit the discontent of newly conquered peoples. Without native allies and auxiliaries, European chances of success would have been greatly diminished. This was a lesson which many of the conquerors brought with them from Mexico. On the eve of the Spanish invasion of Peru, the Chachapoyas had mounted their third and final rebellion against the Inca (Espinoza 1967). Having sided with the forces of Huascar in the civil war, they fought Atahualpa on his left flank as he marched south from Quito. In one pitched battle, the Inca's forces massacred 8,000 Chachapoyas warriors. After this, direct contact with Atahualpa was avoided. From Cajamarca, Atahualpa led an expeditionary force deep into Chachapoyas territory in 1532, during which he was able to create a fragile truce with them. This truce was immediately dissolved by the Chachapoyas leaders when they learned of the Spanish arrival in Cajamarca. The principal chieftain of the Chachapoyas, Guaman, journeyed to the Spanish camp, bringing gifts and promises of cooperation. In return, he was given the honorary title of don Francisco Pizarro Guaman by the Spanish leader and was allowed to accompany the Europeans on their march toward Cuzco. The enmity between the Chachapoyas and Incas apparently did not end with the arrival of the Spanish. The call by Manco Inca in 1536 for rebellion against the Europeans was refused by the northern group. According to Hemming (1970: 248), the rebellious Inca sent his cousin, Cayo Tupa, to make peace with the Chachapoyas and to investigate the possibility of refuge for the Inca in the area, probably in the fortress at Cuelape. These overtures were refused by the Chachapoyas. A letter written by a Chachapoyas, Juan de Alvarado, around 1555 describes the response of the principal cacique, Guaman, to Cayo Tupa's request: Some Indians obeyed and others refused; the people living between Cajamarquilla and Leymebamba followed this cacique, named Guaman, while many others went to follow the governors of the Inca; one of whom was named Cayo Tupa and was on very bad terms with the principal cacique. Guaman, who was in Cochabamba at the time, sent for help in the way of soldiers from the Spanish ['los barbudos' - the bearded ones] to fight the Inca; the Captain in Trujillo, Garci Olguin, sent one soldier from Trujillo to Cocha-

48

The Early History of Uchucmarca bamba who was received with much rejoicing. The Inca governor, who had heard of the arrival of the single bearded soldier, fled toward Cuzco where all the Indians had risen. With the aid of the soldier, Guaman pursued the fleeing Incas. He marched with 1500 armed men from Cochabamba to Caxamarquilla, some thirteen leagues. They marched all night and captured the Inca Cayo Tupa along with his principal cohorts before dawn. Cayo Tupa and some sixty Indians were brought to Cochabamba and addressed by Guaman: 'since the bearded ones will never return to Castilla but will always remain here, we must become Christians and children of God. You have always cheated us and refused to listen to my advice, and for this you are to die.' After this justice was carried out: first, thirty of the captured Indians were burned, and afterwards Cayo Tupa himself was burned alive as a warning to all in the land since he had fortifications and more people ready for war than any other cacique. Following these events the war with the Incas began with the help of the Christians (Jimenez de la Espada 1965: 166; my translation).

The chroniclers who describe the Spaniard's advance into the northern part of Peni comment on how well they were received by the Chachapoyas. The first foray into the area was led by Alonso de Alvarado in 1538. An observer reported that when the party of Spaniards reached Cochabamba: . . . they were well received by the natives, who had come from the entire vicinity to see them [the Spaniards]. Alvarado was determined not to do them any harm or to anger them; he spoke with the caciques and nobles about his arrival, telling them how he would give them news of our sacred religion, telling them to save themselves by not worshipping the sun or stone images but rather God, creator of sky, earth, and sea. This frightened the Indians who said that they would be happy to become Christians and be baptized. The people gathered in the plaza and danced according to their custom; they came adorned with pieces of gold and silver which they gave to Alvarado. Recognizing their hospitality, Alvarado spoke with the men who had accompanied him, and it was decided that they would remain in the area until he could return with more people to populate and divide the region (Jimenez de la Espada 1965: 158; my translation). Alvarado did return to explore, conquer, and settle the region with Europeans. His reception in other parts of the Chachapoyas nation was not as cordial as the initial one at Cochabamba (Espinoza 1967). None of the resistance, however, was sustained, partly because the Europeans were able to muster the aid of some villages in battles against others. The successes in the war against the Incas earned the cacique Guaman the right to reign over the entire Chachapoyas area he had helped to pacify for the Europeans. In Alvarado's terms, Guaman became "master of all things of the Chachapoyas and the haciendas of the Incas, their livestock, chacras, clothes, personal servants, and hammock makers" (Jimenez de la Espada 1965: 167). Following Guaman's death in 1551, the Chachapoyas area was carved up into smaller units by Spaniards and natives alike. This meant the disintegration of the once strong Chachapoyas nation that had stoutly resisted the Incas.

The Early History of

Uchucmarca

49

Uchucmarca After the Spanish Conquest The exploitation of the Andean population by the Spanish invaders is a wellknown story.® Grants of Indian labor, encomiendas, were given to the Spanish encomenderos as payment for services rendered in the campaign against the Incas. Often, these were administered with the aid and cooperation of native caciques. The results of the Conquest on the native population were drastic. Every native was dislocated, and the majority died from disease and maltreatment. Having consolidated their victory over the Incas in the south, the Spanish expanded their administrative apparatus northward. In 1538, Alonso de Alvarado, a man who had first entered Chachapoyas territory in 1536, founded a Spanish outpost at Levanto, within sight of Cuelape on the other side of the Utcubamba River. This outpost was soon moved slightly north and became a permanent settlement, San Juan de la Frontera de Chachapoyas. Here Alvarado ruled as a lieutenant governor, and extended Spanish dominion into the frontier zone of the northeastern Amazon. The native Chachapoyas population was parceled among encomenderos and native caciques. Juan Perez de Guevara, who had accompanied Alvarado on the first Spanish expedition to Chachapoyas territory was made encomendero of the Uchucmarca region. Guaman, who had befriended the Spanish, was made cacique. The existence of this Spanish-native duality was to become a major theme in Uchucmarca's development. The founding of Uchucmarca probably occurred during the resettlement of the native Andean population (reduccton) initiated by Viceroy Toledo in 1570. This is indicated by parochial archives in Bolivar and by the typically Spanish grid pattern of streets. Conditions in the Andean hinterland must have been close to wretched after more than fifty years of civil war, conquest, rebellion, epidemic, and virtual enslavement. The Spanish policy of reduccicm was designed to consolidate the depleted population and to resettle them into towns where administration, conversion to Catholicism, and above all the collection of tribute would be easier. For the natives, it meant removal from their ancestral villages and the final dislocation of the Conquest period. Uchucmarca was populated with roughly four hundred tribute-paying Indians, enough to support a priest (Schjellerup 1976). Local legend states that the original site of the Spanish town was in the lower part of the Uchucmarca Valley at Chibul. There is an abandoned church there, but there are no visible remains of a town. It is possible that this was the origie F o r a thorough and recent history of the events of the Conquest and its aftermath, see Hemming (1970). An excellent introduction to the social and economic history of the early colonial period is Lockhart (1968).

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nal site of the Guevara settlement and encomienda. The town was supposedly moved up the valley to its present location after an outbreak of an epidemic (probably malaria, but possibly smallpox) decimated the population. The lack of any ruins of a town, plus the relative inhospitality of the area for agriculture, cast some doubt on the accuracy of the local legend. It is possible, however, that a town was founded here before 1572 and that the remains of houses and streets have been obliterated. The reasons why the Spanish might have built a town in the lower part of the valley include the location of mines and the production of sugar cane and fruit. Cultural Development of Uchucmarca In the four centuries which have passed since Juan Perez de Guevara founded the town, Uchucmarca has survived as a relative backwater of Peru. The population has outgrown the original grid pattern only in recent times. Perhaps the most intriguing historical problem is how and why this community and others in the former Chachapoyas nation have moved so close to the mestizo culture of Peru and away from the traditional "Indian" mold (Stein 1972). Many customs of the contemporary Andean population are transplants from Spain. Foster (1960) has described this process as the "Conquest Culture" for the entire Latin American area. All communities underwent this process to some extent, but the penetration of Spanish or Spanish-American customs and traits has been more pervasive in some areas than others. The most obvious transplant is the language. Uchucmarca is now a monolingual Spanish-speaking village. As long as any of the villagers can remember, this has been the case. There is no telling when Spanish became dominant, or even what local dialect it replaced. The nearest Quechua speakers are some villages in the valley of Cajamarca to the west. These are most likely the descendents of Inca mitimaes. To the south, the Quechua region begins in the vicinity of Huacrachuco, which is the northern limit of the Ancash Quechua region. There are important and fairly obvious vestiges of Quechua in village culture. Place names are predominantly Quechua. Many of the customary agricultural and communal activities are labeled with Quechua names and are characteristic of "Indian" culture. Thus the opening of new land for potatoes is referred to as chacma; the first weeding of potatoes is aporco, the second is cutipa; house roofing parties are known as huasharui, reciprocal labor exchange is termed huasheo; and ritualized first haircutting ceremonies are known as landariit. In Uchucmarca, the term minga refers to any cooperative work, and it is even extended to the hiring of wage labor for domestic or agricultural work. Further south in Quechua-speaking areas, this term applies to festive cooperative labor.

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Other socio-cultural phenomena show the heavy influence of European culture. In political organization, there is no equivalent to the varaybq system of the southern and central highlands (Stein 1961: 184). Typically Spanish agricultural practices such as plowing with oxen (barbecho) have replaced indigenous foot-plow agriculture, and the faena is celebrated during the harvest of wheat. Other European crops such as barley, field peas (awejas), and broad beans (habas) have become important crops. Skeletal remains in the ruins above Uchucmarca prove that the Andean cameloids, the llama and alpaca, were raised before 1532, but these have been entirely replaced by European livestock. There is no real or ritualized redistribution of plots each year as is done in some central and southern highland communities. In kinship there is no equivalent, linguistically or in any functioning unit, of the ayllu or casta systems of many Quechua communities (Vasquez and Holmberg 1966). There are two possible reasons why the penetration of Spanish culture was so pervasive in this region. First, population decimation might have been so severe that the relative influence of the Spaniards was very great here. Second, because of the enmity between the Chachapoyas ethnic group and the Incas, the local population of this region might have been receptive to European culture, especially if their own had been weakened in their struggles with the Incas. Vasquez de Espinoza (1626?: 281) reports that the population of the province of Cajamarquilla was small because many Indians had died or fled to a refuge in the montana. The decimation of the native population of the entire Andes is certain (Smith 1970). Local archaeological remains including several sites with relatively large house counts (125 units) and extensive prehistoric field systems attest to the size of the pre-Hispanic population of the Uchucmarca Valley. 7 It is possible that besides the severe threat to the population from new European diseases, the population of the former Chachapoyas area had already been reduced by the severity of their wars with the Incas. In any case, there can be little doubt that the calamitous succession of two conquests took a heavy toll of the original population of the valley. The willingness of the Chachapoyas to befriend the Spanish invaders might have been indicative of the weakness of their physical and cultural resources to resist another conquest or simply of the enmity toward the Inca. One imagines that the disruptions caused by the Inca conquest of the Chachapoyas left them with little defense to resist the inroads of the invading European culture. Spanish activity in the area might have been very intense in the early years after the Conquest. One reason for this is the hospitality 7 Archaeologists Donald Thompson and Dale McElrath suggest that die pre-Hispanic population may have been at least twice the size of the contemporary population (personal communication).

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showed toward the Europeans by the Chachapoyas people. Another is the presence of gold mines that are reported by two of the chroniclers (Cieza de Leon 1962: 218, and Vazquez de Espinosa 1948: 281) in the vicinity of Uchucmarca. One was owned by none other than Juan Perez de Guevara. Vazquez says that Guevara took out much wealth from the mine, but was forced to abandon it and others like it because of the lack of manpower. There are local legends about old mines in the valley, but I was unable to locate them. One of the interesting problems posed by the mestizo culture of the area arises in comparing it to the traditional Quechua communities of the central and southern highlands that are relatively more integrated into the larger national socio-economic system through such things as roads, markets, migration, and political structures. Uchucmarca is relatively more isolated from the national mestizo culture in physical and political terms than many traditional Indian communities. Uchucmarca seems to contradict traditional diffusionist arguments about the importance of communication links as the source of the new traits. In Peru's case, the source of the national mestizo culture is the coast. Traits potentially flow along road links which allow easier movement for migrants, traders and their products, and ideas from the outside world. Its nearest road link is six hours away. Until seven years ago, the nearest link was some twenty-four hours away. All of the people whom I questioned about the changes in local traditions and culture caused by the extension of a road link to within a day of Uchucmarca maintained that the road had affected the economy of the village, but that they could not discern any appreciable change in the general culture. Uchucmarca has been essentially a mestizo village for as long as living memory serves. The basic self-sufficiency of villages of the Chachapoyas nation continued into the Colonial and Republican periods. Indeed, it appears that only in the past decade, with the introduction of a road link, has this selfsufficiency started to break down. Politically, the village was dominated by a succession of caciques, the last of which died just after the turn of the twentieth century. The village was the home of a resident priest during much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Local residents also report that in the village there was a monastery, which was destroyed by a landslide. I have not located any official documentation to corroborate this. Perhaps the most notable events recorded in the local archives are the land disputes with surrounding haciendas and communities (Anonymous 1786). In all of the disputes, the Community was successful in defending its territorial integrity (Brush 1974). The memory of these disputes is still alive in Uchucmarca. From time to time, there have been official "reorganizations" of the political structure of the communal and municipal organizations. One of these was taking place during my research in Uchucmarca. It did not ap-

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pear, however, that such official reorganization initiated from outside of the Community would have a direct impact on the functioning of the village culture. This should hold true for similar reorganizations in the Colonial and Republican periods. Some exceptions to this were the creation of Cajamarquilla as a Comgimiento in 1577 (Espinoza 1967: 283), the creation of Cajamarquilla as a Provincia in 1916, and the recognition of Uchucmarca as an official Indigenous Community, Comunidad de Indigenas (later changed to Comunidad de Campesinos), in 1945. Each of these steps meant greater political and administrative autonomy for the Province and the community. The recognition of Uchucmarca as a Comunidad de Indigenas gave the Uchucmarquinos an important tool in the defense of their communal lands, allowing them to carry on the tradition of independence and self-sufficiency which began before the Spanish Conquest.

The Formal Organization of Uchucmarca One characteristic of isolated, self-sufficient peasant villages like Uchucmarca is the importance which is placed on informal, personal interaction rather than on formal, legal social organization. Day-to-day living is governed by the nature of family and friendship ties rather than by legal codes or contracts. Uchucmarca has existed as a community since the late sixteenth century, with roots reaching far back into the prehistoric period. We may expect, therefore, that a great proportion of the cultural patterns and social structure of the village are autochthonous and based on tradition rather than on formal written codes. Nevertheless, peasants like the ones studied here live within modern nations. They are, therefore, bound by legal codes and constitutions that help shape and organize the community as a formal entity. Moreover, they give the community a legal existence vis-ä-vis other communities, persons, and offices. Uchucmarca, accordingly, has a formal legal structure that was designed by politicians and lawyers acting on the national level of Peruvian government. The local people must work within this structure. Local needs and conditions, however, temper and change this structure so that it is satisfactory to the residents of the village. Three major components make up the formal structure of the village. Two of these are legal: the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca and the District of Uchucmarca. The third is the religious organization built up around the devotional offices of particular saints in the church. The rest of this chapter will examine each of these institutions according to their structure and organization. The Peasant Community Although the status of Uchucmarca as a legally recognized Community is recent, its existence as a group and a territory was established at least fourhundred years ago. The legal recognition of Indigenous Communities (Communidades de Indigenas) was first provided for by the Peruvian Constitution of 1919.1 Historically many of them date from the Toledo reducciones of the early Colonial period.2 In 1946 the village of Uchucmarca organized itself 1 As the case of Uchucmarca shows, although the concrete legal identity of these "indigenous communities" was dubious before the 1919 Constitution, their de facto existence was well established by over 300 years of litigations, usually involving boundaries. 2 T h u s tht "IndigenousCommunities" were, in fact, creations of the Spanish Colonial policy (Fuenzalida 1970).

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and sent a commission to Lima to petition for formal recognition as an Indigenous Community. As with other communities, the single most important attribute of Uchucmarca that qualified it to petition was the fact that it had controlled a specific territory since the 1570s and had roots in preColombian times. With more published descriptions of similar highland communities, it becomes clear that the traditional category of "community" should be used with caution.3 Adams (1962) points out that the "myth" of indigenous communities was a product of the liberal intellectuals of the indigenista movement of Mexico and Peru. In Peru, two pivotal figures in this movement were Mariätegui and Castro Pozo; neither of these men had any extensive or direct contact with the highland communities that they discussed. Perhaps the most important result of the indigenista movement was legislation dealing with the "Indian" populations of the hinterlands. Among the legal guarantees provided Indigenous Communities after 1920 are: inalienability of community property, direct control over community resources and income, and official government recognition as legal entities. The Revolutionary Government of the Peruvian Armed Forces has further elaborated the legal protection of these communities by placing them under the control of the national agrarian reform. In 1969 they were renamed "Peasant Communities." In 1970 Uchucmarca and other Peasant Communities underwent the first administrative reorganization designed to move them toward a national cooperative model. The traditional communal organization with a Deputy (.Personero), President, and Executive Committee was reorganized into an administrative organization of a cooperative. In this, two committees are nominated and elected to run the Community. These are the Executive Committee (Consejo de Administracion) and the Vigilance Committee (Consejo de Vigilancia). The Executive Committee is comprised of five members: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Voter (Vocal). The Vigilance Committee is made up of three members: President, Secretary, and Vocal. These committees are elected as slates in biennial elections held by secret ballot in the community. Although their meetings are supposed to be separate and biweekly, in fact they are held jointly and are often characterized by irregular timing and attendance. Most of the day-to-day work of the Community is carried on by the President and any one of the other officers who he is able to recruit at a specific time. The only time when the communal organization takes action is when a crisis demands the attention of the Community or when a specific task must be performed for the village. Examples of the latter are the periodic work projects in and around the village and deciding on petitions for unclaimed land from members. The communal 3 Difficulties associated with using the community as the "object and sample" of anthropological research have been suggested and discussed for over a decade by anthropologists. The emergence of "systems analysis" and "network theory" has reoriented much anthropological research away from the conventional community study.

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organization has no regular office. The committees meet in the home of one of the officers, usually the President of the Executive Committee. Besides these two committees, the communal organization consists of the General Assembly of the members of the Community (Asemblea General de Comuneros). Legally this is the most powerful unit in the entire communal organization. General Assemblies are held on an irregular basis to discuss particular issues and problems facing the community. Often they are called in order to ratify and to officially record in the Community Ledger (Libro de Actos) decisions already reached by the leadership. It is extremely difficult to conduct business meetings in a large and sometimes cumbersome Assembly where crucial and sometimes delicate decisions about Community policy are called for. Debate usually begins in an orderly fashion, but it frequently evolves into heated discussions among small groups with an occasional call for order from the officials. It is often necessary for the President and his committees to work out the shape of the decisions he will ask the General Assembly to make prior to the actual meeting of the Assembly. In these instances, the meeting of the Assembly is devoted to explaining the administration's viewpoint and allowing debate that hopefully moves toward approbation. In one General Assembly during the field work period, the Community Ledger was signed before the minutes of the meeting had been entered. Membership in the Community means above all that the person has the right to use land in the Uchucmarca Valley. Membership is granted according to several different criteria. It is automatically granted to any person who is born within the community, regardless of the status of his or her parents. An immigrant to the village who marries a member may immediately petition the Executive Committee for membership. It is common, however, for such a person to wait one or two years before making his appeal. This must be accompanied by a fee. At the time of this study, this fee was $4.40 (S/.200), although there was serious discussion about raising it to $11.00 (S/.500). Membership for an immigrant who is not married to a community member is dependent on three things: residency in the village, a formal application (letter) for membership, and the payment of a fee. The minimum period of residency is five years, although most immigrants do not appeal for membership until after a considerably longer period. The average is closer to ten years, and the Executive Committee has discussed raising the official residency to ten years. The fee is now $11.00 (S/.500), and the Community will soon raise that to $22.00. An immigrant who brings a spouse with him must pay an additional fee ($5.00) for the spouse's membership. In petitioning for membership in the Community, there is a strong element of good faith that the immigrant must demonstrate. He is expected, for instance, to participate in the periodic work obligations called by the communal orga-

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nization, pay the occasional fees for special purposes which are levied by the communal organization, and, finally, demonstrate his fealty to the village by participating in such things as the sponsorship of the religious activities. Immigration into the valley has been an important feature of Uchucmarca's recent history (Brush 1977c). Forty-six percent of the community's population was born outside the valley. Peasants from regions surrounding the valley arrived in two waves: the first to the upper valley area between 1940 and 1960 and the second to the lower valley beginning in 1965 and continuing today.4 In both, a major factor attracting migrants was the fact that Uchucmarca is a free community, whereas most of the migrants came from areas controlled by haciendas. In the village and immediate vicinity of Uchucmarca, immigrants account for 42 percent of the population. Among adults, this figure is lower and shows a predominance of male immigrants: 35 percent of adult males are immigrants versus 25 percent of adult females. The receptivity of the inhabitants of Uchucmarca to these migrants may be traced to three factors. First, there is a slight demographic imbalance with more females than males in the village. Although more males are born, their infant mortality rate is higher than that of females. Moreover, emigration of adult males exceeds that of females. This imbalance means that male immigrants do not have to compete with natives for spouses. Second, the demographic imbalance of males means that labor is often scarce. Most immigrant males work for at least part of their time as sharecroppers with natives, thus providing a labor pool. Third, there has traditionally been a surplus of land in the Uchucmarca Valley. This is especially true of the upper valley areas where potatoes are grown and livestock grazed. Immigrants could, therefore, find sufficient land for subsistence crops without encroaching on the land of locally born peasants. In contrast to past receptivity, there is a growing reticence on the part of the communal organization toward granting membership to immigrants. There appears to be a more stubborn attitude toward immigrants without affinal or other kinship ties to the village than toward those who marry into the village. Several immigrant families have permanent residence of ten years or more but feel that the Peasant Community is not ready to accept their application for membership. As the community's population grows, the villagers are becoming more and more aware of an increasing strain on its land base. So far, this pressure is confined to the lower grain-producing zones where many members have not been able to obtain land and must work as sharecroppers. The status of immigrants is complicated by a long history of conflicts and tensions between Uchucmarca and neighboring communities and haciendas. Another source of tension is the fact that the villagers of Uchuc4 As discussed in chapter 2, the lower valley was virtually uninhabitable because of malaria before the early 1960's.

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marca perceive a potential threat to their land base from the landless peasantry of nearby haciendas. Throughout the Peruvian highlands where one finds the presence of both haciendas and free communities like Uchucmarca, there has traditionally been a significant migration from the former to the latter (Brush 1977c; Martinez 1970). This pattern has put considerable demographic stress on the land base of communities which are adjacent to haciendas. Although the migration into Uchucmarca has not caused the serious demographic problems characteristic of the southern highlands, the Uchucmarquinos are aware of the potential danger posed by their relation to nearby haciendas. The Peasant Community of Uchucmarca exercises its control over the land in three ways: 1) the defense of community lands from outside incursions; 2) the redistribution of unoccupied land; and 3) the control of who has rights to use land through the control of memebership in the community. Usufructuary rights to plots are held indefinitely by individuals, and they may be bequeathed to a spouse or a child. Land that is left vacant, either through emigration or lack of inheritors, reverts to the communal organization, which is empowered to redistribute it through a process of petitions. A nominal fee is paid to the Executive Committee for such land. It is not paid for the land itself but rather for "improvements" (fences, structures) on the land that the former owner might have put in. In this way, the communal organization attaches no value to the land itself. Rights to plots may be sold or traded to other members of the community, but not to outsiders. Nonmembers must seek alternate means of working the land other than direct ownership. These include sharecropping and working as peons (see Chapter 7). There are few formal duties imposed on the members of the community. Most important are the periodic work obligations called by the Executive Committee. Each council, and especially every President of the community, customarily plans and executes public works for the village. The most common type is the construction and upkeep of trails, roads, and bridges. During the research period (1970 - 71), there were five different projects for which the membership was called to work by the Executive Committee. Three of these were for improving the streets, trails, and bridges in and around the village; one was for cleaning the water system of Uchucmarca; and one was to prepare a bull ring and improve a football field used during the annual fiesta of the village patron saint. Attendance is taken at the site of the project, and those persons who are absent and who have not given a valid excuse are fined. The only men who are exempt are old men (ancianos) and schoolteachers, although it is not uncommon to find some schoolteachers and old men participating with their neighbors in these projects. Work obligations tend to be relatively pleasant events with a flute and drum player (cajero) accompanying the work. The communal organization

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and a few of the more affluent community members contribute coca and cane liquor (arguardiente). Because of the nature of the agriculture in the valley, much of every man's day is spent alone in his fields. Work projects are viewed by most as a pleasant change of pace and a chance to be with their friends and neighbors. Another obligation of members is attendance at General Assemblies. They are also asked on special occasions to contribute small amounts of money for specified financial needs of the communal organization. A variation of this is the kermes where the members contribute food, firewood, or liquor, which is sold at a dance. In the yearly routine, these obligations are seen as minor diversions from the heavy manual labor of subsistence farming. The Peasant Community of Uchucmarca has few sources of regular income, and these yield only a small amount of money. These sources include: 1) the payments which accompany petitions for unoccupied land; 2) the fees paid by immigrants wishing to become members of the community; 3) the fees collected from visiting merchants during the annual fiesta; 4) the contributions from members who no longer reside in the village but who continue to graze cattle and sheep on communal pasture; 5) the payments by members of a periodic "head tax"; and 6) occasional fees levied on members. Money raised from these sources is spent on legal fees, travel expenses, and equipment and materials for community projects. District Organization Besides being a Peasant Community, Uchucmarca is a municipal District of the Province of Bolivar. As such it is part of the administrative structure of the Peruvian government and has a set of institutions which are within the district - provincial - departmental - national hierarchy. The municipal council (Consejo Municipal) or simply municipio has seven members with specified functions according to standard Peruvian municipal organization. These are the mayor (alcalde), the lieutenant mayor (teniente alcalde), the recorder of rents or income (stndico de rentas), the recorder of expenditures, (stndico de gastos), the inspector of the civil registry (inspector de obras publicas), the inspector of hygiene (inspector de higiene), and the inspector of weights and measures (inspector de pesos y medidas). Despite the elaboration of titles, the council functions in a rather amorphous fashion. The municipal council has no power to raise money by levying taxes. It must depend on appropriations from the national government (Ministerio de Fomento) for its operating budget. These appropriations can be highly irregular. During the research period they were suspended altogether, forcing the closure of the municipality. The most important regular function of the municipality is the recording of births and deaths. These have been kept with a

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varying degree of accuracy since the latter part of the nineteenth century. Until the recent financial collapse of the municipality, these records were kept by a part-time secretary. When the council could no longer pay him $7.00 (S/.300) per month, he was forced to leave. The alcalde is normally elected yearly, but during the Revolutionary Government he has been appointed by the provincial authority, the Subprefecto. Upon his election or appointment, the alcalde appoints the other members of the municipal council. He also appoints five representatives (tenientes) for each of the small hamlets outside of the main nucleated settlement of the District, Uchucmarca. They represent and report back to the regular municipal council. The mayor and all of his appointees serve without remuneration. The other office in the district-provincial nexus is that of Governor (gobernador). The municipal council and the gobemador are both essentially outward-looking, serving as the official links through which the villagers mediate their relations with the rest of the Peruvian governmental structure. The gobemador is a local person appointed to the job by the subprefect of the province. His chief function is to transmit orders from the provincial to the village levels. His duties include the collection of taxes such as those on cattle sold out of the District and those on the sale of alcohol. He is the liaison between Peru's National Police Force, the Guardia Civil, and the other village authorities. The office of gobemador is regarded with some amount of mistrust.5 The office is considered as a sort of necessary evil in the village. Relations between the wider provincial hierarchy and the village are not overly cordial. Many of the villagers object to paying taxes to an office from which they can perceive no real benefit for themselves or their village. A common sentiment among Uchucmarquinos is that they are often treated unfairly and with some disdain as "country bumpkins" by the political appointees at the provincial level. The judicial system in Uchucmarca consists of one Justice of the Peace and two alternates. These are local persons nominated for two years by the Judge of the provincial capital (Juez de Primer Instancia). The cases over which the Justices of the Peace have jurisdiction are very circumscribed. The vast majority are concerned with minor quarrels between households. Perhaps the most typical are the cases that arise when someone's horses or cattle get past the brush and stone barricades surrounding every chacra and destroy the crops within. In these cases, the Justice of the Peace attempts to bring the two parties together to work out a settlement. This usually involves payment in cash or kind to replace the estimated value of the crops. Cases involving minor theft are also brought to the Justice of the Peace, al5 Stein (1961) found the same kind of mistrust directed to appointed officials in the village of Hualcän, Ancash Department.

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though his powers to punish are very limited. He can handle only those cases where the property is valued at less than $46.00 (S/. 2000). He has the power to fine up to $46.00 and to confine a culprit in the Guardia Civil post for up to forty-eight hours. Cases that exceed either the maximum property value or the potential punishment are referred to the Superior Judge in Bolivar, who is a federal appointee. Alternate Justices of the Peace help avoid conflict of interest. Although it is rare, disputes between families have become acrimonious, leading to a permanent state of antipathy between households. Cases of husband-wife separation often lead to such antipathy. As in many provincial towns, there are also a few individuals who fashion themselves to be "country lawyers." The term applied to these is tinterillo which literally means one who deals with ink. The presence of these types appears to be widespread in the highlands. As Metraux (1959: 235) notes, in regions where the Indians' lot has not improved as the result of an agrarian reform land hunger sometimes assumes the form of an obsession. It gives rise to interminable lawsuits between Indians' to the advantage of the notorious tinteriUos—shady lawyers, who since the colonial era have earned a living by exploiting the Indians. Even though the community retains residual rights to the land, the only land disputes which the communal organization acts upon are those involving disputes with neighboring communities or haciendas or concerning land which is owned and controlled communally. There are no regular mechanisms within the communal organization to handle internal disputes over land. Such disputes are referred to the Justice of the Peace who is not part of the communal organization per se. Intercommunity Conflicts Conflict between Uchucmarca and its neighbors has been a recurring theme in the history of the village.6 Waging these boundary disputes is perhaps the clearest administrative role of any village organization. Before becoming an Indigenous Community, this role belonged to the municipio as it now does the Executive Committee. At no other time is the community interest so well defined, and no other communal action has left such a clear historical record. Uchucmarca's problems with its neighbors began almost as soon as the reduction and founding of the permanent village of Uchucmarca were complete. The first litigation over land rights is dated 1608 and was with the 6 Again, this seems to be a common, yet understudied, phenomenon in the Andes (Brush 1974). The frequently mentioned litigations between every type of legal unit in the area seems to be the best proof of how common these conflicts are. Schjellerup (1976) gives an ethnohistorical account of Uchucmarca's boundary conflicts.

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community of Chuquibamba which borders Uchucmarca on the northeast. From that time to the present, the community has been involved in various disputes with all of its neighbors at one time or another. In all of these, Uchucmarca has been successful in retaining its territory. In the early Colonial dispute with Chuquibamba, Uchucmarca may have actually increased its holdings. Since the late eighteenth century, the disputes have been with haciendas to the south and west of the community. This type of competition is widespread in the Andes of Peru (Tullis 1970). Unlike other areas, Uchucmarca has generally succeeded in resisting hacienda encroachment. These disputes, with their voluminous legal paperwork, leave the only written history of the village. Several of them lasted over three decades, and one lasted 150 years! Land disputes continue to be one of the principal forms of interaction with neighboring villages. They are always favorite topics of conversation. The only outstanding failure to hold territory during 400 years occured recently around Pusac. Until a decade ago, this area was uninhabitable because of malaria. Many people report that they were afraid to ride or walk through this area, let alone cultivate in it, because of the disease. There were only a few who dared establish homesteads there, growing coca, fruit, and sweet potatoes. Some of these homesteaders came from Uchucmarca, but most were migrants to the community from haciendas in neighboring districts and on the other side of the Maranon River. These were the first of many migrants who moved onto Uchucmarca's land without becoming members or fulfilling communal obligations. Because of the lack of subsistence value of these lands at this time, the Community Council of Uchucmarca did not press them to become members. Besides these migrants, the Hacienda of Longotea and Chorobamba of the neighboring district began encroaching on community lands in this area. It purchased several large plots from the homesteaders, and built an irrigaton canal across community property to its own land. The community fought this by blocking the canal in 1939, but this move backfired when the police stepped in and arrested several community officials for destruction of property. Between 1939 and the late 1950s the Hacienda of Longotea and Chorobamba maintained possession of some community lands in the area, and used irrigation waters from community land. In the late 1950s the Peruvian government with the help of U N E S C O introduced D D T to the valley, eliminating the malaria threat and making it habitable. At this time, the community began proceedings to bring a suit against the hacienda to reclaim lands in the area, but the hacienda circumvented this by parceling and selling its lands within the Uchucmarca Valley to several individuals. Many of these became members of the community, but some 40 percent are still not members. In 1965 a road was built to this part of the valley, and a large number

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of persons who had been landless laborers from haciendas on the other side of the Maranon River and in Bolivar moved into the area where a new town, Pusac, was quickly forming. These were looking for work as day laborers in the sugar cane and coca fields. The land base of Pusac was quickly monopolized by a few families, and the bulk of this new population had no interest in becoming members of the community of Uchucmarca. Since its founding, the town of Pusac has taken on a very independent political and economic life from the central village of the District and community, Uchucmarca. The political leadership (agente and consejo municipal) is comprised mostly of persons who are not members of the Community, and the town has refused to participate in municipal or communal obligations that have been requested by Uchucmarca. There have been attempts by some residents of Pusac to break away from Uchucmarca and establish as an independent District. The people of Uchucmarca refer to Pusac, somewhat wryly, as a rebel annex (anexo rebelde). Although there has been no open conflict between the two towns, there is an atmosphere of tension and mutual resentment between them. This comes, in part, from the fact that many land owners have refused to become community members and that many people of Pusac have refused to support the community in work obligations and on questions of policy. This tension and resentment focused in recent years over a communal plot of land in Pusac known as "El Tingo." The Peasant Community of Uchucmarca retained direct control over a 4-hectare plot of land there, but because the plot is far from the actual village of Uchucmarca, the community has tried various means of exploiting it without cultivating it directly themselves. The community experimented with renting and sharecropping this plot, but each attempt ended in failure, legal conflict, and acrimony. Finally, in 1973, the plot was parceled and sold to individual members. In considering the different conflicts Uchucmarca has had with its neighbors since its founding, there appear to be three different sources of friction. The first source is the lack of clearly defined boundaries in the original founding of villages, communities, and haciendas after the Conquest. A second source is the direct efforts by hacendados to encroach upon community lands. As Tullis (1970: 81) points out, peasants in other parts of Peru were able to win suits negating similar encroachments, but in many places victory in court did not mean that land was actually returned to the Indian community. Uchucmarca has had considerably more luck in winning and enforcing court decisions than the cases reported by Tullis. A third source of friction between communities is the demographic pressure that the hacienda system can exert over an entire region. Religious Organization: Saints and Celebrations Besides the legal framework of Peasant Community and District, the other form of social organization which ties the village together is the Catholic

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form of social organization which ties the village together is the Catholic Church. As in other Latin American communities, the church must be understood not as a unified body, but rather as a set of interlocking devotional offices of the saints. This character is strengthened by the fact that no priest resides in the village. There are twenty-three images of different saints arrayed on various altars in the church of Uchucmarca. In theory, each of these should have two or more persons (male or female) in the village who have pledged themselves to specific services for the saint. There are three possible officers for each saint: the tesoreros, the muhidor, and the mayordomos. The tesoreros are usually man and wife, although there are some instances of parent-child pairs (e.g. mother-son) serving this position. They are the most important officers for any one saint, responsible for the celebration of the saint's day on the church's calendar and for taking care of the image throughout the year. The expenditure of time and money varies greatly according to the importance of the saint and the devotion of the tesorero. Of the twenty-three saints in the church, only eleven have tesoreros pledged to their service. The pledge is usually lifelong, and the office is frequently bequeathed to a son or daughter. The muhidor is a parish officer in charge of the property of the saint. Of the twenty-three saints, only four have muhidores, all women. The only property now owned by saints are clothes, usually two sets, and special gift items such as silver hearts and amulets, flower vases, plastic flowers, and candle holders donated by devotees. The responsibility of the muhidor is to protect and care for these objects by washing and changing the clothes at least once a year and polishing the ornaments that are attached to the saint's robes. This is always done for the saint's day, but an especially devoted muhidor may do these tasks several times a year. The final position serving the saint is that of mayordomo. Unlike the other two positions, this is only a temporary one, usually lasting only one or two years. Mayordomos volunteer to perform a specific service for a particular saint. These involve the celebration of the fiesta honoring the saint, so that only relatively major saints are served by mayordomos. Services that are pledged include the purchasing and lighting of candles at the feet of the saint, decorating the saint's altar with flowers, and buying special gifts to honor the saint such as a new set of clothes or a silver amulet. The most elaborate way a mayordomo can honor a saint is by preparing and serving a meal to the village. This is only done for the patron saint of the village, Nuestro Senor de los Milagros. There has not been a resident priest in the village since the turn of the twentieth century. Until recently, a visit by a priest was a very special occasion. Uchucmarca is part of the parish covered by a Spanish Franciscan mis-

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sionary order. In 1967 a visiting priest spoke to the town about modernizing their religious celebrations. He suggested that they simplify the interior of the church by removing some of the images of saints and by redesigning the altar, making Christ, Nuestro Senor de los Milagros, the focus. He also suggested that the costumes of the saints be simplified by removing some of the more garish ornaments. Uchucmarquinos interpreted his suggestions about the saints as an attempt to steal the costly clothes and silver for his own benefit. Moreover, he recommended that the baptismal system be altered by making relatives godparents (in the Spanish fashion) and by having the parents hold their own child during the baptism. It seemed to the priest that this would eliminate the crying of the children during the ceremony. To the Uchucmarquinos, however, this seemed to be a direct blow to the ritualized system of coparenthood, which is important in peasant communities throughout Latin America (Mintz and Wolf 1950). The villagers feel that for the ritual to be complete, the godparents must hold the child during the ceremony. There was an angry confrontation between the priest and several of the villagers, and the priest has not been welcome in the village since then. Uchucmarca has fallen back on its own resources for its religious celebrations. A group of lay preachers (rezalones) fulfill the role of priest for all but those services that a priest must attend to serve the sacraments: absolution, marriage, and the last rites, liiere are five rezalones in the village who have studied and memorized the mass and several important prayers in the Catholic prayer book. They serve without pay but will take contributions such as food. They are present at all religious services in the church or private homes. On occasion they even deliver short sermons to their "parishioners." Most Uchucmarquinos express confidence in the rezalones and a willingness to do without a priest. There are several different ways in which a person can devote him or herself to the saint. The simplest way is by saying special prayers to the saint and lighting candles for the saint on the saint's day in the church calendar. People who want to pay more respect than this may take the saint to their house where they build a small shrine, light candles, and say special prayers. This is usually done for the saint's day. All types of devotion are enhanced by contracting one of the lay preachers to say a mass or to lead other prayers for the saint. A few villagers have acquired their own statues of saints whom they wish to venerate with shrines, prayers, and candles. The women of the village are far more active than the men in conducting these religious affairs. Most men adopt a rather passive role, while some are forthrightly skeptical. The public celebration of a saint's day varies from year to year and from saint to saint according to how much money and effort the devotee is

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willing or able to donate. In some years, there is virtually no celebration of the saint's day by some of the treasurers. In others, there is a relatively complete celebration. This may vary according to special pledges people make to their saints. Thus a treasurer who does not normally direct much time and effort to the celebration of a saint may pledge an extraordinary celebration to the saint for the answering of a special prayer. In one case, a woman pledged to put on a dinner in addition to lighting candles and saying prayers for a saint if her sick child became well before the saint's day. The self-reliance of the folk Catholicism in Uchucmarca has certain drawbacks in the eyes of some of the villagers. Many complain that without a priest the church is bound to decline. It is obvious, for instance, that very few of the children are baptized as official members of the church. At birth, they are blessed by a compadre of the parents with holy water (Agua de Socorro), but few people accept this as a legitimate substitute for baptism by a priest. There is some concrete evidence of the church's decline. A formal committee that supervised church activities in the village is now inactive, and there is no overall direction to the religious activity of the village. When asked, many people claim that religion was much more important in former years. They point to the fact that fewer and fewer people volunteer for religious tasks or to be treasurer for one of the saints. Almost half of the images of saints in the village no longer have a treasurer. Parochial records show that in former years there were plots of land and herds of cattle maintained by sodalities (cofradios) for the benefit of a particular saint. The last of these disappeared in the early 1950s. The cattle were sold and the land was redistributed by the Community because it was laying fallow. The last vestige of these cofradtas are the muhidores who care for the only remaining property of the saint, his clothes and ornaments. Perhaps it is not surprising that the people have resisted the efforts of the Spanish priest to remove these from the village church. By far the most important fiesta of the year is the week long celebration honoring Nuestro Senor de los Milagros, the patron saint of Uchucmarca. September 14 was chosen as the fiesta day since it was on that day that the image of Christ arrived in the village sometime during the nineteenth century after a miraculous journey from the coast which is the subject of a popular village legend. The date of the fiesta occupies a strategic position in the annual agricultural calendar. The grain and legume harvests of the valley below the village are completed by the first week of September, and the potato harvest of the upper valley doesn't begin until November. The only agricultural work to be done is the second weeding of potatoes. The fiesta, then, falls in one of the few slack periods of the agricultural year. Moreover, it comes at a time when most of the households have a supply of recently harvested grain on hand. These grains have traditionally been one of the most important me-

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diums of exchange for manufactured clothing and other goods brought in by traveling merchants. If the fiesta were held any earlier, many households would be unable to participate in the exchange at the fair. The village-wide religious celebration involves four major types of event. These are the novenas (nine nightly prayer services), processions, ritual dances, and the communal meal presented to the village by mayordomos. There is almost constant activity in the church. The church is cleaned and whitewashed inside for the fiesta, and the image of Nuestro Seiior de los Milagros is cleaned and dressed in special satin robes. The ordinary nails which pierce the hands and feet of Christ are replaced with silver ones. During the entire procedure, the figure is only handled with white linen cloths. At dawn on the morning of 13 September there is a mass featuring a communal breakfast of bread and coffee prepared by a large number of women. The villagers are awakened by the band marching through the streets at dawn to bring the people to this Misa de Alva. It is believed that the saint is pleased by the sight of happy people eating before him and that his pleasure will mean that the village will be blessed with abundant harvests during the next year. TTiere are three major processions honoring the saint during the fiesta. During the largest one, on 14 September, the image is accompanied by a contingent of ritual dancers, and by every musical instrument in the village. Two communal meals are provided by volunteer mayordomos. They prepare a simple meal of wheat, mutton soup, and chicha for the entire village. While I was in the village, only one person had volunteered for this service. It is considered one of the most joyous events of the entire fiesta. Besides the formally organized religious activities, some households participate in private celebrations. Many households build their own shrine for the saint. These may be honored with a small meal and dance if the household has enough money or grain surplus. It is during this week more than at any other time of the year when the bonds of compadre and comadre are established. The ritualized first haircutting (landamt) using compadres often occurs at this time. The other side of the fiesta honoring Nuestro Seiior de los Milagros is secular. It involves activities such as a market, a bullfight, cock fights, drinking, fireworks, soccer games, and dances. The appearance of the village changes drastically during the fiesta. Merchants from the coast and highland market centers spread their goods out along the streets and around the plaza. A number of people both from the village and from nearby areas set soup kitchens on the plaza, which are busy late into the night. The biggest change is the presence of people; the normal routine of village life demands that most of the people, especially men, be absent from the village during the day, but during the fiesta they remain in town. They are joined by friends and family who come from as far away as Lima to help celebrate.

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The celebration of El Catorce (The Fourteenth) involves the most intense fiesta activity of the year. Chacras are forgotten for the time being, streets normally deserted hold more and more people, and the usually quiet nights are broken with the sounds of music from small household dances or an occasional whoop uttered to the hills. More than any other single event, the fiesta marks the coalescence of the village as a community of souls joined together in a common effort to please their saint with their own pleasure. No other event so confirms the importance of the village in the lives of its sons and daughters.

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5

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Resources for Subsistence: Land Uchucmarca has an agro-pastoral economy in which two resources, land and labor, are primary. The economy has a subsistence orientation with the principle object being the provisioning of individual households with food. Like other subsistence economies, it is one of production for use.1 Most local production is consumed within the community, and most individuals depend on what they can grow or barter for within the community limits. Trade networks do reach beyond these limits, and there is evidence that they have become more significant to the economy of the village in recent years. To most of the village residents, however, these are only of secondary importance to the main concern of subsistence production. In this village level economy, the most important unit for both production and consumption remains the household.2 In looking at the resources in the subsistence production of the village, there are two levels of integration and analysis that must be kept in mind. First, we are dealing with a village as a whole. This unit controls a certain number of resources and carries a specific culture and knowledge of agricultural production. It is, however, not the village as a unit, but rather the individual household that is the actual user of resources and producer of subsistence. As in most traditional economies, the household is the significant unit of both production and consumption. It is important to keep in mind that the specific condition of a particular household may vary greatly from the overall condition of the larger village unit. In general terms, the Uchucmarca Valley and the village agricultural system are relatively productive, providing a fairly wide subsistence base through the variety of micro-climates and crops. The productivity of these is enhanced by exchange links with a regional system so that the vil1 Here I am following Sahlins' (1972) termininology and concept of economies of production for use. 2 This is one of the principal characteristics distinguishing a peasant, subsistence economy from a market, consumer economy. Many economists have recognized the particular characteristics that derive from having the family rather than the firm as the principal unit of production and consumption in an economy. Chayanov's (1966) treatment of the importance of family farms in peasant production is especially relevant here.

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läge as a whole has an adequate, although not overly abundant, subsistence base. When we look at individual households, on the other hand, it is easy to spot specific shortages of things like land, labor, seed, and oxen. Life Zones of the Uchucmarca Valley The lands controlled by the Community of Uchucmarca fall into five natural life zones as described by Tosi (1960). (See Map 6). These are: a) Subtropical Thom Woodland (bosque espinoso subtropical), an area of xerophytic vegetation found at the base of the valley well within the intermontane rain shadow of Maranon Valley; b) Dry Forest ( b o s q u e seco montano bajo), an area still affected by the rain shadow, but where cereal production is possible during non-drought years; c) Temperate Moist Forest (bosque humedo montano), which is outside of the rain shadow and has a temperate, frostfree climate suitable for the production of a wide variety of crops from cereals to tubers; d) Rain Tundra {paramo muy humedo subalpina or tundra pluvial alpino), which is the highest zone in the valley, experiencing frequent frosts and heavy rainfall and covered with natural pasture (primarily Stipa ichu grass); and e) Cool Temperate Wet Forest ( b o s q u e muy humedo montano), a dense cloud forest, the ceja de montaha, which lies along the flanks of the eastern Andean cordillera. The subtropical thorn woodland ( b o s q u e espinoso subtropical) (Tosi 1960: 65-71) is found along the coast of Peru and on the lower western slopes of the Andes from the northern border to the Pisco River in central Peru. Its location in inter-Andean valleys such as the Maranon or the upper Huallaga River basins is a result of a rain shadow. The soils are usually thin and belong to the reddish-chestnut group. The natural vegetation is an open thorn woodland that is xerophytic in nature. Most of the trees lose their leaves during the drier months (May to October). There are numerous cactus species, with columnar cactus being the most notable. Other predominant vegetation includes small but relatively open brush such as the "palo santo" (Busera graveolens). Human occupation and exploitation is confined to areas where irrigation is possible. The dry forest (bosque seco montano bajo) (Tosi 1960: 101-8) is one of the most common Andean life zones. Many of the major Andean valleys with both historical and contemporary population centers are located in this zone. It is characterized by both moderate temperatures and rainfall. Temperatures range upward to around 22 C. during the day, and may go as low as -4 ° C. on clear nights with high radiation. There is little rain shadow effect. The topography is marked by moderate to steep slopes with only limited flat areas. In many parts of the Andes, this zone has been under heavy human exploitation since pre-Hispanic times, and the effect on the natural vegetation has been considerable. There are virtually no natural forests left

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standing. The only trees are eucalyptus, which were introduced to the Andes by the Peruvian government and mining companies interested in reforestation and mining timber. In the uncultivated areas one often finds rather dense scrub vegetation with a predominance of shrubs and bushes like molle (Schtnus molle), sauce (Salix humboldtiniana, and aliso (Alnus jorullensis). Most of these are not xerophytic. The temperate moist forest (bosque htimedo montano bap) (Tosi I960: 109-20) is one of the most extensive Andean zones. In terms of population, it is perhaps the most important of all highland life zones. Staple crops of the Andean population are grown here: grains and tubers. Temperatures are cooler and rainfall is greater than in the dry forest zone; the annual dry period is only three months (June to August). The soils are predominantly of the Brunizem class which includes Brown-podzolic and Grey-brown podzolic, averaging some 60 to 80 centimeters in depth. The erosion of the hillsides in this zone depends on their slope, but it appears to be lessened considerably by the thick mat of alpine sod and micro-vegetation. There is no longer any natural forest, and it is impossible to tell what the natural forest cover of this zone would be, if any at all. Some eucalyptus trees have been introduced. The natural vegetation has been extensively affected by the intensive cultivation. In areas where there is no cultivation, vegetation ranges from scrub bushes in the lower areas to open grass land in the higher areas. This scrub is frequently sauco (Sambucus Peruviania) and aliso (Alnus jourullensis). The open grasslands are characterized by dense sod and low vegetation broken occasionally by tufts of ichu grass (Stipa ichu). Another crucial activity that is carried out here is pasturing animals; llama and alpaca in the southern and central highlands and sheep, cattle, and horses throughout the highlands. The rain tundra (paramo muy htimedo subalpina or tundra pluvial alpino) (Tosi 1960: 136-43) is the highest zone in the Uchucmarca Valley. As its name implies, it is one of the wettest zones. This factor, combined with the cool temperatures of the high altitude, make it one of the most uncomfortable zones for human habitation. Temperatures rarely reach higher than 10° C., and there is frequent frost at night. This is the area of the most unpredictable weather in the valley. It is marked by sudden rain or hail storms, which sweep down from the highest ridges without warning. As a Peruvian folk saying has it, three things that should never be trusted are the limp of a dog, the tears of a woman, and the sky of the sierra. There is a short but highly variable dry season (July to August) with frequent showers and hail. Temperature variation throughout the year is minimal, although frosts are more frequent during the drier months (June to September) when the nights are clear, and there is high radiation. The high zones in northern Peru are considerably wetter than the alttplano of the southern highlands.

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The rain tundra in the Uchucmarca Valley is a cross between the dry altiplano of the south and the moist paramo of Ecuador. The slopes of the hillsides in this zone are less precipitous than in the lower valley, although the highest ridges are marked by large outcroppings of rock and, in some places, cliffs. No place in the Uchucmarca Valley has permanent snow. Soils here range from relatively deep dark brown soil with a high organic content near the surface in the flatter areas to lighter and thinner soils with many rocks in the hillside areas. Soils are generally acidic, and a significant amount of clay is present. The natural vegetation has been seriously disrupted by frequent burning. This is done in an indiscriminate manner during the drier months in an attempt to keep down the height of the vegetation and to stimulate new growth, both considered necessary for productive pasturing of animals. The lower areas of this zone mark the upper limit of potato cultivation. The ground cover is a thick mat of small plants, broken occasionally by bunches of ichu grass a meter in height. Most of the larger plants and shrubs are severely restricted by burning and foraging for firewood. The final life zone in the lands controlled by the Community is the cool temperate wet forest (bosque muy hitmedo montano) (Tosi 1960: 14856). This is known as the ceja de montana (eyebrow of the jungle) throughout Peru. In certain protected places, its verdant growth spills over into the valley. The slopes of the hills in this zone are usually steep and covered with the dense cloud forest. The combination of these factors makes human penetration and exploitation of the ceja de montana almost impossible. Temperatures are generally cool, although they rarely reach freezing. Rainfall is frequent, and the area is often covered by ground level clouds. There is no real dry season, although rainfall tapers off from June to August. Because of the adversities for human occupation, the vegetation of this zone remains largely unaffected by human exploitation. It is marked by an abundance of ferns and mosses as well as large stands of the bamboo-like carrizo (Chusquea spicata). The most important vegetation for local inhabitants is the variety of large trees such as the cedro (Cedrela—various species), which is eagerly sought by local carpenters.

Crop Zones and the Folk Taxonomy Although classifications such as natural life zones are useful for general comparative purposes, a cultural ecological analysis of any subsistence system must deal directly with the native perception and classification of different elements in the landscape. The people of Uchucmarca divide their valley into seven different crop zones. These are differentiated terminologically, according to use, and according to the type of land tenure present. The fo-

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cus of definition is the particular subsistence activity that can best be carried out in a certain area. Thus the primary delineation between zones has to do with such things as whether the temperature is sufficient to provide enough gluten in wheat or whether the troublesome combination of rain and cool temperatures above a certain altitude creates conditions that will induce late blight (la rancha negra) in potatoes and ocas. The seven crop zones which comprise the Uchucmarca Valley are the temple, kichwa fuerte, kichwa, templado, jalka, jalka fuerte, and montana zones (Maps 7 and 8). The order given here is the arrangement of the zones in the valley according to altitude. The temple is the lowest zone, at the base of the Community's lands, and the jalka fuerte is the highest. The montana zone, while lower than the jalka fuerte zone, lies further away from the village of Uchucmarca than any other zone. Within each zone there is a myriad of place names with which most villagers are familiar, and it is common to name individual chacras. The very elaborate naming system is an indication of the intimate knowledge most villagers have of the landscape within which they work. The temple zone (800 to 1,500 meters altitude) is the lowest and hottest zone in the valley, corresponding to the subtropical thorn woodland life zone. This narrow, arid valley, well within the rain shadow of the Maranon Valley, is marked by xerophytic vegetation and irrigated plots. The major cultigens are sugar cane, coca, maize, citrus fruits, plantains, sweet manioc (yuca), cacao, and hot peppers (aji). Until recently, the area was uninhabitable because of malaria. Land tenure in the temple is marked by more commercialism than in any other zone, and there is intense competition for plots on which cash crops can be grown. All cultivation in the temple depends on irrigation waters brought to the fields from one main canal by a system of feeder taps. Cultivation extends from the edge of the precipitous rock walls and barren hillsides to the very edge of the river. In places, silt deposits on gravel bars along the river are cultivated in spite of the risk of floods. Such risk is undertaken because of the scarcity of land and the value of the crops grown. The most important crop in terms of area cultivated, cash, and labor is sugar cane. All cane operations here are manual. The first cane on a new planting can be cut after two years. Following this, there are yearly harvests for the next two or three years before the original planting is exhausted and must be plowed up for a new planting. After the cutting, the cane is hauled by donkey, mule, horse, or even truck to one of four small sugar mills (trapiche) where the stalks are individually fed through presses that are turned by a team of oxen. This tedious process requires the labor of three people (a carrier, an ox driver, and a press feeder) to produce a trickle of cane juice, which is cooked down into a thick syrup to be molded and hardened into ten pound cones of crude sugar called chancaca. Despite the heavy labor re-

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CROP ZONES OF THE UCHUCMARCA VALLEY (Schematic Diagram) TEMPLE KICHWA FUERTE ΙΖΠ] KICHWA EH>] TEMPLADO

4 0 0 0 M.

JALKA JALKA FUERTE CEJA DE MONTANA Uchucmarca

Pusac

S. VAUGHN

MAP 7. Crop Zones of Uchucmarca Valley (Schematic Diagram)

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quirements of this operation, the trapiches are highly lucrative for their owners. The kichwa fuerte zone (1,500 to 1,900 meters) begins at the edge of the rain shadow of the Marafion Valley, and is frequently marked by drought. The zone is intermediate between the subtropical woodland forest and dry forest natural life zones, and its vegetation is a mixture of the xerophytic types found in the temple and nonxerophytic types found at higher altitudes. During non-drought years, wheat and maize are produced and alfalfa is grown on small, irrigated plots. Land is not intensively exploited here because of the threat of drought, and the tenure is not commercial. The collection of firewood is one of the main activities of Uchucmarquinos in the kichwa fuerte. Fairly dense stands of shrubs and trees in canyons and on steep hillsides are exploited for a variety of woods. The fuel of this area is considered superior to anything the upper slopes can produce since it is drier and tends to ignite and burn more smoothly than the brush that can be gathered around the town. The two most frequently exploited trees are pab amariUo and the huarango (Acacia macracantha). When firewood is one's only fuel, the differences between woods quickly becomes apparent. Many people pick up firewood as a normal part of any excursion outside of the village, and it is common to see men, women, and children dragging or carrying small bundles of firewood. This type of gathering is usually insufficient, and special trips for collecting firewood are necessary. Women tend to stay closer to the village, while men will range farther in search for the best wood. Such trips occupy roughly 10 percent of the time spent in subsistence activities since they frequently head for the kichwa fuerte to spend several days cutting and hauling wood.3 The kichwa zone (1,900 to 2,450 meters) is marked by moderate and dependable rainfall and mild temperatures. Topographically, the valley begins to widen appreciably in comparison to the first two zones, providing much more cultivable land. This zone is outside of the rain shadow that affects the lower valley, but there is still a lengthy dry season (May to September). The major focus of agriculture here is the production of two important elements in the diet of the population, wheat and maize. Given the population size and the importance of these crops, there is a relative shortage of land in the kichwa. In spite of this shortage, land tenure is kept noncommercial. Systems of reciprocity and sharecropping play an important role in distributing the land and crops of this zone. As in other parts of the Andes, the kichiva zone is the primary grainproducing zone for the Uchucmarca Valley. Crops of secondary importance 3 As the population of the valley grows, firewood will undoubtedly become scarce and require longer and longer excursions to collect. People have already begun to note that good quality firewood is more scarce and costly than previously. In other parts of the Andes, the depletion of firewood has forced people to use dung as a substitute (Winterhalter, Larsen, and Thomas 1974).

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are beans, alfalfa, maguey, fruits such as chirimoya (Anona chenmolia), and a large squash, chiclayo (Cucurbita moschata). A few households specialize in the raising of guinea pigs and chickens. Depending on the altitude within the zone, wheat and maize mature in seven to nine months. Of all the zones directly accessible to the people of the nucleated settlement of Uchucmarca, the kichwa zone has the greatest pressure on its land base. The wheat produced in the kichtva is the single most important crop in the diet of the village in terms of proteins.4 The grains grown here are still essentially noncommercial crops in the subsistence system of the village, but a growing number of villagers market at least a part of their grains in the lower valley and to traveling merchants. The pressure on the land is indicated by the fact that over half of the land in the zone is sharecropped. This means that many parcels support more then one household. It is common for villagers to maintain a separate house structure in this zone and to live here during the harvest season for one or two months. During these months the town of Uchucmarca is deserted while the people move to the lower valley. Harvests of wheat and maize begin in the lower areas of the kichwa in late June and move progressively up through the zone toward the village. The most festive and ritualized of all the harvests in the valley is the wheat harvest (faena), which is almost a daily event during the months of July and August in different parts of the kichwa.5 Many people remain in the kichwa during the faena period in order to go to a series of them. Other people work in the harvest of wheat, maize and beans, being paid an inflated wage in the crop itself. The templado zone (2,450 to 3,100 meters) is a transitional zone between the warmer and drier lower valley and the cooler and wetter upper valley. The nucleated village of Uchucmarca is located in this zone. It is transitional between the dry forest and the temperate moist forest natural life zones. Xerophytic characteristics of the lower zones disappear. Rainfall is regular, and there is only a short dry season (June to August). In terms of the crops grown, the templado is also intermediate. In the lower part, wheat, maize, and barley are grown, while in the upper part, high altitude crops such as the potato appear. An important crop which is grown exclusively in this zone is the arveja or field pea (Pisum sativum). There tends to be less competition here for plots than in the lower, grain-producing zones, and land tenure is marked by a minimum of commercial transaction. The jalka zone (3,100 to 3,500 meters) begins immediately above the village of Uchucmarca. Ecologically, this zone is analagous to Tosi's alpine 4 In terms of the amount of calories and proteins provided by crops produced in the valley, I estimate that wheat accounts for roughly 47 percent of the calories and proteins available (see Appendix 3). 5 This usage for faena seems to be derived from Spanish custom. In other parts of Peru, the term is used interchangeably with republica to refer to communal work obligations or some form of conscripted labor tribute for public projects (Mendizabal 1964; Escobar 1973).

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79

tundra or subalpine wet paramo and to the puna zone of the southern Andes of Peru. It is, however, drier than the former and wetter than the latter. The vegetation is dominated by the typical Andean highland sedges and bunch grasses, and the effects of altitude adaptation, such as dwarfing, become evident here. The valley widens in the form of a shallow glaciated basin threaded by a clear mountain stream. Like the puna to the south, the jalka is the area of potato production, and more land and time is devoted to the potato and other tubers than to any other crops in the valley. The oca (Oxalis tuberosa) is the most important tuber besides the potato. Others include the mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) and the ulluco (Ullucus tuberosa), which are often used as pig fodder. Tuber cultivation is land extensive, a system of field rotation. Other crops grown here are the edible Andean lupen (Lupinus mutabilis), known as chocho or tarwi, broad beans (habas), and barley. There is a relative abundance of land with little competition for plots, which are easily obtained through petition to the communal council. The jalka fuerte (3,500 to 4,300 meters), the highest and most extensive zone in the valley, is ecologically close to the subalpine wet päramo life zone. Rainfall is heavy, with no appreciable dry season, and frosts are frequent. The topography of the jalka fuerte is a combination of rolling hills and lines of rock outcrops and peaks. The vegetation is composed of hardy Andean sedges and grasses, which provide a natural pasture for sheep, cattle, and horses. The pastures of the jalka fuerte are communal property, and the only permanent dwellings are those of households specializing in herding. Livestock is important to the village for such things as meat and wool and as a means of obtaining cash. Cattle are especially important in this final regard. Beef, cheese, and milk are only rarely consumed in the village, but over half of the village households keep a few head of cattle as a living bank account on the hoof, that can be converted to cash by selling to one of the itinerant merchants from the other side of the Marafion River. The ceja de montana zone, also referred to as the montana, lies on the other side of the eastern Andean cordillera from the Uchucmarca Valley. It begins at roughly 2,500 meters and extends eastward out of the community lands. It corresponds ecologically to the temperate wet forest life zone. The high grasses of the jalka fuerte and jalka on the eastern side of the cordillera blend into a dense and almost impenetrable forest of low trees and shrubs. This zone is exploited lightly for hunting (bear, jaguar, deer) and lumbering for the local carpentry industry. As with the jalka fuerte, the land of the montana zone is communal. Considering the size of the village population, the resource base represented by these seven crop zones is extensive. Unlike many other Andean communities, Uchucmarca has enough resources as a community for virtual self-sufficiency, without the need to rely on extensive exchange or market

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networks reaching outside of the village for subsistence items. As mentioned above, however, community self-sufficiency does not necessarily mean that every household within the community is self-sufficient.

The Determination of Crop Zones As noted in Chapter 1, out of the bewildering complexity of natural life zones in the Andes, the Andean subsistence farmers have delineated four major crop zones: 1) a lowland tropical zone for coca, fruit/and sugar cane; 2) a temperate grain-producing zone; 3) a cool potato/tuber zone; and 4) a zone of native wild grasses for natural pastures. Intermediate zones, lying between these major crop zones, may be added, as in Uchucmarca. Other important zones are those yielding firewood, although these may not always be designated as separate zones in the population's description of their environment. It is important to stress that the existence of a limited number of zones reflects the subsistence pattern of a large and complex area and not a limitation in environmental perception on the local level. T h e delineation of crop and resource zones in the Andes is directly related to the natural zonation of the mountain environment, but it may not correspond exactly to the zonation of plant communities. In Uchucmarca, for instance, there are five life zones, or natural plant associations, and seven zones in the ethnogeography of the villagers. One way to approach the human zonation of the valley is to consider the "effective" crop limits versus the "absolute" crop limits. The effective limit for any one crop is the area of optimum production of that crop, and serves as the basis for the local system of vertical zonation of crop zones. Using effective limits results in some amount of overlap between zones in terms of crop distribution. The distinction between absolute and effective crop limits has been extensively treated by Gade (1967: 153 ff.) for the Vilcanota Valley. He notes that, Essentially two kinds of crop limits exist: the effective, at which the crop is not important in the economy and yields are not satisfactory, and the absolute, the extreme limit at which a crop will grow and at which the chance of the success of the crop is slight indeed. A crop limit may refer to a plant on the species level or to a specific cultivar of a species.... While each human-manipulated plant has a particular ecological niche in which it grows best, the boundaries of its cultivation are wider in this peasant society than they would be if the area had a modern industrial-type agriculture. The peasants plant a crop wherever they anticipate some return but without much consideration for high yields. Table 2 demonstrates the effective limits and distribution of different crops in the Uchucmarca Valley. Even though a particular crop may be grown in either higher or lower altitudes, the returns on the investments of land, labor, seed, and oxen are usually perceived as being too low outside of certain altitude ranges to warrant the risk. T h e dangers faced when a cer-

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tain crop is planted beyond its effective limits are phrased in a series of maladies that attack the crop. These are summarized for crop limits in Uchucmarca in Figure 4. FIGURE 4 Perceived Environmental Hazards Beyond Crop Zones Crop

Too High

Maize

doesn't bear fruit

Wheat

insects (polvillo worm) eat the grain, or the grain rots on the stalk from too much moisture. Too little gluten.

drought

Potatoes - ocas

frost or late blight (rancha) kill the plant

plants wither and without tubers

Field peas

too little fruit

peas don't cook properly (too hard)

Barley

too little gluten, and the hulls are too thick

drought

Too Low —

Settlement Location in the Valley The village of Uchucmarca is located in the templado, the transitional zone between the lower grain producing zones (kichwa) and the higher potato and pasturing zones (jalka). The line separating these two zones becomes higher in altitude as one moves south where the diurnal period of the summer months is longer than at the equator. Thus in the Cajamarca region (7°16'S), the kichwa zone is found at roughly 2,800 meters altitude, while in the Cuzco region (13°36'S), the kichwa zone extends up to 3,350 meters altitude. Dyer (1962: 340) points out that the vast bulk of the Andean population lives in small villages and hamlets situated in the kichwa zone. Although it would be extremely difficult to corroborate, it appears that most hamlets, villages, and towns are not merely located in the kichwa zone, but are located on or near the line of demarcation between the kichwa and jalka zones, as in the case of Uchucmarca. In the immediate Uchucmarca region, it is evident that the major preHispanic settlements were significantly higher than they are today. Most were located in the upper jalka zone, just below the jalka fuerte zone. One

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83

explanation for these relatively high settlements is that endemic warfare forced pre-Hispanic populations to seek the safest and most defensible positions for their hamlets and villages, and these in general tend to be the higher areas. Other explanations deal with the problem of settlement location according to subsistence patterns. Troll (1958, 1968) notes the importance of the relationship between conditions of regular frost, wet and dry seasons, and the possible manufacture of freeze dried potatoes (chuho) in understanding the settlement and cultural patterns of the pre-Hispanic population of the altiplano region around Lake Titicaca. Pre-Hispanic populations in the Andes were generally more dependent on produce from the higher zones (potatoes, quinoa, llamas) and less dependent on grains, especially maize, than the modem population. Wheat, of course, is a Spanish introduction into the area. Maize, as Sauer notes (1950: 494), was not a staple in the diets of most native American populations south of Honduras. Murr a (1960) argues that maize was more important as a ceremonial crop rather than a subsistence crop in the Andes. The notable exception to this was the Inca state, which was apparently beginning to exploit the kichwa region in earnest for maize, the food "preferred" by its armies (Murra 1960: 400). The importance that the Inca placed on the lower zone is evidenced by the fantastic terracing which they constructed for the cultivation of maize. The Spanish, who were grain eaters themselves, completed a process in many other parts of Peru that the Inca administration had initiated in the Cuzco area. This was the conversion from a subsistence base principally reliant on tubers to a mixed base that included both grains and tubers. Throughout the central and northern highlands of Peru, European grains, such as wheat and barley, have become major crops along with the native Andean crops. This appears to be less true for the southern highlands, especially the altiplano, where potatoes and quinoa are predominant. In their consolidation of the Andean population during the Toledo reducciones of the 1570s, the Spanish moved much of the population that had survived the epidemics of the Conquest into new towns such as Uchucmarca. These new towns became the loci of the majority of the peasant population of the Andes (Fuenzalida 1970). It is likely that the Spanish interest in wheat and maize, as well as their interest in pasture for animals and in the traditional subsistence base of the population (potatoes), led them to locate the new towns in places with fairly equal access to the kichwa and jalka zones. In Uchucmarca, as in other Andean communities, the introduction of wheat eventually led to a major new focus of subsistence activities. Land Tenure The Peasant Community of Uchucmarca retains residual rights to all of the lands within the community. Usufructary rights are granted in such a fash-

84

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for Subsistence:

Land

ion that plots are treated virtually as private property. They can be inherited, fallowed, and exchanged with other members of the community, but they cannot be alienated by sale or exchange to nonmembers. T h e only lands held in common are grazing lands in the jalka fuerte and the scrubcovered or forested areas in other parts of the valley that are used for gathering firewood. T h e clearing and cultivation of unclaimed land can only be done with the permission of the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca. This is sought with a petition to the Executive Committee by the member, and there appears to be, at this time, no reluctance on the part of the Executive Committee in granting permission. Besides by petition, chacras may be obtained by inheritance, purchase, and exchange. In Table 3 the percentages of chacras in different crops obtained by these various means are presented. They do not reflect the other means of access to various crop lands through such measures as sharecropping, loans, and renting chacras. These will b e discussed in the next section. TABLE 3 Acquisition of Chacras Percentages of Chacras Acquired by Different Means Petition Crop

Maize Wheat Barlev Field peas Broad lieam Potatoes Ocas Average

to

Community

Inheritance

33 1.3 10 22 50 59 100

37 47 70 33 33 38

41

37

Purchase

.30 33 10 33 17 3

—

Exchange

7 10 11 — —

—

IS

4

As Table 3 indicates, the principal manners of acquiring land are by petitioning the Executive Committee and by inheritance. It is important to note, however, that for certain crops such as maize, wheat, and field peas, the incidence of purchasing chacras increases over that of the other crops. The difference here is indicative of the differential pressure on cereal-producing zones versus tuber zones. In the cereal-producing areas of the kichwa and templado zones, the limited supply of land is insufficient to meet the high demand. This land is prized for its frost and drought-free climate and for the fact that high value crops are grown here. This land is rarely available

Resources for Subsistence: Land

85

through petition, and cash purchase is often the only means of obtaining a desired plot. Land Distribution Land holdings in Uchucmarca are small and typical of peasant free-holding communities in other parts of the Andes. These are described as minifundia in comparison to the latifundia holdings of haciendas and plantations. Land is not concentrated, and no family owns more than 10 hectares. Land distribution in Uchucmarca is, however, characterized by two forms of inequality: quantity and type of land. Several families are landless, and the distribution of ownership in different crop zones is uneven. Both of these conditions contradict the ideals of equality and of owning sufficient land in as many different crop zones as possible. This inequality is attributable to three main sources: 1) historical circumstances, especially the role of caciques; 2) demographic circumstances, especially the presence of migrants; and 3) the inheritance system. Although Uchucmarca has been an independent community since the early part of the seventeenth century and free from control by an hacendado, it has been dominated at times by local persons and families who have concentrated land holdings. The cacique system that was common throughout the Spanish Empire survived the independence movement from Spain in many parts of Latin America. The archives of the Peasant Community and of the municipality of Uchucmarca mention the presence of caciques well into the nineteenth century. Toward the end of that century, there appeared to be a decline of caciques in the village, and by 1910 they had disappeared altogether. Several families in the village trace their descent directly to two caciques of the late nineteenth century. Some of these families have considerably more land in all parts of the valley than the average household, and they attribute this to their inheritance from cacique ancestors. The second factor influencing the unequal distribution of land is demographic and stems from migration into the village. There are a number of immigrants who have not been able to attain the status of member in the community, and therefore cannot own land. Because of a male preference in the inheritance system many of the male immigrants who marry locally born women do not have the same overall access to lands as locally born men. Immigrants also are hindered in their acquisition of lands by the fact that they inherit lands from only one set of relatives, the affinal ones. The third factor influencing the distribution of land holding in Uchucmarca is the inheritance system. A patrilateral preference characterizes the system. Sons are generally preferred to daughters because it is believed that a son rather than a son-in-law will remain at home to contribute his labor to an older couple. Also, it is understood that a daughter who marries or lives with a man will claim support from him rather than from her father. There

86

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are no rules of primo- or ultimogeniture in inheritance, although an older son may have some advantage since he is usually responsible for a family before his younger brothers are. Table 4 presents data on average land ownership per household. The information given here is derived from a sample survey of households, and it is based on a combination of seed planted per plot and airphotograph measurement. One of the most striking features of the average holding per household and the average chacra size is their relatively small size: 1.58 hectares. This is typical of the minifundia landholding pattern. In spite of the very small average holding, there does not appear to be a significant level of malnutrition in the village.6 No cases of either kwashiorkor or extreme emaciation were observed. Children, who are among the first to suffer in general hunger conditions, are bright and lively instead of dull, and there were no apparent indicators of famine such as reddened hair, bowed legs, or swollen abdomens. No clinical estimate of overall nutritional levels was available, but calculations of available calories and protein indicate an adequate diet with an average per capita availability of 2,705 calories and 80 grams of vegetable protein (see Appendix 3). TABLE 4 Average Landholdings Per Household—Hectares7 Average Size Per Chacra

Crop Potatoes Maize Wheat Field peas Ocas Barley Broad t>eans

—Hectares

Hectares/Chacra

Hectares/Household 0.49 hct. 0.35 0.44 0.09 0.06 0.13 0.02

0.42 hct. 0.44 0.79 0.22 0.18 0.35 0.11 Total

1.58

6 Clinical surveys of nutrition in highland communities similar to Uchucmarca corroborate this conclusion of adequate nutritional levels. Although certain areas of caloric and protein deficiency were found in some highland areas (Collazos et al. 1960), the overall nutritional pattern seemed low but adequate (Mazess and Baker 1964; Gursky 1969; and Thomas 1973). 7 These figures are based on an intensive survey of forty-two sample households. Fields were measured using ground surveys, seed/land ratios, and air photograph measurement.

Resources for Subsistence:

Land

87

Alternatives to Ownership; Sharecropping One must go further than ownership figures to understand the nature of the land tenure system of Uchucmarca. For any one crop, there are usually more producers than actual owners of plots. Alternatives to outright ownership permit more than one family to use the same parcel of land and have the effect of multiplying the number of producers of any given crop. The most important of these is sharecropping (sociedad). 8 Others include renting and borrowing chacras. The sociedad arrangement calls for an even division of the yield between the owner of the plot and the person who is his socio (partner). It is essentially the same as the "a medias" system of Spain and other parts of Latin America. The obligation of the owner of the chacra is to provide the principal capital (seed and oxen) as well as the land itself. The socio's obligation is to provide his labor. If any extra labor is needed in plowing, weeding, or harvesting, the cost in either goods or cash is divided equally. Given the existing parcelization of land in the valley, and considering the differential stress on crop zones with a relative abundance of land in the higher zones and a shortage in the lower zones, the system of sociedad has advantages for both the sharecropper and the owner. There are persons who for a variety of reasons have not been able to obtain land in one or more of the crop zones in the valley. Others are unable to cultivate part or all of the land they own in the valley. Some of these have more land spread throughout the valley than they can effectively cultivate alone. Schoolteachers, for instance, own land, but because of the conflict between the intensive agricultural schedule and obligations in the school, they must find a sharecropper to put in the necessary labor in thenvarious chacras. Another reason why an individual owner may look for someone to sharecrop with him is that he alone cannot meet the necessary labor requirements for the particulr chacra. He may be too old for the strenuous work involved or too busy tending other plots in the same or different zones. The labor input involved in managing different chacras in different altitudinal zones is very demanding. There is no one in the village who merely hires laborers (peons) for all the necessary tasks in the fields. The initiative for the recruitment of a socio may come equally from either the owner or the partner. A person who has an abundance of land and a shortage of time or available time and labor may seek out another person who needs land and has time. The relationship may just as likely be initiated by the latter. 8 This sociedad system is known as the mitad-mitad or medianeτο system in other parts of Latin America and Spain. Known as metayage, it is common throughout southern Europe (Dumont 1957). Useful reviews of the economic issues and rationality of the sharecropping system may be found in Martinez-Alier (1971) and Cheung (19Θ9).

88

Resources for Subsistence:

Land

The importance of the sociedad system for Uchucmarca can be seen in Table 5. This shows the percentage of land in each crop and crop zone which is under the sharecropping regime. Besides the high overall average of land cultivated under sharecropping arrangements, this table indicates the relative shortage or abundance of lands in different zones. The highest crop zone, the jalka, and its crops, potatoes, and ocas, has a markedly lower percentage of sharecropping than the lower, cereal-producing zones. There is adequate land in the upper zone for pioneer plots, but in the lower zones there is competition for free plots. TABLE 5 Land Under Sharecropping

Crop Wheat Maize Barley Field peas Potatoes Ocas Broad beans

% of Crop Sharecropped 63 57 51 45 24 22 20

Zone

% of Land Sharecropped

Kichwa Kichwa Fuerte Tempiado Jalka

62 45 45 25

Average for all zones

43

There are several ways to determine the actual distribution of land in the valley. Holdings may be extensive in either acreage or distribution over a wide range of crop zones. Table 6 presents the percentage of households in the village who own chacras and are producing various crops, the percentage of households having access (through sharecropping) to the production of crops without owning the chacras, and the percentage of households not producing the given crop. The column labeled "multiple" covers persons who have more than one chacra of a given crop using a variety of tenure patterns. The column labeled "other" covers such arrangements as loans and rental of chacras. From Table 6 it is possible to see how the sometimes low percentage of owners can be multiplied to a relatively high percentage of producers by mechanisms in the land tenure system. Although only 14 percent of the households are owners of wheat chacras, 49 percent are producers of wheat; in maize, 23 percent of the households are owners and 63 percent are producers. In looking at Table 6 several factors must be kept in mind. Some households choose to specialize in the production of one or two crops and to obtain the others by exchange. There are households that may own a chacra but not farm it themselves because of old age or shortage of labor. Many of the crops in the table are interchangeable in the same cha-

6 Β S3 $ 8 £ 8

η

-η co 05

S3 S § 3 2 s 2

90

Resources for Subsistence:

Land

era; wheat with maize, potatoes with ocas, field peas with barley. The particular spread of figures in Table 6 may vary considerably if another agricultural inventory of the village were taken in another year. Although a relatively high percentage of producers is maintained for every crop, there is a considerable percentage of households not producing various crops. In order to obtain crops that it is not cultivating, a household must work through some type of exchange network or labor arrangement with payment in cash or kind. Also evident here is the differential pressure on the various crop zones in the valley.

Plate 8. A communal labor day to level village streets rutted during the rainy season.

—

6

—

Agricultural Technology and Labor

In addition to land, the other primary elements of the subsistence system of Uchucmarca are agricultural technology and labor. The technology is a combination of Andean, European, and local practices, and it is almost elegant in its simplicity. The most important part of the technology is the knowledge of the local environment: knowing what crops are appropriate for each location and how to manipulate the various elements of the high altitude environment to insure an adequate crop. Beyond the technology of working with seed, soil, animals, climatic, and physiographic conditions, the other major part of the technology of subsistence is knowing how to utilize the local culture in order to tap its resources. Although the individual household is the primary unit of production and consumption, no household is self-sufficient. Each must rely on a complex web of relationships that may supply needed labor or a place to exchange one crop for another. One of the most significant features of the resource system is that whereas there tends to be enough land, labor, and capital available for the village as a whole, individual households may experience shortages in any one or all three of these areas. To meet such shortages, the village economy has a number of mechanisms whereby inequalities of distribution of any of the resources are lessened. Redistribution of resources occurs throughout the period of production: land is made available to those who do not have it through the system of sociedad; seed and oxen are obtainable through rental or exchange of services; labor is offered and utilized through reciprocal labor exchange and through systems of payment involving the use of cash and crops. Only a limited amount of cash is available to most households from the sale of surplus crops and cattle, and the village economy remains essentially nonmonetized. The technology employed by the Uchucmarquinos in subsistence agriculture is completely unmechanized, and it does not include elements such as fertilizer, herbicides, and insecticides, all of which have become common in some parts of Peru. The villagers have a repertory of techniques and practices applied in different parts of the valley and to different crops. 91

Agricultural Technology and Labor

92 Tools

There are relatively few agricultural tools used in Uchucmarca, and these tend to be all-purpose, rather than specialized. Common ones are the lampa (short-handled hoe), palana (shovel), pick, machete, sickle, and digging stick. Two which are considered indispensable are the lampa and the machete. These are worn down and resharpened again and again until there is no strength left in the metal. The lampa is used more than any other tool in the field for such tasks as spading, weeding, and harvesting. All iron tools are imported to the village ready-made except for handles, which are carved in Uchucmarca. A blacksmith in town repairs these tools as long as there is enough metal to forge. The only locally-forged metal tool is the plowshare (arado dental). Using old leafsprings from automobiles, the blacksmith forges a sharpened bar, roughly 40 centimeters in length, to be fitted into a wooden wedge as a share. The wooden parts of the plow, as well as the yoke, are all carved locally out of special hardwoods. In the absence of a metal share, there is even a tree that can supply wood strong enough for the purpose. The metal share breaks occasionally, and it lasts for only a few seasons before a new one must be forged. The wooden parts last indefinitely. Plow oxen are considered indispensable for the plowing and planting in all but the smallest chacras and most rugged terrain. They are especially important in breaking ground for new potato land because of the tenacity of the Andean sod. Apart from the land itself the team of oxen is considered to be the most valuable possession in agricultural production. Oxen are the most costly items in the entire inventory of possessions of any one household and cost up to S/. 10,000. Owning more than one team is a luxury which only a very few households can afford. They are some of the most impressive symbols of wealth and prestige which a household can obtain. The households that do not own oxen must seek some type of reciprocal relationship with a household which does. In only a very few instances will a person practice pick and hoe work instead of finding some manner of gaining access to oxen. This is not unlike gaining access to other scarce resources in that there are several different means used. These entail some form of rent arrangement in which the owner is reimbursed for the services of his oxen with cash, crops, or labor. The cost of renting a team of oxen in 1970 was US $0.72 (S/.30.00) per day, which is actually more than a peon earns in cash for a day's labor (S/.20.00), although cash wages are supplemented with food, alcohol, and coca. It is calculated that a team of oxen can do as much as two or three men in a day. If a person cannot pay cash for the oxen, he can pay either in equivalent crops or with his labor. The crop used for payment is customarily from the chacra on which the oxen are used, and the

Agricultural Technology and Labor

93

amount is equivalent to payment in kind for a day's labor by a peon. Payment for oxen with labor is usually done in the same crop and task. Thus if a person borrows another's oxen to do the first plowing (barbecho) for wheat cultivation, he will pay for those oxen by helping the owner in his wheat barbecho. A day's use of oxen will be returned with a day's labor. Difficulties in obtaining oxen at the right time for the specific job are often cited as some of the most troublesome in the subsistence activities of Uchucmarquinos. General shortage and expense of oxen is exaggerated during peak demand periods when many villagers want to use them for similar tasks. Farm Procedures Uncleared land is cleared by two methods depending on where it is located in the valley. Rozo (slash and bum) is used in lower zones where there is considerable underbrush and larger vegetation that must be cut, piled, and bumed before planting begins. Slash-and-burn agriculture is found throughout lowland tropical South America.1 The rozo method of Uchucmarca differs from the lowland variety in that fields are cultivated for many years rather than fallowed and rotated after one or two seasons. The main crops grown under this system in Uchucmarca are maize and beans. Underbrush and trees are cut and cleared with machete and axe in April and May, at the end of the rainy season. Plots are cleared as much as possible, but some stumps must be left. Burning takes place during the dry season, two months after the original clearing. The first planting after rozo has been used always employs the digging stick or the lampa, since the roots and stumps left after the burning make plowing impossible. Plots that are cleared using rozo are generally cleared and reburned in a similar fashion for the second and even third year before a plow can be introduced. The second type of uncleared land is found in the upper zones, especially the jalka. Here potato chacras are cleared by a method known as chacma or chachmeo. This is a type of slash-and-bum agriculture similar to the lowland variety except that plowing is used or the soil is otherwise tinned. Potato plots are cultivated for only one to three years before being returned to fallow, therefore requiring continuous field rotation. The fallow is generally between five and fifteen years long, and most hoüseholds clear at least one potato chacra every year. The chacma is considered to be the single hardest job in the valley, involving both the cutting of underbrush and breaking the tough Andean sod. Shrubs and bushes are used for fences or are burned on the field. The sod is turned by hand or plowed under with 1 Λ complete review of the different technologies used among several different systems of shifting cultivation may be found in Conklin (1963). The advantages of using such cultivation is elaborated upon in Meggers (1971).

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oxen. For this, a trail must be bushed so that oxen may enter. T h e only crops planted after chacma are potatoes and ocas. Plots opened by chacma must be plowed or turned twice before planting. The first plowing takes place one or two months before the second so that the vegetation may decompose. The term that is applied to plowing cleared land is barbecho. All land is plowed at least once before planting. If a person is unable to obtain oxen through one of the methods outlined above, he may substitute with pick and lampa. Plots are plowed several times to break up the soil. The plowshare is narrow so that large, unbroken clods are turned up and must be replowed or broken by hand before the soil is fine enough to receive the seed. Sheep are often used to fertilize plots that are more than one year old. The vast bulk of seed is separated at harvest time and saved until the next planting time. The only seeds carefully selected for specific qualities are potatoes. These are chosen according to size, number of eyes, variety, and whether they grow in the higher or lower portions of the jalka. A range of sizes are selected, but usually the smallest and largest are kept out of the seed pile. Many people estimate their needs for the year at the harvest and separate the seed at that time. In the case that a household does not or cannot save enough seed for next year's planting, it can be purchased, borrowed, or exchanged from a kinsman or neighbor. If borrowed, there is usually a two-for-one arrangement in the exchange of seed whereby two pounds are returned for every one borrowed. Three types of planting are done according to the crop. Small grains (wheat and barley) and legumes (lentils and field peas) are broadcast by hand, and the seed is then plowed under. The amount of seed applied to a particular chacra depends on the zone and the type of soil, with higher zones and older chacras requiring more seed than others. Maize and beans are planted with a digging stick along furrows made by plowing. One person walks ahead opening holes with a digging stick, while a second follows, dropping seed into the hole and then stepping on the hole with his foot. The latter is commonly the wife's chore. Potatoes and other tubers are planted by hand along rows that are prepared by plowing. T h e seed tubers are plowed under or covered with a lampa. Spacing is important here, and tubers are planted 70 to 9 0 centimeters apart along rows approximately 50 centimeters apart. Potatoes are planted whole, but ocas may be cut into two or more parts for planting. Crops planted by broadcasting (wheat, barley, field peas, and lentils) are not weeded even though they have serious competition from plants such as wild mustard. Potatoes, ocas, maize, and beans are weeded at least once, and frequently twice. The first weeding is done four to six weeks after planting, and the second weeding follows in a month. Weeding eliminates competing plants and allows the young crops to become well established. The working of the soil during the weeding process also aerates the soil and

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permits drainage. One of the most significant differences between mechanized or commercial agriculture and the type practiced in Uchucmarca is in their approaches to the plants. In mechanized systems the field is the focus of activity, whereas in Uchucmarca, the individual plant is the focus.2 This is especially clear in the weeding process where each plant is weeded and mounded separately. The labor inputs for weeding are among the highest for any single activity, and weeding is usually done with a team of helpers. Potatoes and other tubers are dug up and separated from the plant with the lampa. They are piled and sacked immediately following the harvest. Wheat, barley, field peas, broad beans, and lentils are all harvested by threshing and then winnowing. They are cut with sickles and carried (corte y carrera) to a threshing floor. Wheat and barley are threshed with several (eight to fifteen) horses, while beans and legumes are threshed with only three or four animals. Throughout the threshing, the straw is turned with three-pronged wooden pitch forks. Wheat and barley are winnowed with a large wooden scoop, while legumes and beans are raked. Maize, like all other grains and legumes, is allowed to partially dry in the field before harvesting. Maize and kidney beans are cut and carried to a central spot. After picking, the leaves of one ear are stripped back and tied to those of another, making a pair that can be hung on a rafter to complete the drying process. Corn stalks are fed to cattle and horses. Besides these specific farm procedures, other activities go on constantly, but in a less organized fashion. These irregularly timed tasks include fencing, mending gates, clearing trails, removing large rocks and stumps from fields, and surveillance of fields. The most important in terms of time and impact on the crops is surveillance of crops during their growth. Surveillance is an essential technique for risk reduction and risk management. Fences are often inadequate to stop predators and thieves.3 In only a matter of hours, a neighbor's horse or cow can destroy a family's potato or broad bean crop. There are numerous cases of this, leading to minor litigations between families over crop loss. Therefore, as the crop matures, a farmer will spend more and more time hiking out to his fields to keep a watchful eye on them. Because of the occasional nature of these visits, it is difficult to report exactly how much time goes into this surveillance activity. During the growing season, men will take detours from their regular paths to check on a particular field. This may take up to two hours a day. As the harvest nears, children frequently spend all day chasing away parrots and other birds. When the harvest is readv, the whole family decamps for the field and stavs there 2 Cade (1967) makes this same observation about peasant versus commercial agriculture in Peru. 3 The persistence of crop thieves in peasant villages is often remarked upon (Cade 1970). It was frequent enough in Uchucmarca to cause constant rumors and some tension between families. The easiest solution was to have a family member camp in the field just before and during harvest.

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until it is completed. In the lower valley, where many families have lx>th maize and wheat fields, they may spend a month or six weeks camping in the field. This seasonal migration lasts from mid-June to mid-August. Surveillance generally accounts for 21 percent of the total labor time of an average family. When it aproaches a 3 0 percent level, seasonal migration occurs. This, in turn, eliminates the time spent hiking to and from fields. Labor inputs per hectare are high, and the labor used is heavy manual work. This labor intensiveness reflects the fact that for most crops, labor is directed at individual plants. This is especially tme of two of the most important crops, potatoes and maize, and is apparent in the high amounts of labor in tasks such as weeding where each plant is individually mounded and weeded twice during the growing season. The high man-day inputs for harvesting also reflect the presence of friends and kinsmen who come to work in harvesting crops they do not cultivate nor have in sufficient quantities. Table 7 details the labor inputs into different crops according to different tasks. The figures are in man-days and represent per hectare inputs.4 Whereas Table 7 gives an idea of the relative amount of time that must be put into each crop, it does not reflect the actual time input of one TABLE 7 Labor Inputs per Hectare in Man-Days Task Crop Potatoes Maize' Wheat Field peas Ocas Barley Broad beans Average

Clearing Plowing Planting Weeding

Harvest

Other

Total

2.6 0.9 2.6

31.7

93.4 92.8 63.8 88.3 96.3 62.0 144.4

15.1

91.6

8.4 7.3 12.9 13.8 7.1 12.8 21.4

22.5 48.9

—

14.1 15.2 18.1 22.2 10.4 18.0 15.1

54.8

31.1 19.6 30.2 52.3 32.7 31.2 21.4

7.8

16.1

11.9

43.0

31.2

14.7 0.9 — — — —

— —

46.1 —

— — —

'Figures for maize include labor imputs for red kidney beans which are grown simultaneously with maize. 4 These per-hectare labor inputs are comparable, but not equal, to other estimates of peasant field labor in the Peruvian Andes (Thorbecke and Stoutjesdijk 1971: 47; van der Wetering 1971: 17; and Convenio para Estudios Economicos Basicos 1970). My figures are based on interviews with a sample of forty-two households concerning their labor expenditures for the year 1971.

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crop relative to another. This is shown in Table 8, which gives the percentage of total man-days devoted to each of the major crops. The most striking feature of this table is the fact that 81 percent of the field agricultural lalxir goes into three crops: potatoes, maize, and wheat. TABLE 8 Percentage of Agriculture Labor by Crop

Crop Potatoes Maize Wheat Field peas

Percent of Total Labor Input 35 25 21 6

Crop Ocas Barley Broad beans

Percent of Total Labor Input 5 6 2

The distribution of these inputs is typical of the highland nucleus of cereal and tuber producing zones, the kichwa and jalka. Whether or not the labor inputs and their distribution could be altered is, of course, an open question. As was noted above, the overall time inputs into agricultural as well as nonagricultural activities is very high, leaving little room for added labor inputs into agriculture. Technological innovations that might reduce or help to redistribute the types of labor inputs are inaccessible within the village. Even the simplest chemicals such as herbicides, fertilizers, and insecticides represent a prohibitive cost to the monetary resources available within the village. At the present time, the market networks capable of making such innovations available are incomplete. The restrictive nature of these networks makes the cost of non-local technology and products astronomical in the minds of the villagers. It must also be remembered that agricultural production in crops is subsistence production and not designed to be sold for cash that could, in turn, be spent on technology from the outside. Erosion Control and Fallow The rugged nature of the terrain means that slope modification is necessary to avoid excessive runoff and erosion. Although some land degradation and erosion due to human intervention is inevitable in this type of terrain and agriculture, there does not appear to be an alarming incidence of erosion. It is recognized that certain slopes are too steep for plowing or holding cultivated plants. The Andean sod reduces erosion by covering the soil, and the people of Uchucmarca are careful not to disturb it any more than necessary. Plots cultivated on slopes are constructed in such a way as to reduce ero-

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sion. Steep slopes are avoided so that both the risks of crop loss and erosion are reduced. Plots are relatively small, so runoff is not great. All plots are carefully fenced with rocks and brush. In many cases, trees, shrubs, and magueys are used as living fences, and their roots create a barrier to runoff and erosion. As the people plow and cultivate a field, they remove stones and pile them along the fences or in the middle of the field. These fences keep animals away from plants in the field and catch runoff, and they may serve in some instances to help level the field. After several seasons of cultivation, there is often a characteristic leveling slump toward the lower edge of the field. 5 Another erosion reduction device involves slope modification. The most common of these is a type of quasi-terracing in which the hillside is dug out along a contour to create a step terrace. These are never very extensive, and thev are not faced with stone as in the southern Andes of Peru. Terracing is seldom done in more than one step, so that nowhere in the Uchucmarca Valley does one find entire hillsides covered with stepped terraces such as in the Vilcanota Valley. The remains of ancient, and perhaps pre-Hispanic, potato fields are usually similar to the nonterraced fields one finds today. These fields are surrounded with the remains of fences, and they are often slightly leveled bv the slump effect of runoff lieing caught and deposited on the fences at the Ixrttom of the field. The width of those fields that are modified into a quasi-terrace is generally not more than 10 to 12 meters. This type of terracing is only done in the upper zones where tul>ers and legumes are cultivated. The cereal zones of the lower valley are generally cultivated only in relatively level areas where erosion is not a problem. A final type of erosion control measure is the relatively short cultivation cycle of the potato fields in the upper parts of the valley. The highest fields and those on the steepest slopes are only cultivated from three to four years in potatoes and ocas before being returned to fallow. After three or four years of cultivation, the soil fertility of these plots drops to a level where cultivation is impractical. 8 Short cultivation cycles not only keep potato yields higher, but they also reduce the amount of loss of topsoil washed off of a cultivated field by the heavy rains. This pattern of risk reduction and antierosion effect is common to all of the erosion control measures outlined here. Not only do they protect the peasant's crops from loss, but they also help to reduce the effects of farming on the natural environment. The fallow system is also an indication of relative pressure on the land in different crop zones. There is no true fallow or crop rotation in the cereal-producing zones. Chacras are often fertilized by penning sheep there before plowing. Fields here are frequently temporarily abandoned because In England, these are referred to as lynchets. Besides the loss in soil fertility, another reason for abandoning potato cultivation after a few years in a single plot is the build-up of disease organisms and vectors in the soil (Dykstra 1962). 5

6

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of drought or the lack of seed, oxen or labor. Many lands in the kichwa fuerte were not cultivated between 1966 and 1970 because of a drought that began in 1965. If a household does not have adequate seed, labor or the use of oxen to cultivate an entire chacra in wheat or maize, it usually will attempt to cultivate part of it. The situation is much different in the higher zones of the valley. Although there is no fallow in the templado zone, a system of rotation between legumes (lentils and field peas) and barley helps maintain soil fertility. In the jalka zone, on the other hand, there is a regular fallow period associated with the production of potatoes and ocas. Newly-cleared land is cultivated for one or two seasons in potatoes. Ocas, ullucos, and mashuas are then planted in at least part of the chacra for one or two additional years. During this latter step it is usual for the farmer to leave part of the chacra unplowed and to harvest volunteer potatoes that have escaped harvest in former years. After four or five years of cultivating potatoes and then ocas, the chacra is fallowed for a minimum of five years. In most instances, this fallow is much longer and may result in the eventual abandonment of the plot. One factor discouraging the total abandonment of a potato chacra is the extremely hard work required for the chacma to open a new plot from uncleared land. In the years following the initial chacma and planting, potato chacras are fertilized by sheep between plantings. The fact that there is no true fallow for the lower crop zones, and a relatively extensive fallow for the upper crop zones, is indicative of the pressure for land in the lower zones and the lack of it in the upper zones. No land is abandoned in the kichwa and kichwa fuerte except under drought conditions. This is not because of the difficulty in clearing new land as it is in the jalka, but rather it is a reflection of the value of land in the lower zones and the difficulty of acquiring land there. The Agricultural Calendar Because of the variety of micro-climates, crop zones, and crops that one finds in the Uchucmarca Valley, the agricultural calendar is both complex and full. Cyclical patterns of temperature and rainfall affect different crops and zones in the valley in varied ways. Moreover, the timing of certain agricultural activities is affected by beliefs relating the cycle of the moon and agriculture and by such events as local saint's days and communal work obligations. Because of microclimatic differences within the valley and single crop zones, the timing of specific tasks may vary considerably. The rainfall cycle as well as the thermal conditions directly affecting maturation of a crop must be part of the calculations of the cultivator as he decides which tasks to perform. Figure 5 gives a monthly summary of the agricultural cycle.

I

tue e satisfied. New households are established in close proximity to the parent's house or in an extended family compound. This latter solution usually involves occupying a separate room of an already occupied house and setting up an independent kitchen. The result is a clear pattern of neighlxjrhood clusters and extended family compounds. Some of the compounds are large and complex and consume major portions of some blocks in the village grid. One such compound houses three brothers who live in a large two-storv house, which they con-

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strutted on the site of their father's original homestead. The eldest of these three occupies most of the upstairs portion of the house, while the other two brothers occupy the lower half, which has l>een divided into two large rooms. Each of these have small rooms in the upper portion where thev store their grains and potatoes. A fourth brother, the youngest, built a separate house on the lot next to this larger house. All four brothers are married and have separate kitchens. They share a corral behind the house. Another compound encompasses the households of an elderly widow and her two daughters and their families. The widow has her own hearth and sleeping and storage area. One of the daughters with her husliand and adopted child live in rooms adjacent to the quarters of her mother. The other daughter, her husband, and children live in a separate wing of the Lshaped house. Each of the households has a separate kitchen. Two rooms of the house are reserved for a third daughter, who has temporarily moved awav from the village with her husband. Her husband or their son return to the village several times a year to look after a cattle herd, which they graze on the village's pastures. The household unit is where the most important and clearly defined bonds exist between kinsmen: those between husband and wife, parent and child and between siblings. The most pervasive activities in this sphere are intimate and reciprocal relationships in which the needs of the members are understood and usually need no formal supplication, explanation, or thanks. The mutual aid and support are freely offered and received in a manner which Sahlins (1965: 147) has described as "generalized reciprocity." Bonds are so constantly reinforced that it is impossible to untangle the exact pathway of any single exchange dyad. Indeed, it is difficult to speak of "exchange" at all in such an intimate setting. The mutual dependency within this nuclear household is similar to the basic European model. The symbiotic nature of the nuclear household is enhanced by a division of labor along sex and age lines. In very general terms, the husband and older sons who are not in school are responsible for the heavier agricultural work in the fields. Women seldom participate in breaking new potato ground during the chacrna or in weeding potatoes. It is also unusual for a woman to work with a team of oxen or to go in the kichwa to cut and gather firewood. Women do not enter into craft specializations such as carpentry or masonry. Their craft is spinning and weaving. The wife and daughters are responsible for the maintenance of the household. Women cook and prepare food. This includes things like drying cereals to be ground, grinding chiles and other condiments, and removing the hull from different cereals with lime and ashes to prepare mote (a parched corn similar to hominy). Their help is frequently necessary in field agriculture. Women shepherd the sheep, while men look after cattle. Often women gather small firewood near the village.

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How the Economy Works: The Role of Kinship

In spite of this specialization, there is a considerable amount of laliorsharing within the household. Children take on more and more tasks as thev grow older, although school cuts into the amount of work they can do away from the village. Perhaps the most important task of children is in relieving their mothers of caring for younger children in the household. Many tasks are done jointly in the fields. In planting potatoes, for instance, the mail walks ahead opening the ground with a plow or shorthandled hoe, while the woman follows, drop» seed potatoes into the ground, and pushes dirt over the seed with her foot. A similar pattern is followed in planting maize. Both men and women winnow threshed wheat to separate the chaff from the grain. The marriage bond that unites the couple in the nuclear household is similar to that of other Catholic countries. Both civil and religious ceremonies are recognized, although since no priest lives in the village, most couples have had only the civil ceremony. A large number of unions have never lieen formalized with either a civil or a religious ceremony, and no stigma is attached to common-law unions. Once a household has l>een established formally (residentially), there is very little separation or divorce within the village. Divorce is very difficult in Peru since it is a Catholic countrv. Wives retain their maiden names and are virtually never referred to as la Sehora r and to networks that open up sources of exchange and credit. The number of marriages between immigrant males and native females is also indicative of this. Affinal links are especially vital to immigrants who do not have consanguinal kinsmen to rely on. By marrying outside of the village, a man shuts off an important source of new kiaship linkages and subsequent reciprocal relationships. Many of the men who do marry outside of the community tend to have a relative abundance of land or other resources. In some cases, a man may view links extended outside of the village as potentially more valuable than internal affinal links. For instance, one schoolteacher married a woman who was from a prominent family in the provincial capital. Through this marriage, he has not only established a link that has proven useful in his profession, but he has also gained access to lands outside of the village, which his wife inherited. The prohibitions against marriage and incest cover siblings and persons related through the coinpadrazgo link of ritual coparenthood. 1 There are a number of cousin marriages and unions, and several of these involve first cousins. Within the village there is no formal rule against such unions, but some villagers look askance at them, and most are aware that these violate the rules of the Catholic Church. There does not, however, appear to lx> any overt prejudice shown to either the couple or their children. 1 The institution of compadmzgp, or ritualized coparenthood, is very frequent in Latin America. Its main significance is in creating fictive kinsmen, and thus making the bilateral lanship system more flexible. Numerous analyses have been made of the system. Mintz and Wolf (1950) provide an excellent overview, and Gillin (1945) details how the system is used in a Peruvian community.

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The Extended Family Outside of the individual nuclear household, there exists a large number of other kinsmen (parientes) who are called upon for a variety of reasons. These people constitute a category of persons whom an individual may make claims upon for economic and other assistance. The closer the degree of relatedness, the more certain are these claims. The reckoning of parientes is bilateral. As one moves out from the kinsmen of the immediate household, the criteria for assigning the status of pariente becomes less and less specific. The rules determining the boundaries of this group tend to be tractable. Many Uchucmarquinos prefer not to press for specific genealogical criteria at the outer fringes. An example of this is the fact that people who share a common surname frequently will refer to one another as pariente in the lielief that they must somehow be related. Once a person is included in the kinsman category of pariente, he is treated with the same general attitude that characterizes other kinship relations. This may best be described as the "rule of preference," which means that any kinsman should, if possible, be treated with deference over nonkinsmen. The strength of this rule and the understood rights and obligations of deference become increasingly important as the genealogical reckoning between two persons becomes clearer and vice versa. As one moves out from the nuclear household toward the outer edges of the kinship universe, ties become more tenuous and the amount of preference toward kinsmen Incomes less obvious. People of the extended family provide the most important social resource base that any villager has outside of the nuclear household. Moreover. it is a resource to which most people have ample access. No villager could possibly utilize all of the potential resources held by this universe at any one time. It is likely that there are people within this universe whom a specific individual would not call upon throughout his lifetime. On the other hand, 110 Uchucinarquino can ignore these relationships and their rights and obligations. As in all peasant societies, the role played by kinship is a pervasive one, and it serves as a backdrop to all other social relationships. Uchucmarquinos look first to their kinsmen for support and companionship throughout their lives. If it is the community that mediates the relationships Itetween the villagers and the surrounding social, political, economic, and physical environments, within the community's boundaries it is the web of kinship ties that mediate an individual's articulation with his immediate social environment. There are seven major extended families in Uchucmarca, each with over twenty separate households interrelated through extended consanguineal and affinal kinship ties. The largest ones approach forty households. Besides these, five smaller extended families have l>etween ten and twenty

140

liotc the Economy Works: The Role of Kinship

households. Outside of these clusters, there are a number of households that are not related to any of the major families. These usually are households of recent immigrants to Uchucmarca. Many households provide a bridge lx> tween two major or minor extended families by having the two partners related to two such families. Roughly fifty households in the village fall into this category. The Role of Kinship in Sociedad: Case Studies To understand the way kinship is used to establish and maintain reciprocal relationships in agriculture, let us consider its role in one of Uchucmarca's most coinmon interpersonal alliances: sociedad. This arrangement is the most important and visible exchange in agriculture. Other reciprocal relationship« tend to be much less visible, although they may accomplish much the same thing as sociedad. The reciprocity involved is an exchange of land for labor. There are, of course, alternative means to obtain both land and labor. Land may be rented, borrowed, or cleared from virgin areas. Labor may lie hired for cash or crops, or it may be exchanged under the lituisheo arrangement. It is only the sociedad system, however, that moves the two most important resources of Uchucmarca into a reciprocal alignment. In that land and lalior are the two most important resources of the community, it often happens that a particular household has only land, or conversely only labor, to exchange for the other. In Uchucmarca the sociedad arrangement calls for an even division of the yield between the owner of the plot and the person who is his socio. The obligation of the owner of the chacra is to provide the principal capital (seed and oxen) as well as the land itself. The socio's obligation is to provide his lalx>r. If any extra lalx>r is needed in plowing, weeding, or harvesting, the cost in either goods or cash is divided equally. In the following paragraphs, I will describe a number of cases that demonstrate the pattern of exchanges involved in shareeropping. These cases have been chosen to illustrate households which have differing degrees of reliance on shareeropping. The first two cases deal with families which do not rely on socied/id at all. The next two are households which rely exclusively on the shareeropping system, and the final two illustrate the most common pattern of a mixture of reliance on personally controlled plots and shared ones. Case 1 Relatively few people choose not to participate in the shareeropping system. For some, an abundance of land matched with an abundance of household latx>r or a means to hire peons preclude the necessity of looking for a socio.

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Such a household is that of two of the schoolteachers in Uehucmarca, Cesar and Marta.2 Marta is an immigrant to the village from Bolivar. She and Cesar met while studying in Cajamarca, and they lwth returned to the Province of Bolivar to teach primary school. After their marriage in 1952, thev lx>th came to teach in Uchucmarca. As an immigrant, Marta had no lands or kinsmen in the community. Cesar, however, is a meml^er of one of the oldest and most prominent families in Uchucmarca, the Alegrias. This family traces its lineage back to the last caciqtie to dominate Uchucmarca in the early 1900s. In spite of the fact that his father had three brothers and six sisters and Cesar has two sisters and numerous cousins, he inherited a numlier of cfuicras in different zones in the valley. He has a large plot in the central kichwa, where he cultivates wheat, maize, beans, and barley. The family also has inherited plots in the templado, where they grow field peas and broad beans. Another plot in the jalka produces potatoes. Besides these plots that he inherited from his father, Cesar purchased another potato plot from his mother's brother, who was emigrating to Lima in 1968 to join his children. In 19Θ9, Cesar purchased a plot in the kichwa for growing maize. The fonner owner was not a kinsman of the household. All of these plots amount to some 5 hectares of land spread out in different crop zones. Apart from these, Cesar and Marta recently purchased one hectare near Pusac with a house, sugar cane, and fruit plantations. They are one of the few families living in Uchucmarca who own land in the temple around Pusac. Besides the houses in Uchucmarca and Pusac, the family owns another house next to its potato chacra as well as an inoperative mill along the river. The holdings of this household are well above the average for the village, and the required labor inputs would exceed the labor resources of most households in the village. The amount of time Cesar and Marta could put into their fields is severely limited by the demands of their teaching jol». School is open from Monday to Friday from eight in the morning until noon and then from one until four, leaving insufficient time to hike out and work in the cltacras. All of the other school teachers with chacras use socios to manage the fields. Unlike some other teachers, Cesar works in his chacras on days when he is not teaching. Cesar and Marta have found it preferable to hire peons. Their eldest daughter often hikes out to their chacras to keep track of these peons. Most of their hiring is done for a specific amount of labor (jomal), such as the weeding of a certain number of rows of potatoes or maize. Because of their teaching professions, they have the highest cash income in the village. Cash is scarce to the majority of households in the village, and its availability to Cesar and Marta means that they can hire peons with little difficulty. When most other households use crops for payment of day labor, a household that uses cash may have a relatively easy time recruiting labor. Such has proved to be the case with this household. The only 2

The names used in these case studies are fictitious.

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Hotc the Economy Works: The Role of Kinship

socio with Cesar is a nonkinsman living in Pusac who works his cane and fruit plantation there. A major part of his responsibilities is to act as a watchman. Case 2 Cesar and Marta have found it preferable not to use sharecroppers since thev have lx>th land and cash for hiring lal>or. At the other end of the spectrum, there are some households that do not participate in the sharecropping system l>ecause of a lack of resources. Mateo's household, for instance, consists of himself and his daughter, Teresa, who is twelve and still in school. Mateo is an immigrant to Uchucmarca from Bolivar. His wife, who was also from Bolivar, died shortly after Teresa was Ixjrn, and Mateo has never remarried. He has lived in Uchucmarca for thirty years after having left the hacienda in Bolivar where he was born. Unlike some of the migrants from Bolivar, Mateo has no other kinsmen in Uchucmarca. He is a ineml>er of the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca, but the only cluicra he has claimed is a small plot for potatoes, oca, and a few rows of the bitter tuliers mashua and ulluco. This plot produces enough tubers for the household, but he must look elsewhere for other food. Having no kinsmen and no other household lalxjr except himself, Mateo has had a difficult time in finding someone to become partners with him in a sociahul. After several attempts, he has found it easier to work as a field lalx>rer to earn his food rather than lie responsible for a cluicra not his own. He often works for people like Cesar. His earnings are meager, and thev are not lx>lstered by owning any sheep or cattle. Because of their restricted land holdings, Mateo and his daughter must rely more on talters and less on cereals and legumes than the average household that has cfuwras spread out from the kichiva to the jalhi. These two households just descrilxxl do not participate in the sociedad system for very different reasons. Cesar and Marta have had the advantage of kinship connections to one of the most prominent families in Uchucmarca combined with strong cash resources. Thus they have inherited and purchased a variety of chacras, and they are able to recruit labor to work their chacras. Mateo, on the other hand, has no such connections to a prominent family, or to any kinsmen for that matter. The only resource he has is his own labor, which he extends in exchange for food and some cash. On the other extreme of the sharecropping system are those households that rely exclusively on socios in their agricultural activities. Case 3 One such household is that of Diomedes and Maria. Diomedes is native to Bolivar, but he came to Uchucmarca with his family when he was only seven years old. He is related to a large nuinlier of kinsmen who migrated to Uchucmarca in the 1940s after the District had become an Indigenous Com-

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muiiitv. At thirty-seven, Diomedes is the oldest of six brothers and sisters. His father is still an active fanner, and he is aided by three sons in their late teens and early twenties who still live at home. His parents do not yet have any free chacras that they are ready to give to Diomedes and Maria. One of the things he has gotten through his kinship connections is the use of the house where he keeps his family. For this, he pays a nominal fee to a cousin who owns the house. He has started to build a new house of his own across the trail from his parent's house. Maria is native to Uchucmarca, but she comes from a relatively small family without strong kinship links to one of the larger extended families in the village. She, like her husband, has not inherited any land in the valley. Diomedes and Maria have five chacras planted in maize, wheat, 1 Parley, potatoes, and ocas. These are all owned by other households who have established the reciprocal sociedatl relationship with Diomedes. The maize, wheat, and barley chacras are owned by one of the schoolteachers in Uchucmarca who does not have time to cultivate them himself. Diomedes' father had been a socio with this same teacher on the same chacras until the early 1960s when he began to open up chacras on land for which he had petitioned the Community. Thus Diomedes inherited his father's sociedades with the schoolteacher. The potato and oca chacras are owned by his father. His father notes that it is important to hold a family like his together, and one of doing this is to become socios with his children. The socio relationship between Diomedes and his father is much different than between Diomedes and the schoolteacher. In the former, both Diomedes and his father work in the fields, while in the latter Diomedes works alone or with labor which he has recruited. The teacher visits the fields infrequently. In both relationships, the harvest is divided equally after workers have been paid. Diomedes has other economic relationships with his father's household and the households of his siblings. He regularly exchanges labor under the hitasheo system with a younger brother, especially for the long and difficult tasks of plowing and planting wheat. Diomedes and his wife have also begun a small sheep herd. One of Diomedes' brothers lives on the upper edge of the jalka where he is a full-time herding specialist. Besides caring for the sheep and cattle of nonkinsmen for pay, he is a socio to Diomedes on the sheep herd. The original sheep and occasional salt are provided by Diomedes, while his brother's household is responsible for shepherding them. The lambs bom to Diomedes' ewes are divided evenly between his brother and him. The household of Diomedes is typical of people who are involved in the sociedatl system because they have a shortage of land but adequate lalx>r and kinship linkages to set up the partnership. Diomedes has recently petitioned the Executive Council for his own parcels of land and expects to rely less on sharecropping in the future.

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Case 4 In comparison to the case of Diomedes are households that have an abundance of land but a shortage of lalxir. The schoolteacher who is the owner and socio of Diomedes' cluicras is such a person. Another is Emilio, who is a patriarch of one of the most prominent families in the village, and who has a numlier of chacras that he is unable to work himself because he is too old. Einilio's grandfather had migrated to Uchucmarca from Leimebamba in the 1880s to found one of Uchucmarca's major extended families. Einilio's grandfather and his family cleared many new cluicras in the valley and amassed a sizeable cattle herd. Affinal links to other families, especially that of one of the caciques of Uchucmarca, provided more chacras and other resources. Emilio, who is in his eighties, is the youngest and only survivor of four brothers, but he is surrounded by numerous nieces, nephews, and their families. He has four sons and no daughters, and his sons have begun to retire from the demanding agricultural life and to rely on the help of their own sons and daughters. One of them resides in Lima with his son for most of the year, returning to Uchucmarca during the dry season and the harvests. Another spends much of the year in Chuquibamba, a day's ride from Uchucmarca, where there is a secondary school in which his children are enrolled. A third son has opened a small store in the village, but he still puts most of his time into agriculture. The fourth son is the only one who is a full time agriculturist, and he and Emilio have been socios in growing maize and field peas for several years. Emilio has also set up sociecUules with two nonkinsmen for growing wheat and potatoes. He likes to ride or hike out to the different cluicras, but he prefers to leave the more strenuous work to the younger men. Keeping track of his cattle herd, which numbers in the seventies, has become a principal occupation in his later years. He is the most active and important cattle buyer and seller in the village. Buyers who come to Uchucmarca on their regular circuits, which begin on the other side of the Maranon, usually come to Emilio first to see if he has cattle to sell or to find out who is selling. Thus Emilio relies completely on the sociedad system for the food he and his wife consume. Theirs is characteristic of a few households that have an abundance of land but a shortage of labor. Although he has bequeathed most of his former lands to his four sons, he has kept sufficient chacras to provide a subsistence l>ase for his household through the labor of socios. Between the two extremes of households that do not use sociedad at all and those relying completely on the system for their subsistence lie the majority of households of Uchucmarca that use socieikul as one of the mechanisms in their resource strategies. Most households in the village relv on lx)th individual production of their own plots and on sharecropping with someone. Cases 5 and 6 are typical of these households.

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Case 5 The household of Teofilo and Rosaiira is typical of many other households in Uchuemarca in its use of sharecropping. Teofilo is the third son of a prosperous immigrant to Uchucmarca who left three other sons in Uchucmarca. The four brothers live in a family compound with their widowed mother. Their father had claimed a number of chacras after his emigration from Bolivar to Uchucmarca. Once these lands had been divided between the four brothers, each brother had to look for other plots to complement those that they inherited. Teofilo inherited two chacras from his father, one planted in potatoes and the other in barley, which he rotates with field peas. In 1956 he purchased two other chacras from a nonkinsman for a nominal amount (S/.45.00 and S/.95.00). One of these he has planted in potatoes and the other in field peas. All of these are either in the templado or jalka crop zones. The only chacra in the kichiva is one that he works as a socio with his wife's father. His wife is the youngest daughter of a household of one of the major extended families, but she has not yet inherited any land for her household. Teofilo and Rosaura do, however, receive the benefit of free use of her father's team of oxen for plowing their etweras, and the couple also works regularly in the harvests of her father's ctuicras to earn food. More over, he has helped by giving them a cow with which to start their cattle herd. This was done at the time of the birth of their first son. Affinal links have thus provided Teofilo with access to one of the major crop zones in the valley as well as to other valuable resources such as oxen. Teofilo and Rosaura live in a family compound of four siblings and are thus surrounded by close relatives with whom ongoing reciprocal relationships are understood. Teofilo and his brothers frequently use htiasheo, or labor exchange, in each other's fields, and Rosaura and her concuruulas (wives of brothers) spin and weave together as well as exchange labor on household jobs. Rosaura's connection to one of the most prominent and niunerous families in the village has proved important to them. In 1965 Teofilo and one of his brothers obtained a loan of cash from Rosaura's grandfather in an effort to set up a small store in a spare room. The store never prospered, and the brothers decided not to continue after the original stock had lieen depleted. Although they were able to repay the loan to Rosaura's grandfather, Teofilo and his brothers had a difficult time in collecting credit that they had extended, and they ended up taking a small loss on their business venture. Case 6 Another characteristic household using the socieihul system is that headed by Juan. He is in his middle fifties and has lived by himself until recently. He is a widower, and his three children have left Uchucmarca. One is a nurse and another a teacher in Lima, and the third is a teacher in a small

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town on Peni s north coast. In the late 1950s Juan began to sell his ciuicras, planning to migrate to Lima and live with his son until he got established in something. Bv 1962 he had sold five of his seven ciuicras, and he and his wife packed and left for Lima. He sold one of these to a nephew and another to a cousin of his wife, while the others went to nonkinsmen. The decision to leave the village was ill-fated. The reports made by his sons and daughter alxnit the easy and somewhat glamorous life on the coast proved to l>e suited to someone who was younger and who had more education than Juan. After a year of looking, the only job which Juan could get was one as an amlniUintc—a "walking salesman"—who, with hundreds of others like him, l>eat a path around the markets, plazas, and other shopping areas of the capital selling anything from mothballs to single razor blades. The more established and successful ones may sell their wares out of a cart, but most, like Juan, sell what they can carry in their arms or in small trays hung around their neck. Many amlnilantes depend on selling odds-and-ends to people who have forgotten something in the formal market or stores. Sales are low and very sporadic, leaving the amlnilantes on the lowest margin of subsistence in an incredibly competitive market place. The shift from the life of an independent peasant with sufficient lands to that of an amlnihmte surrounded by people who were neither friends nor kinsmen strained Juan and his wife. After two years in Lima, his wife lx>came chronically ill, and she died after four months in bed. Juan went into a depression that was lifted only by his decision to return to Uchucmarca and to l>egin his life where he had left it two and a half years previously. When he returned to the village in 1965, Juan faced two immediate problems: how to acquire land and how to work it. He had retained two ciuicras out of the original seven he had inherited from his father. One of these is in the potato zone, and the other is in the kichtva where he can plant mai/.e. In order to produce crops on these, he went into sociedad with his sister's husband, who is an immigrant to Uchucmarca from a small town outside of Celendin. This couple also loaned him a room in the liack of their house where he could live while he was renovating an old house near his potato chacra. He had sold his house in the village when he and his wife left for Lima. To complement these two ciuicras, he petitioned the Executive Committee of the Peasant Community for two other ciuicras. One is in the tcmplado where he plants field peas, and the other is in the lower jalka where he has broad lx?ans and barley. He works these ciuicras without a socio. Luckily, the clearing of these is not too hard, and the crops he has planted do not take very strenuous work. When he is confronted with a difficult job. he usuallv hires a nephew who lives in the village. Juan was foresighted enough to keep his cattle when he went to Lima, and thev now provide him with a small cash income. He left these in sociedad with a brother when he moved to Lima, but thev let that relationship dissolve when he returned to

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Uchucmarca. Although Juan will probably never enjoy the standard of living he had prior to his move to Lima, his strategies involving sociedad and petitioning the Community have reestablished him in the community. The households headed by Teofilo and by Juan are characteristic of the majority of households in the village in that sociedad is used as one of several strategies in producing a subsistence base. The use of these reciprocal relationships is dictated by the need of either land or labor. The ability to form them was enhanced in each case by affinal kinship links. These and the other four cases presented here give an idea of how kinship is used in the reciprocal relationship of sociediid. Another perspective may be gained by looking at the overall statistical impact of kinship on sociedad. The Role of Kinship in Sociedad: Overview Approximately 70 percent of the households of Uchucmarca are involved in the system of sociedad. Of the 30 percent not involved, many are households comprised of single persons who own no land and who have found it more efficient to work for crops as peons rather than to take on the responsibility of cultivating their own chacras.The rest are like Cesar and Marta, who find it more profitable to use household and hired labor in their chacras. One statistical indication of the role of kinship in sociedad is given in Table 14. In this, the type of kinship relation of the socio partners is broken down into four categories. A basic division is made between consanguineal and affinal kinship categories, and these are in turn broken down into "nuclear" and "extended" categories. The nuclear category includes socios who are either siblings, parents, or children, while the extended category includes all other people who are defined as "parientes." This may include people who can be fixed with reasonable certainty on a genealogy, but is also may include some persons who cannot be so fixed. Besides kinsmen, two other categories of persons are included. One is the category of the fictive kin relation of cornpadrazgo ("coparenthood"), which is important in many parts of Latin America (Mintz and Wolf 1950), and the other category is those people who have no relation to the socio. This table clearly demonstrates the importance of kinship in the recruitment of sociedad partners. Whereas the "no relation" category tends to lie significant for each crop, the overall average of kinsmen selected as socios far outweighs that of nonkinsmen. The overall average of kinsmen is 68 percent, while the overall average of nonkinsmen is only 32 percent. In other words, two out of every three sociedades involve kinsmen of one type or another. Table 14 also shows the relative weighting of the various types of kinship relations in sociedad. There is an apparent bias toward consanguines, as indicated by the fact that both nuclear and extended relatives who are consanguines are used to a greater extent than affines of any type. When

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TABLE 14 Type of Kinship Relations of Socios Percentages of Sociedad Relationships Involving Given Categories of Kinsmen and Nonkinsnien Type of

Relationship

Consanguineal Crop

nuclear

Affinal

extended

nuclear

extended

Potatoes Maize Wheat Field peas Barley Ocas

24 16 16 23 14 29

13 23 22 23 24 12

26 13 11 16 11 12

8 14 14 6 11 24

Average

19

20

15

12

Compadres

—

3 3 8 —

2

So

Relation 29 34 34 29 32 23 32

one combines this understanding with the fact that eonsanguines are also vital in questions of inheritance, it is evident that although affinal relations are important, they do not serve as replacements for consanguineal relatives. One interesting sidelight given by this table is the relative unimportance of the ccnnpadrazgo relationship in the selection of socios.3 Reciprocal Relationships as Action-Sets The first parts of this chapter presented the kinship system of the village and then looked at reciprocal relationships, particularly sociedad, as they function in relation to the kinship system. From these discussions, it is apparent that kinship plays a very significant role in the establishment and maintenance of these relationships. This in itself, however, does not tell us how these reciprocal relatioaships actually operate beyond the fact that certain resources, goods, and services move between two households according to the mechanism of the reciprocal relationship. In order to get a tletter understanding of the nature of these relationships, it might l>e useful to place them in the context of analytical models that anthropologists and others have develojied for dealing with similar relationships. This same type of phenomena has been examined at length for other 3 One reason for the apparently low number of compadres in these reciprocal arrangements is that compadres and comadres in Uchucmarca are sometimes already related in some way, and they may, therefore, already be included in another category of kinsman.

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peasant and nonpeasant groups. Foster, for example, has descril)ed a reciprocal relationship which is characteristically nonkin based as the "dyadiccontract" (Foster 1961). Wolf has discussed these as "coalitions" (Wolf 1966: 81 ff). Each of these conceptualizations fits the type of kin-liased reciprocal relationship» one can observe in Uchucmarca. These models, however, imply a certain degree of formality and structure that is not entirely descriptive of the kinship and other relations in the village. The other large body of analysis applicable to this type of phenomena is network analysis. Although primarily designed for urban material, it may he equally applied to any situation where one finds an individual putting together and maintaining specific relationships out of a generalized pool of persons. Recently, Gulliver (1971) has adopted this type of analysis for a rural African society. There is, of course, considerable variety in the area of network analysis. One may go from the sporadic and very temporary relationships described as "sets" by Barnes (1954: 43), to the relatively formal and structured relationships described as "extended networks" by Epstein (1961: 57). One model for these that seems to be particularly suited to the type of reciprocal relationship one observes in Uchucmarca is Mayer's (1966: 108 - 110) idea of "action-set." Following Mayer we may look for several features which define an action-set. TTiese are: 1) a wide variety of bases for linkage; 2) links that are sometimes, but not always, based on group membership; 3) paths of linkages that yield a combination of relationships linking people directly to ego and those linking people to intermediaries who are themselves linked directly with ego; 4) the action-set is a bounded entity, but it is not a group per se; and 5) it is a temporary rather than a permanent entity like a group. Mayer's model for an action-set Ls closely related to other models that have been developed in situational analysis. In most of this type of analysis, one is able to note a tendency to describe models emphasizing either structure or process (Aronson 1970). The action-set is typical of those emphasizing process or the constant restructuring of relationship» between different people for different reasons. Mayer (1966: 97) suggests a corollary to the action-set in the same paper. This is the "quasi-group," which is considerably more structured and more permanent than the action-set. He goes on to suggest that an action-set may evolve into a quasi-group. In Uchucmarca, the reciprocal relationships that one observes do at times attain a certain complexity and durability which make them similar to Mayer's quasi-group model. These more complex and durable relationships tend, however, to be far rarer than the more simple and ephemeral relationships one encounters in looking at the subsistence and resource strategies of individuals and households in the village. In the following section, the reciprocal relationships discussed above are related to Mayer's five criteria for an action-set. 1) Bases for Linkage.

The particular bases concerned here are the vari-

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ous subsistence activities that must l>e planned in the complex Andean landscape. Other Iwses include political alliances within the community in organizations such as the municipality and the Peasant Community, connections linking the individual to the larger economic and political systems outside of the community, relationships that provide support for a variety of tasks and needs from roofing a house to getting a loan, and relationships that are mobilized in support of some village obligation such as the sponsorship of a fiesta or ritual honoring a specific saint. Within each of these general categories of bases for forming reciprocal relationships, there are many more specific elements that can be analyzed. In looking more closely at the relationships involved in subsistence activities, three major subtypes appear which have been descrilied al>ove. First are the reciprocal relationships designed to promote access to land, such as the sociedad relationship. Second are the relationships that provide lalx>r for production, such as labor exchange (htuisheo), and the minga lalx>r arrangement (payment in cash or kind). Third are the relationships that create exchange links using either monetized (compru) nonmonetized (canjc) exchange. Thus there are a number of different bases for the formation of reciprocal relationships. 2) Links Based on C.rotip Meiniiership. All of the reciprocal relationships mentioned above may or may not l>e based on group meml>ership. The most prominent group involved in setting up these relationships is the group of kinsmen which most villagers have. As the discussion of sociedad pointed out, kinsmen of one sort or another are selected with far greater frequency than nonkinsmen in these reciprocal relationships. Recruiting for these takes place lx>th within the kinship group and among paisanos who are memlxrs of the community but do not have a recognized kinship affiliation. Very few relationships consistently reach outside of the village boundary. One that does is the relationship between individual households and cattle buyers or other itinerant merchants who make regular stops in the village. The bulk of relationships involved in the subsistence activities of the village deal, however, solely with people within the village. This means that most of the links dealing with subsistence activities are usually, but not always, associated with a group of kinsmen. The clearest indication of this can l>e seen in Table 14. 3) Cotnl>ination of Direct and Imlirect Relationships. Mayer's third condition for an action-set is that the relationships should involve lx>th direct and indirect linkages with ego. Although the size of the village and the general intimacy that characterize most social relations among peasants preclude much indirect linkage, it is possible to describe some relationships discussed above in such terms. The links are predominantly direct, as one would expect. Indirect links include such times as when one socio recruits labor or other help on his own. In this case, the person who is recruited is

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indirectly linked to the other sharecropper, who will enjoy, in part, the product of the recruited worker's labor. Another time when indirect linkages niav appear is in exchange relationships where any one item passes through two or more exchanges. Thus the people who have handled the item at one time are indirectly linked through an intermediary, to a third person who also handles the item. In general, however, the most important relationships are built upon direct recruitment and linkages. When this aspect is combined with the usual short life span of the relationships, indirect linkages Income very difficult to identify. 4) Boundaries. Mayer's fourth condition is that an action-set lie a Ixjunded entity, but not a group. The reciprocal relationships described above are bounded by the fact that they are predominantly links created for a specific purpose at a specific time. The purpose of the relationship, in a sense, becomes its boundary. On the other hand, there Ls no movement toward a formal structuring of these relationships into a group with its implication of rules and a formal organization involving status and ranking. The relationships which surround each individual in his subsistence strategies are treated as separate units by that individual. These can be readily enumerated by that individual. There are no instances, however, when the people involved in the various relationships maintained by one individual come together to function as a single unit or group. Most people involved in these relationships are well aware of who also has been recruited by a certain individual, but this awareness does not carry over into any form of unified action that might be characterized as group behavior. 5) Temporary Relationships. The final condition marking an action-set is that the relationships are temporary rather than permanent. The various reciprocal relationships that are part of the subsistence system in Uchucmarca tend to be very short-lived. The exceptions to this are a few linkages maintained between some immediate family members, especially father and son, in the cultivation of chacras in certain crop zones. A few partnerships between a father and one or more sons are relatively permanent, but the majority of sociedades, labor recruitment, and exchange relationships are confined to one or two years. The short life of these relations may be an adaptive feature in that over the long run risk is spread out by allowing free and constant reshuffling of partnerships. Individuals prefer not to risk locking themselves into situations that may be difficult to break if and when the relationship becomes undesirable. The attitude held by many is that in relationships such as sociedad, one cannot quite trust the other fellow completely to uphold his end of the original contract, especially if he is not a close kinsman. The constant reshuffling of sociedades and of lal>or recruitment also tends to dampen any tendency toward regularized dependency relationships between the owner of the chacra and the person who he recruits to work on that land as either a socio or a peon.

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In siun, kinship provides a generally loose structure, that of the nuclear and extended families, around which the economy of the village is organized and acted out. The formal social structures of the community, discussed in Chapter 4, have little direct relevance to the daily operations of the subsistence system of the village. That system can best be understood as the set of strategies each household designs to enable it to feed, clothe, shelter itself, and to obtain nonsubsistence amenities that cash can buy. In working out these strategies, an individual may use a number of standardized reciprocal relationships. The sharecropping system of sociediul is one of the most important of these. The individuals and households who are recruited as partners in these relationships are predominately kinsmen. The outcome of these subsistence strategies using kin-based reciprocal relationships may l>e described as a type of network or "action-set" tying together separate households. For every household, a different set of networks exists. The economic system, then, is the sum of these numerous networks between friends, neighbors, and, most importantly, kinsmen.

—

10

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A Peasant Economy in the Modern World

This book has concerned itself with the internal organization and operation of the peasant economy of Uchucmarca. This Andean village was chosen as a site for study because it seemed typical of the numerous other highland villages which dot the highlands of Peru. The logic of such micro-level research is that a general understanding of the working of peasant economies in less developed nations must rely on detailed studies of micro-regions as well as data from larger aggregates. In spite of this need for micro-level studies, there are relatively few available in either Spanish or English for the student and analyst of Andean culture and economics. During the field research and analysis that produced this book, my dual orientations have been the general adaptations of Andean culture (represented in the single village of Uchucmarca) to the Andean environment, and the individual adaptations of peasants to their cultural and natural milieu. Under such orientations, the traditional anthropological spheres of "cultural ecology" and "economic anthropology" merge within single topics such as the configuration of resources and their distribution, employment in production, and the exchange of goods and services. Throughout this study, two types of data and levels of analysis have been employed in discussing these adaptations. The community, its customs, norms, and cultural patterns constitute the first level of general cultural adaptation to the rugged Andean environment. This level includes the legal organization of the community, its control over the Uchucmarca Valley, the general pattern of production zones, crops, animals, agrarian technology, and the patterns of socioeconomic organization, production, and distribution. The second level of adaptation is that of the individual households that must utilize and manipulate both the natural environment and the socio-cultural milieu in order to produce a satisfactory subsistence. On this level, we consider the specific resources available to the household, its labor force, and, most importantly, its socio-economic relations with other households. The patterns which are recorded here are, of course, the results of successful adaptations in the past to the socio-economic and natural environment of the northern Andes. Three general factors have been analyzed to 153

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provide the framework for the peasant economy of Uchucmarca: the natural resources of the Uchucmarca Valley, sociocultural institutions and customs, and individual subsistence strategies. The economic organization and behavior observable today in Uchucmarca result from the ongoing process of adaptation and interplay of these three factors, and has been taking place ever since the first occupation of the valley. This process has certainly been influenced by a few cataclysmic events, such as the Inca and Spanish Conquests of the area. For the most part, however, adaptation to the Andean environment has been a product of the daily and undramatic work of peasants trying to meet basic subsistence needs. Theoretically, one may speak of the socio-economic organization and other cultural phenomena as elements which mediate the relationship between the individual and the resource base that he must use for his subsistence. In any such scheme, it must be made clear that neither the socio-economic organization nor the natural resource base are static entities. In reviewing the operations of the subsistence economy of the village, three general adaptations may be observed. They are spatial-demographic adaptations, techno-economic adaptations, and socio-economic adaptations. These incorporate the various components described in preceding chapters. Spatial-Demographic Adaptation One demographic adaptation is the settlement pattern, locating the village in a place that provides fairly equal access to the major crop zones exploited by the inhabitants. Physiological studies (Thomas 1973) demonstrate that long distance walking in the Andes is as strenuous as most agricultural tasks. A central location of the village, therefore, tends to minimize the expenditure of human energy in walking to scattered fields. It is important to note here that after the Spanish Conquest and the subsequent introduction of new crops, principally wheat, the village was relocated, or "reduced," to a place between the traditional potato zone, the jalka, and the cereal zone, the kichwa. Prior to the Spanish Conquest, the major population concentrations had been higher and closer to the potato zone. The location of the principal village in this intermediate place is matched by a series of outlying hamlets and homesteads in higher areas that are more remote from the lower crop zones where grains are produced. The inhabitants of these smaller settlements are mainly herders of sheep and cattle. Their specialization in herding means that many of the residents of the principal village are freed from the time-consuming task of hiking up into the pasture lands of the jalka fuerte. Thus the location of the village in a place with easy access to the upper and lower crop zones is complemented by the location of a smaller specialized population with an easier access to the most distant zone from the main village.

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Another demographic adaptation made by the village is a relatively stable population. The population growth of 1.5 percent means that the community is not experiencing many of the problems of rapid population expansion which is common in other parts of Latin America. Although there is some amount of free land still available within the lands controlled by the Peasant Community of Uchucmarca, there are specific shortages in zones such as the kichwa. The reasonably small population growth of 1.5 percent is a result of three factors: the rate of natural increase, immigration to, and emigration from Uchucmarca. Corresponding to the demographic adaptations at the village level are several similar ones at the household or individual level. One of these is a residential pattern in which persons who specialize in herding live outside of the main village and closer to the grazing areas. A number of households send one of their members, such as a son or daughter, to an outlying hamlet where they maintain a second house and tend livestock for the entire family. Another demographic adaptation of individuals and households is seasonal migration to different parts of the valley during harvest season. This is especially important for the grain harvests in the kichwa and kichwa fuerte zones. This temporary migration saves the amount of time that must be spent hiking between the fields and the village. Family residency patterns also may be adaptive. Extended families tend to cluster into family neighborhoods, which promotes the constant labor sharing that goes on between kinsmen. Reciprocal relationships between members of an extended family are often extensive, and the family neighborhood unit may act to reinforce these bonds by providing frequent contact between families. Techno-Economic Adaptations The most significant adaptation of the Andean population to their environment is the development of an agricultural system that exploits a wide range of microclimates determined by altitude and related factors. Within the Uchucmarca Valley, there is an altitude range of over 3,500 meters encompassing five major plant associations or "life zones." Within these, the people of Uchucmarca demarcate seven major crop- and land-use zones ranging from a sugar cane and tropical fruit zone to a mountain grassland zone which extends well above the tree line. The ethnogeographical system of the villagers is, in itself, a technological adaptation to the Andean environment in that it indicates to them which zones can and should be used for which crop. Added to this ethnogeography of the Uchucmarca Valley is a land-use system that uses the entire range of microclimates and crop zones for different crops and products. The flexibility of the inhabitants of the valley in adapting their agriculture is demonstrated by the introduction of wheat and

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other European crops, such as barley and field peas, after the Spanish Conquest. These have become predominant elements in the subsistence base of the villagers along with the more traditional Andean crops, maize and potatoes. The multi-zone agriculture of the village is complemented by systems of nonmonetized exchange, relying on kinship, to distribute the products of different zones throughout the village. Thus a person who does not have direct access to a particular crop zone may obtain the products of that zone according to a variety of means. The agricultural system of the village provides an apparently sufficient subsistence base in the terms of calories and proteins for the village. Besides providing an adequate subsistence base through cropping for the villagers, the land-use patterns of the community also provide a means of articulation with the larger monetized market system of Peru through the sale of livestock, principally cattle, to cattle buyers who come to the village from the other side of the Maranon River. There is not enough agricultural surplus produced in the village to allow effective participation in markets outside of Uchucmarca. The cost of transportation in terms of money and time is also an important factor here. Cattle provide relatively high and secure returns for the time input required. Thus many villagers use livestock as a live bank account-on-the-hoof. Although the use of cash and the subsequent participation in the monetized economy of Peru are limited, most villagers do participate to some extent. Those who do not raise cattle may earn cash as day laborers. The use of cash, however, is generally reserved for transactions outside of the village, while internal exchange and labor transactions take place in the absence of cash through direct barter and payment in kind. Socio-Economic Adaptations The food procurement system of the community, characterized by multizone agriculture, herding, and exchange, is matched on the household level by a number of personal strategies that include reciprocal relationships developed to allow access to land not directly owned, to provide labor, and to establish exchange mechanisms. These have been referred to here as elements of subsistence strategies. Perhaps the most important of these, and the one that was examined most closely here, is the sharecropping system of sociedad in which land and labor are exchanged. This system brings the two most vital resources in the community into a direct relationship. Other important mechanisms in the subsistence or resource strategies of the villagers include labor exchange, payment of labor in both cash and kind, craft specialization, and exchange involving principally nonmonetized transactions. As the discussion of these reciprocal relationships indicated, the initiative for establishing and operating these subsistence strategies depends on the indi-

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vidual household, while the resources and mechanisms for establishing these relationships are provided by the community and its social organization. The community of Uchucmarca has controlled the Uchucmarca Valley since very shortly after the founding of the town by Juan Perez de Guevara late in the sixteenth century. This ownership means that the village is provided with a reasonably wide subsistence base without having to resort to extended trade networks beyond its own boundaries. As a community, the people of the valley have actively defended the integrity of their land base since the beginning of the seventeenth century. This land base is protected today by Uchucmarca's legal classification as a Peasant Community. It is protected not only against encroachments from surrounding haciendas and communities but also against the possible dangers that might arise from the sale of community property to persons who are not members. As in the case of Pusac, however, the community of Uchucmarca has not always been successful in maintaining the integrity of its land base. It should be pointed out, on the other hand, that the loss of some of the lands in Pusac occurred at a time when the lower valley was uninhabitable because of malaria. Several individuals who bought lands there were subsequently made members of the communal organization. On the level of the individual household the most important adaptive feature of the social organization is a flexible kinship system used as one of the primary mediums for establishing the reciprocal relationships that make up the subsistence strategies of the households. The kinship system is marked by bilaterality and a general flexibility in defining the status of kinsmen. As the final chapter pointed out, the majority of partners in reciprocal relationships such as sociedad are either affinal or consanguineal kinsmen. The bilaterality of the system as well as the use of both affines and consanguines mean that both natives and immigrants who marry within the village have numerous kinship relations that they can exploit. A person who may not have inherited land may acquire land directly or indirectly through affinal links. Kinship also provides a basis for establishing labor and exchange relationships. One of Λβ outstanding features of the kinship system in the village is that it provides a set of social relationships to which only a very few people in the village do not have access. As such, it is a very abundant social resource available to the entire community. Adapting to a Developing World These adaptations, which help set the pattern of life in Uchucmarca, are the successful results of the evolution of culture in the Andes. The origins of Andean culture in the hunting and gathering tribes that followed game down the spine of western South America have been obscured by three spectacular events of more recent history: the domestication of plants and animals

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and the development of an agro-pastoral economy, the rise of Andean political empires and civilizations, and the Spanish Conquest. The village economy of Uchucmarca is representative of the long tradition of a self-reliant peasantry, which provided the foundation for Andean civilization and some of the incentive for European conquerors. The impact of Andean civilizations and Spanish economic and cultural conquest on peasant village culture has been so vast that it is no longer possible or relevant to unravel modern culture in an effort to determine what is "native" and what is "foreign." "Native" and "foreign" elements were certainly present in the region long before the arrival of the Europeans, as were cultural, economic and political conquests. This can be seen in the struggles between the Chachapoyas peoples and the Inca Empire. From the vantage point of places like Uchucmarca, the Europeans happen to be the latest conquerors, albeit the most pervasive. The village economy has endured centuries of conquest, accompanied by cultural, economic, and political domination. Uchucmarca today seems a somewhat antiquated society that has adapted to and survived the rigors of conquest by foreign interests. In this perspective, the village may be thought of as a "developed" economy, resting on the foundation of several thousand years of prehistoric peasant culture and on four hundred years of adaptation to the European presence. By purely local standards, the historic process of adaptation has resulted in a stable economy that produces an adequate standard of living for the inhabitants of the valley. If we accept the formula proposed by some anthropologists (Sahlins 1972) that primitives and persons living in traditional subsistence economies have only limited needs and abundant means for producing those, it is possible to conceive of the village economy of Uchucmarca as both developed and relatively affluent. Local standards, however, no longer suffice for defining levels of development and affluence. Uchucmarca, like every other Andean village, exists not as an isolated microcosm, satisfied by fulfilling locally defined needs, but as a village looking outward to a modernizing nation in a nonsubsistence and nonpeasant world. "Development" is now measured by international standards. By national and international standards, Uchucmarca is still relatively isolated from larger economic systems. Moreover, it is underdeveloped by these standards. Very little cash is used in the village, and few goods move in or out of the local agro-pastoral economy. The village still lives with its heritage of subsistence and self-reliance, but the processes of adaptation that have developed the village economy to its present level continue to operate. These processes have always created change in the past and will continue to do so in the future. And the direction in which they are moving the village economy seems to be toward greater socio-economic participation in the larger economic systems that lie beyond the village. That is, Uchucmarca seems to be moving from a nonmonetized subsistence economy to a monetized, consumer one. Evidence for this movement is unmistakable in

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the village: the importation of luxury items such as galvanized tin roofs and beer as well as necessary ones such as iron tools, cloth and some food stuffs, the use of cash, the success of a couple of merchants, and the constant presence of cattle buyers. The processes of adaptation and change function in response to both internal and external pressures. Some of these are intrinsic in the past. Others are novel, creating new directions in the development of the economy of Uchucmarca. The pressures for change are offset, in part, by the inertia and traditional stability of a culture successfully adapted to its environment. Most Uchucmarquinos argue strenuously that their traditional agricultural methods are sound and better adapted to their needs and the conditions of the valley than imported ones relying on chemical fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, and the like. Nevertheless, the drift into dependent relationship with the market economy of Peru seems to be well established in Uchucmarca. The importance of livestock is a key factor here. Within the village, the pressures for economic integration and the end to the traditional subsistence economy come from two sources: rising expectations and growing population. "The revolution of rising expectations" occurring throughout the Third World has become a well-known, and perhaps overused ingredient to those writing about economic development. There is certainly no doubt that peasants living in typically "underdeveloped" villages like Uchucmarca are cognizant of and aspiring for a life with a higher material standard of living than can be afforded in their traditional subsistence economy. They are aware that their work sufficiently provides them with the basic necessities of life, especially food. On the other hand, they are also aware that many things taken for granted in more developed parts of Peru are inaccessible to them. Some of these are thought of as unnecessary frills to titilate the fancies of the upper class: television, automobiles, household appliances, and so forth. The lack of others, however, is felt keenly in the village. Leading the list here is good medical care, a road, and secondary education. Of lesser importance are things like electricity, manufactured clothes, cinema, and paved streets. The longing for medical care, a road, and secondary schooling for children is encountered over and again in conversations with Uchucmarquinos. They understand that it is impossible to separate the kinds of goods and services that designate a society or community as developed or undeveloped. Those people who can afford the luxuries of the upper class are also those with the best medical care, transportation, and education. The opposite, of course, holds equally true. It is nonsensical to harp about the wasted and unnecessary luxuries in which the developed societies and Peru's own upper class indulge. Uchucmarquinos understand that elegant automobiles and conspicuous consumption also mean a longer and healthier life and superior education for one's children. The question is how to obtain the latter with-

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out the wealth of the former. This question goes unanswered in Uchucmarca. Whether these or similar aspirations have been present but unfulfilled in Uchucmarca before the present is impossible to ascertain. Their contemporary sources are obvious. Uchucmarca is surrounded by a nation committed to the vague goal of "development." Peru, of course, shares this with the rest of South America and with most of the world, developed and undeveloped. The message of national politicians, economic planners, entrepreneurs, and others that economic advancement and growth out of the traditional subsistence level economy are unqualified benefits has penetrated into even the remotest valleys of the Andes. This has been accomplished by the tremendous strides in communication that have occurred in Peru and elsewhere: the construction of roads, the introduction of motorized traffic, the spread of radios, and the expansion of educational services into rural areas. The generation now providing the school masters in the village had to travel four to six days by horse to reach the nearest secondary school. In 1974, an unofficial secondary school was established in the village so that children would no longer have to travel the five or six hours required to reach one in a neighboring town. This secondary school became official in 1975. It is now possible to reach a branch of the national university in the town of Cajamarca within two days. The most obvious message reaching peasants in villages like Uchucmarca from a nation committed to development is that the traditional way of life is worth very little now and perhaps nothing in the future. A subsistence-oriented peasant is not only poor, uneducated, and backward, but he also is unlikely and perhaps even unable to fulfill his human destiny as a productive member of the nation. This prejudice against peasants and their traditional village culture clearly precedes the contemporary devotion to modernization and development, and it goes far back into the history of relations between urban and rural societies. In the peasants' own assessment of their lives, their poverty in material and consumer goods is felt, but the lack of recognition by the government bites far more deeply. This lack is symbolized by the failure of the government to provide a road, a secondary school, and decent medical services within the village. The reason behind this lack of recognition is understood to be the deprecation by an urban government of the very way of life embodied in village culture. The message of stepping out of backwardness and poverty falls on eager ears in places like Uchucmarca. They are fully aware that more of their mothers die in childbirth, that infant mortality is higher in their village, that they live a shorter life doing more tiresome work, and that their children stand little chance for living a different life. The message is that these things are not necessary conditions of life and that peasants can and should have

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higher expectations than their ancestors. Perhaps the potential for such expectations has always been present in peasant villages like Uchucmarca, but were never considered realistic hopes until the wielders of political, economic, and educational power adopted a devotion to development and modernization. Besides the social-psychological basis for change in rising expectations, another more concrete pressure within the village comes from the growth of the villages' population. In comparison to Peru in general and places like the coastal cities, Uchucmarca has a relatively stable population. The annual growth rate of 1.5 percent is attained, however, by the export of persons from a rapidly growing population. There can be little doubt that shutting off this emigration, and thereby forcing a rapid 3.2 percent per annum increase in the village's population, would have far-reaching effects on the pattern of village life. The village seems to have reached the limit of production of cereals in the lower valley with the existing technology. Virtually no cultivable land is left uncleared, and no fallow system exists there. If greater numbers of people, requiring more maize and wheat, lived in the valley, significant modifications in the production of these cereals would be required. Furthermore, greater pressure on the potato producing and pasture zones would be inevitable. These latter zones seem to be capable of absorbing many more fields and animals than the present population needs. There is no evidence to indicate that population drain away from the village will slow down or cease in the near future. The economic isolation, lack of medical services, educational opportunities, and alternative employment outside of farming are factors here along with the contradiction between a population with rising expectations and a conservative, impoverished village. Many people take it for granted that the expectations of a modernizing and developing nation cannot be satisfied in places like Uchucmarca. Emigration away from the village in some ways enables the village to continue in the traditional patterns of a subsistence economy. The lack of demographic pressure can be seen as an important stabilizing factor. In another sense, however, emigration tends to create its own pressures for change by setting up viable human links between families in the village and their kinsmen in cities. In emigrating from the valley to an urban center such as Lima, a person or family rarely if ever makes an absolute break with relatives who remain in the village. Rather, ongoing relationships continue, which bring the village and the outside world into closer contact. These relationships usually involve annual visits between the city and the village. New city dwellers return to their birthplace at fiesta time and to attend major family functions. Villagers send their children to study and live with relatives in the city. Prospective emigrants often make extended visits to relatives in the city. Besides people, goods, and money flow between the village

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and cities. Children who leave to attend schools in the cities usually pay their way partly with foodstuffs which they bring from their parents' fields. Several sons of the village have established themselves as livestock merchants between the village and the markets to the west. Finally, a number of elderly parents receive money from sons and daughters who have left. These bridges between the village and the urban, industrial sectors of Peru create conditions within the village that stimulate change away from the traditional pattern of life. They provide significant inputs of information concerning economic, political, and cultural trends and events outside of the valley. Residents who have temporarily left and then returned from urban centers frequently pressure the other villagers for change and "progress." They are often the people who hold office in the communal and municipal organizations of the village. In these positions, they exhort fellow villagers and the representative bodies of the village to press the government for improvements such as a new municipal building, better schools, an adequate water system, and even a road to the village. It is obvious that a clear distinction between internal pressures for change and external ones is impossible to draw. The rise in expectations and the population dynamics, which are in some sense internal to the village, can only be understood when the village is placed in a larger regional and national context. On balance, it seems that the pressures for change away from the traditional subsistence economy are generated more from outside the village than within. These pressures, on the other hand, must be channeled into the adaptive economic system of the village. Again let us emphasize that no traditional culture or economy is utterly static or changeless. Adaptation and change to a dynamic environment must be constant if the culture is to remain viable. What development and modernization concern themselves with is a certain level of change along certain dimensions. This level and these dimensions are always defined by people other than peasants living in villages like Uchucmarca. A great deal of pressure for change in the traditional village economy may be traced to the expanding commercial, market economy in the northern highlands of Peru, around Uchucmarca. One of the leading factors here is the region's importance as a livestock producing area. A second factor in the expansion of the commercial economy into the region of Uchucmarca is the fact that it lies on the rim of the upper Amazon Basin. Since the early 1960s Peru's leaders have seen this as a zone of tremendous agricultural potential and have opened two major highways into the zone north of Uchucmarca (Hegen 1966). One of these, linking Celendin to Chachapoyas through the Maranon Valley at Balsas, passes within 30 kilometers of the valley. The road to Pusac is a spur of this highway. The demand for livestock and the presence of roads, traffic, and commercial movement has brought the market economy of Peru past the door-

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step of the community. Although the isolation of the village economy before these developments was not total, Uchucmarca today is in more direct contact with larger economic systems than ever before. Subsequently, the pressures to integrate itself into the monetized, commercial economy of Peru are greater today than previously. The ability of Uchucmarca to achieve greater monetization and integration into regional, national, and even international economic systems is severely hampered by its geographic isolation and by the limited amount of land available for the production of high yielding cash crops such as sugar cane, coca, fruit, and cereals. Its distance from markets puts it in an uncompetitive position in relation to more centrally located farm areas whose cost of transportation is lower. Moreover, the cost of imported technology is raised in Uchucmarca by the cost of transportation. Finally, the economic infrastructure necessary to achieve dramatic increases in crop yields does not exist in Uchucmarca. Such things as credit services, agricultural extension agents, mechanics, and merchants specializing in agrochemicals are only found in two or three days travel from the village. Because of these transportation costs and the people's recognition that a road to the village is not a realistic expectation for the foreseeable future, most monetization and increased economic integration has taken the route of livestock raising and marketing. The village has extensive pastures that appear to be underutilized at present. Neighboring villages have begun to specialize in livestock to a much greater extent than Uchucmarca. The maintenance of Uchucmarca's herd now only requires roughly 10 percent of the labor available in the village. It is difficult to ascertain the impact of greater monetization and economic integration on the traditional culture and subsistence system of Uchucmarca. So far, the emphasis on livestock production as a way to earn cash has not been accomplished at the expense of subsistence crop production or by the destruction of traditional socio-economic relationships. The technology of subsistence production and the distribution of resources, goods, and services does not seem to be affected by more cattle and sheep grazing in the pastures above the crop zones. Certainly the integration of the peasants of Uchucmarca into the larger market and cash economies does not have the adverse ecological effect that similar integration of other traditional cultures has had in different parts of the world (Nietschmann 1972, 1973). The pressure to earn more cash has not been translated into importing agro-chemical technology or mechanization. Villagers report that monetary wage and exchange relationships have increased in recent years, but these still represent a minority of the transactions between households. If they do increase at the expense of more conventional socio-economic relationships, they may be destructive to the fabric of community life, which is now based

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on extended kinship relations. It is too early to predict that monetization will be so destructive. So the pressures for change away from the traditional, subsistence economy of the village toward the commercial, monetized economy of Peru surround Uchucmarca and its people. How effective these pressures will be and in what shapes change will take place is difficult to ascertain and probably impossible to predict with any accuracy. It seems inevitable that increased use of money and participation in the market economy beyond the community's boundaries will continue. The extent to which these will increase depends on the nature of agricultural demand, especially in livestock, on the west bank of the Maranon. Another factor here will be the ability of Uchucmarca's pastures to produce more livestock and of her fields to produce more cereals, tubers, and legumes. There is no present effort to artificially boost yields by importing agro-chemical technology and high-yielding seeds (Brush 1977a). Emigration away from the village is bound to continue at its present level; and with the increased educational level of its sons and daughters, Uchucmarca may lose even more population in the future. Immigration into the village seems to have slowed down. Haciendas on both sides of the Maraίϊόη have been through agrarian reform or reorganization, and fewer laborers will be pressured to leave for places like Uchucmarca. The free land that was once available throughout the Uchucmarca Valley has now been claimed and cultivated. The community seems to be less receptive to new immigrants now than it was a generation ago. The potential loss of population threatened by the slowing of immigration and the acceleration of emigration may retard potential economic growth in the village. Village leaders, perhaps in an effort to stem the tide of emigration, have made efforts to establish both a secondary school and a market in Uchucmarca. The former is now established, while the latter is under construction. How well either will function and whether they will hold people in the village is unknown. There seems to be no realistic hope that a road will be built to the village in the near future. If one is built, it will almost certainly mean an increase in commercial and market activity. It may also act as a drain, allowing easier exit from the village. If this does occur, my guess is that a livestock-oriented and dominated economy will replace the subsistence agropastoral economy now existing in Uchucmarca. The object of this book has been to examine the nature of the adaptations made by Andean peasants to their environment. This has been done by looking at their subsistence economy. The most important conclusion that has been drawn from this analysis is realizing the high degree of success achieved by both the peasant culture and the inhabitants of one village in coping with the difficulties of the Andean environment and the vagaries of Peruvian history. Their ability to cope in the past should make us hopeful for their future.

Appendix 1 Religious Celebrations The religious calendar of the village is marked by a number of special celebrations honoring local saints. These celebrations range from those almost purely religious in character to those that lean heavily toward secular expressions. This section will describe four village wide celebrations which are predominantly religious: Christmas, the Crosses of May, Holy Week, and San Juan Bauptista; and two that are predominatly secular: Carnival, and San Francisco. Christmas Christmas is celebrated by constructing a special nativity scene in front of the main altar in the church and decorating it with flowers and greens from the school gardens. This is done under the direction of a committee of women schoolteachers. Prayers are said on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day by two rezalones. From Christmas Eve until the Three Kings Day (Twelfth-night) a group of fifteen school children visit various houses to sing special Christmas verses. These are the pastoritas ("little shepherds"), who are trained by the treasurer of the image of the Christ child. They decorate themselves by sewing special figurine breads onto their sweaters and by covering their hats with wool. During the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services, these children present baskets of flowers to the nativity shrine in the church. Outside of the celebrations in the church, there is very little recognition of Christmas in private households. The Crosses of May The Crosses of May, or the Missionary Crosses, are honored on 9 May. There are five crosses that the village and individual households have placed in shrines and on altars on the hills surrounding the village. On 1 May these are brought to the village for the celebration. The largest, the Missionary Cross (La Misionera), is carried to the church and erected in front of the main altar. Another is taken to a chapel in one of the small nucleated settlements outside of the main village, while the other three are taken to shrines in individual households. Candles are kept burning for these crosses throughout the week, and special prayers are said by rezalones for them and 165

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the household with the shrine. On 9 May the large cross is taken on a procession through the village to the house of the tesorero for a special celebration. For each of these crosses, small fiestas are given for friends, neighbors, and kinsmen where specially brewed chicha (maize beer) and festive foods such as cuy (guinea pig) and chicken are served along with the more usual potatoes and cachangas (wheat cakes). Some people bake special breads in the shape of people or animals, which are attached to the cross and then sold for contributions toward decorating the cross and shrine with flowers, ribbons, and candles. They are redecorated with flowers, greens, and ribbons and returned to their places on the hill tops the following week. San Juan Bauptista (24 June) The nominal patron saint of Uchucmarca is San Juan Bauptista. (The official name of the town is San Juan Bauptista de Uchucmarca.) Until some twenty years ago, his day was the central fiesta in the religious calendar. The importance of his position was gradually supplanted by that of the Christ figure Nuestro Senor de los Milagros. It is claimed that San Juan was capricious in answering prayers and granting favors. It seemed that the harder one prayed to him, the more punishment he would mete out. For this he became known as the "castigating saint" (el castigador). Nuestro Senor de los Milagros, on the other hand, seemed more benevolent toward his supplicants. The celebration of San Juan Bauptista on 24 June begins with a series of nine nightly prayer services (novenas). On the day before the actual saint's day there is a dawn mass (Misa de Alvas) followed by a round of breakfasts given by people (alveros) who wish to show their devotion to the saint. The day itself is marked by a large procession behind the figure of San Juan. In some years, there are mayordomos who serve the saint by sponsoring a dance for him in their homes. The decline of San Juan has been marked, however, by a decline in the number of people who are willing to devote the time, material, and cash for such events. The celebration of San Juan Bauptista coincides with the national holiday in honor of the peasant (Dia del Campesino), which was formerly termed the Day of the Indian (Dia del Indio). To acknowledge this day, the communal organization holds a General Assembly and some type of social event. Speeches are read by the schoolteachers on the glory of the Inca in Peruvian history and on the need to join together in overcoming Peru's underdevelopment. Holy Week The Holy Week celebration involves a complex set of rituals as the most important event in traditional Catholic liturgy. Religiously, it marks the end of

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one ecclesiastical annual cycle and the start of the next. Throughout the week there are prayer services and candle lightings in the church. The focus of these are two images of Christ and one of the Virgin Mary. There are three major processions on Thursday and Friday lasting several hours and involving a significant number of both men and women. On Thursday and Friday nights, there are long and elaborate prayer and chanting services at which all five rezalones are present. The Friday night ritual is especially complex, symbolizing the removal of the body of Christ from the cross. This is done by six santos varones (holy men) in a long and carefully executed process involving the removal and blessing of the silver ornaments and satin robes of the image. The image is then lowered into a special litter that is lined with white satin. After this, the longest procession of the church year begins. It ends when the litter passes through a series of arches made from green branches to represent Calvary. There is virtually no secular celebration coinciding with this solemn religious event. A few mayoidomos for the ritual give breakfasts or lunches for invited guests. There are no dances or other social events which mark other events on the religious calendar. Many of the men remain in the village on at least one of the two important days of Holy Week, Thursday or Friday.

Secular Celebrations Carnival As in many other parts of Latin America, Carnival in Uchucmarca is the secular celebration marking the beginning of Lent. It is a week-long affair filled with rowdy play and with the normal eating, drinking, and dancing that characterize all fiestas. Groups of adolescent and younger boys and girls roam the streets with buckets of water and handfuls of flour and talc looking for likely targets to soak or powder. Much of this activity is confined to acknowledged participants in the play, but innocent passersby often get doused. This is especially true when the participants start throwing water off balconies onto the street below. This street play culminates when a couple of adolescent boys dressed as "Mr. and Mrs. Carnival" parade through the streets to the plaza where all of the players join in a large circle to dance to a small flute, drum, and harp band and to expend their last preLentian energy in a frenzy of water throwing. The Carnival ends on Jueves Tomaboda (honeymoon Thursday) while young boys and girls throw water in the streets, and many of the men occupy themselves with the serious job

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of getting drunk. One of these may lead his colleagues back to his house for a meal and a dance lasting until the next dawn. Carnival falls in the middle of the rainy season and is viewed by many as a welcome break from the mud, fog, and generally dreary climate.

San Francisco—Dia de las Pachacas, 4 October In the beginning of October, six households in the village prepare altars for images of San Francisco. One house takes the image of the saint from the church, and the others use private images. Chicha, bread and coffee are prepared for large numbers of visitors. During the night of 4 October, two groups of dancers make repeated visits to each altar in succession. They are accompanied by two other figures: the Capataz (strawboss), a mysterious figure cloaked in a black rain poncho; and the Brujo (witch) who carries a ball attached to a rope, which he uses to threaten noisy children and others in the audience who make any commotion. There are two large groups, the pachacas and the contradanzas. The former are men dressed as women, and latter are women dressed as men. All of them conceal their faces. The Capataz barks orders at the dancers in a garbled voice, behaving in the brutish manner of a slave driver toward the dancers. The dancers are accompanied by a flute and drum player. Forming two lines in front of the altar, they approach the saint several times as a group and as individuals while chanting special verses. The ritual in front of the altar always terminates with a vigorous huayno, the popular highland dance, to the delight of the spectators. Each of the groups must visit each of the six altars five times in the night. On their rounds between houses, they go to the church where they recite prayers and repeat their dance routine. Besides the pachacas and the contradanzas, there is a solitary figure, the Negro, wearing a black rain cape, who makes visits to the household altars of San Francisco. Like other participants in the ritual, his identity is hidden behind a mask and he is accompanied by a flute and drum player. In comparison to the seriousness of the rituals performed by the larger groups, the Negro's visit is marked by levity. Once the initial prayer is completed, he embarks on a series of exaggerated dance steps. He drinks with the musician and will often pull women from the audience to dance with him to the amusement of the spectators and the embarrassment of the women. Like the Capataz, who is the only other person who speaks during the ritual, the Negro garbles his voice to conceal his identity. While waiting for the visits from these three groups, the people who visit the altars are served coffee, chicha, and bread. It is a rather gay occa-

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sion for all but the dancers who must dance vigorously under the brutal treatment of the Capataz. Toward the end of the night, they begin to show definite signs of stress and fatigue. It is reported that the participants in the ritual of San Francisco are doing penance. The actors take part in the dances for a period of five years, concealing their identity from the rest of the village. Many people remark how difficult this particular penance must be. One account of this fiesta is that the souls from the village graveyard visit the church on the night of 4 October. If the dancers in the ritual fail to finish their appointed rounds before the souls arrive in the church, one of the dancers is bound to die during the following year.

Appendix 2 Potato Varieties The Central Andes is the area of the original domestication of the potato. Like other crops found in the areas of their original domestication, the potato exhibits considerable variation in the Andes. The niunlier of varieties is increased by the presence of wild potatos, which are constantly cross pollinating with the domestic varieties. As Ugent (1970: 1161) notes, the evidence now at hand...indicates that much wild germ plasm has been, and probably continues to be, introduced into both diploid anc. tetraploid ^»pulations of Solanum tuberosum through hybridization and introgression, and that hybridization has also played an important role in the origin of potatofield weed species as well as in the origin of the cultivated potato itself. As Ugent goes on to point out, there is considerable confusion and difference of opinion concerning the l>otanical classification of the cultivated species of the tuber. Arguments have been made for classifications that include as few as one and as many as twenty cultivated species. All of these can, however, l>e divided into four categories depending on the number of complete chromosome sets present in their somatic cells. These categories are diploid (two sets), triploid (three sets), tetraploid (four sets), and pentaploid (five sets). Out of this comes a tremendous number of subspecies varieties. Ugent (1970: 1162) says that there are "well over 400 indigenously named eultivars [or varieties] of the common potato." Agronomists working in the International Potato Institute at the UniversuUid National Agraria, La Molina, suggest that this number may indeed l>e far greater. Dr. James Bryan (personal communication) suggests that the numl>er of indigenous varieties may actually exceed 2,000. The importance of this great diversity in the stability of the Andean potato production has l>een recognized by various scholars. Ugent (1970: 1165) notes that, since gene exchange between wild and cultivated potato populations frequently results in increased cultivar diversity, disease resistance, and adaptability to climatic changes, it is vital to the perpetuation of the Andean potato. Homogeneous, or uniform potato field populations are extremely vulnerable to destruction by disease and other natural causes. In ecological terms, litis argues that, "the great vigor of these populations speaks for real evolutionary strength in diversity. Heterogeneous potato

170

Appendix

2

171

fields are in effect a "homeostatic system" in which the loss of one or several genotypes to natural selection affects but just a small proportion of the population" (Ugent: 1970: 1165). The people of Uchucmarca identify roughly thirty-five varieties of potato. It is possible that some of the peasants produce all of these in their chacras. Most villagers seem to be able to pull out somewhat over twentyfive varieties from the potato storage piles in the lofts above their houses. There are several characteristics that they use to distinguish one potato from another. These include shape, color of skin, relative number of eyes, color of meal inside, texture of the meal (e.g., whether it is dry or moist), cooking properties (fast or slow cooking), length of growing season, at what altitude it grows best, resistance to frost and late blight (rancha or ranclia negro), and storage properties. The following is a list of some of the different varieties found in Uchucmarca accompanied by some of the characteristics given by an Uchucmarquino. La Banda:

grows well in a cold climate; thin skin banded in with black and white; slow cooking; high yield but not resistant to frost or blight; shaped like a long avocado.

La Cajamarca:

black skin; white eyes; fast growing; not resistant to frost or blight; grows well in cold and temperate climates

Cajamarca blanca:

colored skin; white eyes; otherwise same as Cajamarca variety

Camotilla:

similar to sweet potato; pink color; grows in both cold and temperate climate; fast developing; not resistant to blight or frost; good for making chicha.

Chapina:

completely purple (skin and meal); very flavorful; medicinal properties when eaten raw; thin slices placed on forehead relieve headache.

Chaucha:

very fast growing: three - four months; yellow color; no eyes; harinosa (floury); does well in cold temperate climates; long shape; medium size; low yield

Chaucha negra:

black skin; very harinosa

Chaucha pintada:

spotted skin

Clavenilla:

purple skin; meal is both purple and white; not resistant to frost or blight; grows well in cold and temperate climates; fast cooking.

Conda:

very fast growing; white eyes; dark skin; yellow meal; grows anywhere; very harinosa; round and elongated shape.

172 Corashona:

large, elongated shape; black skin; thin skin; grows well in cold climate; not resistant to frost or blight; needs fertilized soil; not harinosa.

Cuterva:

many eyes; purple slan; cold climate preferred; ronnd shape; very harinosa·, easy cooking; fast growing; high yield; not resistant to blight or frost.

Gincha:

purple skin; white meal; harinosa (the more purple the skin the more harinosa)·, resistant to frost or blight; grows in all climates; round tuber.

La Lima:

many eyes; very thin skin; white color; slightly rounded; grows well in cold climate; fast developing; very rich flavor ("like getting to know Lima for the first time").

Quecilla:

white skin; flat-round shape; large tubers; no eyes; needs very fertile soil; very harinosa and flavorful

Renacimiento:

same as Sapa variety; very large tuber; resistant to blight and frost; little flavor

Runda:

egg shaped, white color; no eyes

IJL Sapa:

resistant to frost; very thick skin; white color; slow growing; grows well in both cold and temperate climates; slow cooking; Iuirinosa; large, flat shape

Shacuca:

very flavorful; similar to la Lima; slightly elongated; grows well in both cold and temperate climates; fast developing

Toronuido:

spotted skin (purple and white); large, egg shaped tuber; white meal; no eyes; not resistant to frost or Wight; grows well in cold climate.

Ulka:

long shape; no eyes; white skin; large tuber; grows everywhere

Zorilla:

white and black skin ("painted"); bland flavor; round and somewhat elongated shape; does well in coldest climate; not resistant to frost or blight; low yield

G e t t i n g a c q u a i n t e d with these varieties c a n b e a pleasant

adventure

for one w h o has g r o w n up knowing only a few varieties of potato. T h e people in U c h u c r n a r c a enjoy sitting a r o u n d a large lx>wl of p o t a t o e s and describing t h e pros and c o n s of e a c h variety. T h e y look at t h e p o t a t o from the standpoints of p r o d u c e r s , marketers, a n d c o n s u m e r s . S o m e varieties a r c avidly saved from sale outside of t h e village b e c a u s e they a r e too tasty. T h e quality w h i c h is especially a p p r e c i a t e d is w h e n t h e p o t a t o has a dry, flakv, or " m e a l y " consistency d e s c r i b e d as harinosa pecially the large a n d m o r e harinosa

( " f l o u r y " ) . S o m e potatoes, es-

varieties, a r e kept out for special o c c a -

sions or for gift items. Gift p o t a t o e s a r e referred t o as cuaras

and these a r e

customarily given to helpers in t h e harvest as an e x t r a lienefit lievond the regular p a y m e n t in potatoes. T h e nuiras

that a helper finds himself c a n l>e

Appendix

2

173

kept hv him. Potatoes grown in land that has l>een fertilized bv sheep are usuallv not lumnosa. The highest cluwras are considered to produce the finest tubers. The universal preparation of the potato is by lioiling it. Skins may Ik· left on or peeled. When they are peeled, they are often steamed under calv liage leaves. Boiled potatoes are eaten as is or with ground chili peppers. Secondary preparations include frying and drying. Partially cooked potatoes are skewered onto sticks or placed in a loose basket to be dried in the sun. These are then ground into flour and added to soups. Unlike the southern Andes of Peru, especially the altiplano area, the people of Uchucmarca do not freeze-dry their potatoes into chuno. A combination of heavy rainfall and irregular frost conditions do not favor its production. Consequently, none of the bitter tubers for making chuho are grown in Uchucmarca.

Appendix 3 Food Yields from Uehuemarea Agriculture

Based on gross production figures, f o x I outputs per man-day and jx-r hectare may l>e calculated and then translated into nutritional vields (calories and grains of protein). In this way, an approximation of the nutritional status of the community may lx' achieved. Mv field work did not include statistical or clinical attempts to measure nutrition and health-related factors. This data, however, is comparable to that gathered bv scientific teams in Peru (see footnote 6, Chapter 5). T h e figures in the following analysis c o m e from a sample survey of forty-two households in which lalx>r inputs, vields. and field sizes were given in interview situations. T h e s e figures were corrolx>rated by on-site inspection and measurement of selected cases. In Table 15. outputs in terms of kilograms of crops prcxluced per manday and jx-r hectare are presented. TABLE 15 Outputs per Man-Day and per Hectare Kilograms of Crops Harvested Crop Potato Maize Beans' Wheat

KG/Man-day 28.8 6.5 2.0 34.7

KG/

Crop

Hectare 269.3 609 95 2217

KG/Man-day

KG/Hectare

23.3 35.8 8.6 16.3

2073 2228 830 235

Field peas Barley Ocas Broad beans

* Red kidney beans are grown simultaneously with maize in the same chacra. Labor inputs for maize included inputs for beans. In the following analysis food values for maize and beans will be lumped together.

T h e gross outputs recorded in T a b l e 15 give an indication of the general outputs per hectare for Uchucmarca's agriculture. Another and more specific indication of the productivity of the crop production of the village is to look at the nutritional yields of the system. I have done this in T a b l e 17 for !x>th calories and proteins per man-dav input as well as for per hectare. T h e food values were taken from tables compiled for food produced in Peru analyzed by a Peruvian team for the Ministry of Health (Collazos, et al. 1960). 174

Apfxiulix

3

175

Tliese values are given in Table 16 in calories and grams of protein per 1(M) grams of food. These are applied to the yields in Table 17. TABLE 16 Nutritional Values for Crops — Calories and Protein (taken from Collazos et al. I960)

Crop

Calories per 100 gm.

Potatoes Maize Beans Wheat

100 363 332 374

Cms. Protein per 100 gm.

Crop

Calories per 100 gms.

Field peas Barley Ocas Broad beans

2.0 6.7 19.2 10.5

349 345 62 336

Cms Protein per 100 gm. 21.7 7.0 1.1 24.4

The average hectare produces some 5,326,835 calories and 223,735 grams of protein in one year. On the average, one man-day of labor input yields 64,499 calories and 2,361 grams of protein. The consumption of both calories and protein is, of course, spread out over a much larger population than merely those who are doing the work. We must also remember, as was pointed out in Chapter 8, the TABLE 17 Nutritional Outputs per Man-Day and per Hectare in Terms of Calories and Crams of Protein

Calories Crop Potatoes Maize- beans Wheat Field peas Barley Ocas Broad beans

per Man-Day 28,849 27,207 130,063 81,875 123,436 5,345 54,720

Gms. Protein

per

Hectare

2,693,093 2,519,074 8,282,165 7,275,154 7,714,731 504,432 8,299,200

per

Man-Day 577 635 3,651 5,091 2,504 95 3,974

per

Hectare

53,862 59,251 232,521 452,350 156,531 8,950 602,680

average head of household spends only 58 percent of his time in agriculture and actually only 51 percent in direct cropping activities. The yields from this lal)or must then I * amortized over the remaining time as well as being spread throughout a larger population. As a final gauge of the performance of the agricultural subsistence activities, one might look at the amount of calories and proteins provided to the sample population by this production. It must be stressed that these figures reflect only the amount of calories and

176

Appi'iulix 3

protein available to the population and that they do not indicate the actual use of these based on nutritional observations or other indications of dietarv standards. In order to calculate the amount of calories and protein available to the sample population from cultivation, it is necessary to figure the size of the consuming population and the amount of food available after the costs of production to sharecropper/owners and to field lalxjr have teen deducted. In the forty-eight households surveyed, there are 244 individuals. Twenty-nine of these are children two years old or younger, and they have l>een eliminated from the calculations since they are usually still nursing for the main part of their food. This leaves 2 1 5 individuals who are counted as full consumers. In calculating the amount of food available through cropping, we start with the total amount of food harvested and then deduct from this the amount of food which is paid out of field labor, usually at the time of harvest, as well as the amount of the harvest that is paid to either a sharecropper or an owner of a plot which has been sharecropped who are not part of the sample. T h e total number of calories available per capita per day from cultivation is 2,705, and 8 0 grams of protein are available. It is important to rememl)er that these figures represent an aggregate of a numlier of households and are not based on specific consumption patterns. As an aggregate, they indicate that the nutritional level in lx>th caloric intake and proteins is potentially quite satisfactory. Within the aggregate, however, there may l>e significant variation in available calories and protein according to the land and la!x)r available to the particular household. It must also l>e pointed out that the protein available here is vegetable and may not have the quality of animal protein. Whereas these figures reflect nutrients gained from cultivated food, the people do occasionally supplement their diet with meat such as mutton, guinea pig, pork, and, on rare occasions, chicken or l>eef. Beef and mutton are salted and dried into charqui. Cattle are seldom slaughtered, but lieef becomes available when a cow or steer dies accidentally by falling off a cliff. During the rainy months, trout are frequently caught in the streams and lakes of the valley. Dried mackerel from the coast can lie purchased from one of the village's small merchants. In general, meat is consumed in only limited amounts, and it is rarely a major part of a meal. One of the most important features of a fiesta is the serving of meat. On nonfiesta days, only small pieces of meat are served to garnish the staples of wheat, potatoes, and maize. Table 18 summarizes the contributions of the major crops to the available calories and proteins. Both the number of calories and proteins as well as their relative percentages are given. From the foregoing analysis the importance of wheat to the economy

Appendix

3

111

and nutrition of Uchucmarca is clear. Its importance in terms of nutritional yields is especially clear in Table 18. Whereas wheat does not predominate in terms of acreage or labor inputs, its high nutritional value pushes it to the fore in yield of calories and proteins. The relatively low lalwr inputs into wheat reflect the fact that no weeding is carried out during its growing cycle. The impact of weeding in increasing labor inputs per hectare can lie clearly seen in Table 7 (Chapter 6). In looking at the relative nutritional yields per hectare and per manday labor input, one may logically wonder why the highest yielding crops such as wheat, field peas, and broad beans are not expanded. Given the high TABLE 18 Contributions of Crops to Available Calories and Proteins Per Day

Crop

Number

Potatoes Maize Beans Wheat Field peas Barley Ocas Broad beans

411 257 35 1,314 246 377 11 61

Total

2,705

Calories % of Total 15.7 9.7 1.5 47.2 9.2 13.9 0.6 2.4

Proteins Number-gms. % of Total 8.3 4.8 2.0 37.3 15.4 7.6 0.3 4.3

10.4 6.0 2.5 46.6 19.3 9.5 0.3 5.4

80.0

employment rate, such an expansion would mean that other, less productive crops would have to be curtailed. One apparent reason why the production of these crops is not expanded is that they are cultivated in rather narrow ecological niches in the Uchucmarca Valley, and there is little or no area for them to expand within these niches. For wheat, the threat of drought in the lower parts of the valley is constant enough to discourage cultivation. Remains of fields in the lower kichtva ftierte zone (below 1,800 meters) testify to the efforts to expand wheat cultivation. Wheat cultivation extends up to roughly 2,750 meters. Threats of frost, and of weeds and blight (ranclui) from excessive moisture above that line mean that wheat cultivation cannot be pushed into the upper zones. The people also recognize that if wheat is cultivated above the kichtva zone, its gluten content drops to the point where it does not bake properly. Field peas and broad beans suffer from similar restrictions. Field peas have one of the narrowest niches in the valley. Below 2,400 meters the dried

178

ApfK'ndix J

peas become too hard to cook; while alx>ve 3,(XX) meters they are too susceptible to frost and blight. Broad lieans are more resistant to the threats of frost and blight in the high altitudes, but the extremely high lalxjr inputs required to produce them (see Table 7) discourage manv people from extending their cultivation. Perhaps the clearest recognition by the people of Uchucmarca of the importance of wheat is during its harvest. The facrui is the most festive event of the agricultural year. For many, it marks the culmination of the year. With the faeruis there is seasonal migration to the wheat-producing areas. The faeruis place in marking the end of the agricultural year is reinforced by the fact that the most important religious and secular event in Uchucmarca's year, the fiesta for Nuestro Senor de los Milagros, follows close on the heels of the last faeruis. Those persons who have not completed the wheat harvest by the end of August usually hurry to do so lx;fore September 14, the principal day of the fiesta.

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Index Acosta, Padre Jose de, 42, 179 Action-sets, 148-52 passim. Adaptation, 16, 17, 18, 19, 153, 154, 159; demographic, 154-55; technological, 155-56; socio-economic, 156-58 Affines, 137, 138, 144, 147, 148, 157 Agrarian reform, 35, 164 Agricultural calendar, 99-101 Agrochemicals, 91, 97, 163, 164 Aguirre Beltran, Gonzalo, 4n, 179 Alberti, Giorgio and Enrique Mayer, 104η, 179 Alcalde. See Mayor Alcohol. See Arguardiente Alegria, Ciro, 22 Alpaca, 9, 72 Alttphno, 5, 73, 83, 173 Alvarado, Alonso de, 48, 49 Amazon Basin, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 162 Amazonas, Department of, xiii, 22, 35 Ambulante, 146 Ancash, Department of, xiii, 13 Andes: ethnohistory, 8-9; micro-climates, 5; population, 9n; rainfall, 4, 5; zonation, 5, 9-16. See also Verticality Anthopology: ecological, 16, 17; economic, 17, 124, 153. See also Cultural ecology Arguardiente (alcohol), 59, 92, 106, 107, 133 Archipelago, vertical, 8, 11-13 Aronson, Dan R., 149, 179 Atahualpa, 47 AyUu, 41, 43, 44, 45, 51

Bandelier, Adolf, 42n, 179 Barbecho (plowing), 93, 94 Barley, 51, 78, 88, 94, 95, 99, 113, 141, 143, 145, 146, 156 Barnes, John Α., 149, 179 Barraclough, Solon, 7n, 179 Barrios, 43, 45 Beans, 78, 93, 94, 95, 113, 141 Bennett, John W., 17, 180 Bohannon, Paul, 110, 180 Bolivar: Province of, 42, 46; town of, 28, 31, 35, 37, 45, 46, 141, 142, 145. See also Cajamarquilla Bowman, Isaiah, 4, 4n, 5, 8, 180 Broad beans, 51, 79, 95, 113, 146, 177 Burchard, Roderick, 9n, 11, 180 Cacao, 74

Cacique, 43, 47, 48, 49, 52, 85, 141, 144 Cajamarca, 22, 24, 47, 50, 82, 141, 160; Department of, 35 Cajamarquilla, 42, 45, 47, 51, 53. See also Bolivar Calories, 78n, 86, 156, 175-77 Canje, 112, 133, 150. See also Exchange Carnival, 167-68 Cash, use of, 79, 87, 90, 91, 92, 97, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114-15, 133, 140, 141, 142, 145, 150, 152, 156, 158, 159, 163, 164, 166 Cattle, 31, 72, 79, 91, 111, 115-16, 129, 142, 143, 144, 145, 154, 156, 176 193

194 Celendin, 22, 24, 26, 35, 37, 46, 111, 146, 162 Ceja de montana, 31, 70, 73, 79 Chachapoyas: ethnic group, 41-44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 158; town of, 22, 46, 49, 162 Chacma, 50, 93, 94, 99, 106, 127, 135 Chayanov, Α. V., 122n, 124-25, 180 Cheung, Steven, 87n, 180 Chicha (maize beer), 10, 67, 166 Children, labor of, 129, 136 Chile peppers (α/ι), 10, 29, 74 Chimu, 41, 42 Christmas, 165 Chroniclers, 42. See also Acosta; Cieza de Leon; Garcilaso de la Vega; Sarmiento de Gamboa; Vazquez de Espinosa Chuho, 18, 83, 173 Chuquibamba, 35, 37, 62, 144 Church, 26, 64, 66. See also Fiestas; Priest; Religious organization; Rezalones; Saints Cieza de Leon, Pedro, 42, 46, 52 Coca, 10, 13, 15, 35, 37, 59, 63, 74, 80, 92, 106, 107, 133, 163 Cochabamba, 46, 47, 48 Collazos, Carlos, 86n, 181 Cofradia, 66 Colonial period, 52, 53, 54, 62. See also Conquest, Spanish Compadrazgo (ritualized coparenthood), 65, 66, 67, 138, 138n, 147, 148, 148n Conflict, intercommunity, 61-63 Conklin, Harold C., 93n, 181 Conquest, Spanish, 15, 30, 41, 42, 4 6 48, 49, 51, 53, 63, 83, 154, 156, 158 Consanguines, 138, 148, 157 Criollo culture, 7, 7n Crafts, 128, 135, 156

Index Crop: limits, 80-82; rotation, 99; zones, 9, 72, 80-82, 88, 90. See also Andes; Ceja de montana, Jalka; Jalka fuerte; Kichwa; Kichwa fuerte; Montana; Templado; Temple·, Zonation Crosses of May, Celebration, 165-66 Cuelape, 43-44, 47, 49 Cultural ecology, 16, 153. See also Anthropology, ecological Curaca, 43 Cuyes (guinea pigs), 29, 78, 166 Custred, Glynn, 9n, 15, 181 Cuzco, 14, 15, 46, 47, 82, 83 Dalton, George, 18n, 181 Decision making, 19. See also Strategies, Subsistence Depopulation, 9n, 51 Development, economic, 157-64 passim. Diet, 115, 115n. See also Calories; Proteins Dobyns, Henry, 9n, 181; and Väsquez, 33n, 181 Drought, 77, 84, 99, 177 Dumont, Rene, 87n, 181 Dyer, Donald, 82, 182 Dykstra, Theodore, 98n, 182 Eckaus, R. S., 122, 182 Education, 159, 161. See also Schools Emigrants, 32-33, 57, 141, 144, 146, 155, 161, 162, 164 Employment, in Uchumarca, 126-32 Encomienda, 49 Environment, effective, 17; mountain, 17-18 Environmental gradient, 5, 11, 13 Epstein, A. L., 149, 182 Erosion, 72; control of, 97-99 Escobar, Gabriel, 78n, 182

195

Index Espinoza Soriano, Waldemar, 42, 42n, 43, 44, 46, 47, 53, 182 Ethnogeography, 10, 73-74, 155. See also Crop zones Exchange, 91, 10&-14, 133, 138, 140, 150, 151, 156; rates, 110-13; spheres of, 110. See also Labor; Reciprocal exchange; Reciprocity Extramarital relationships, 136-37 Faena, 51, 78, 78n, 133, 178 Fallow, 93, 98, 99, 161 Family: compounds, 29-30; extended, 30, 134-35, 139-40, 155; nuclear, 29, 31. See also Household, nuclear Feder, Ernest, 7n, 182 Fields: fertilization of, 94, 98; rotation of, 79, 93; surveillance of, 9596, 127 Field peas, 51, 78, 84, 88, 94, 95, 99, 107, 113, 141, 145, 156, 177 Fiestas: religious, 65-68, 101, 150, 165-67; secular, 67-68, 101, 150, 167-69. See also Faena Firewood, 73, 77, 77n, 80, 113, 119, 128, 135 Fittkau, E. J., 4, 182 Fonseca Martel, Cesar, 9n, 11, 110, 182 Ford, Thomas, 4n, 182 Forest 72, 73 Foster, George, 50, 149, 183 Frelich, Morris, 21, 183 Frost, 70, 72, 84, 171, 172, 178 Fuenzalida, Fernando, 54n, 83, 107, 183 Gade, Daniel, 4, 4n, 14, 15, 18, 35, 80, 95η, 183 Garcilaso do la Vega, Inca, 42, 45, 46, 183 Gillin, John, 138n, 183

Governor, 60 Guardia Civil, 27, 60, 61 Gulliver, P. H„ 149, 183 Gursky, Martin, 86n, 183 Hacienda, 7, 7n, 35, 37, 52, 62, 63, 85, 142, 157, 164 Handleman, Howard, 35n, 183 Harris, Marvin, 7n, 16n, 183 Harvest, 66, 78, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 106, 107, 111, 112, 114, 127, 140, 145, 155, 176 Hazards, crop, 82, 177. See also Risk reduction Hedgerows, 98 Hegen, Edmund Ε., 22n, 162, 184 Hemming, John 43, 47, 49η, 184 Herders, 114, 129, 143, 154, 155, 156 Hobsbawm, Eric, 7n, 37, 184 Holdridge, L., 6 Holmberg, Allan, 7n, 184; and Mario Vasquez 51, 191 Holy Week, 166-67 Homans, George, 112, 184 Household: nuclear, 134-37, 139; second, 136, 137. See also Family, nuclear Huallaga River, 9n, 11, 13, 30, 42, 70 Huanuco, Department of, xiii, 9n, 11, 30, 42 Huascar, 47 Huasheo, 50, 105, 133, 140, 143, 145, 150. See also Labor; Reciprocal exchange of Huayna Capac, 46 Hunting, 79 Hymer, Stephen and Stephen Resnick, 119n, 184 Ichu grass (Stipa ichu), 72, 73 Immigrants, 33-37, 39, 57-58, 85,

196 138, 141, 142, 144, 145, 155, 157, 164 Inca: Empire, 41, 44, 45-46, 47, 51, 83, 154, 158; highway, 46 Indian culture, 50-53, 106 Indigenous Community (Comunidad de Indigenes), 53, 54^55, 61, 143. See also Peasant Community Inflation, 111 Inheritance of land, 84, 85, 143, 145, 157 Irrigation, 62, 70, 74, 77 Isolation, 40, 52, 158, 161, 163 Jalka zone, 5, 9, 13, 14, 78-79, 82, 83, 88, 94, 97, 99, 114, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 154 Jalka fuerte zone, 79, 84, 114 James, Preston, 4, 184 Jequetepeque Valley, 22 Jimenez de la Espada, Don Marcos, 43, 48, 184 Jomal, 105, 106, 107, 127, 133, 141 Judicial system, 60-61 Kao, Charles, K. Anschel and C. Eicher, 121, 184 Keith, Robert, 7n, 184 Kichwa zone, 10, 13, 14, 77-78, 82, 83, 84, 97, 99, 141, 142, 145, 146, 154, 155, 177 Kichwa fuerte zone, 77, 99, 155, 177 Labor: as payment, 92-93; demand, 120; division of, 135-36; efficiency, 119-20, 124, 126; inputs, 95, 96-97, 119, 120, 127-32 passim., 177; intensity, 119, 124, 125, 126; reciprocal exchange of, 91, 104-5, 106; shortage of, 87, 99, 104, 107, 120, 144 Lake Titicaca, 83 La Libertad, Department of, 40 Land: average holding, 86, 114; dis-

Index putes, 62-63; distribution of, 58, 84, 85-86; rent, 84, 88; shortage of, 57, 74, 77, 78, 143, 155; tenure, 58, 73, 74, 77, 78, 79, 83-84, 122. See also Sociedad Landslide, danger of, 33 Latifundia. See Hacienda Leibenstein, Harvey, 122, 184 Leisure, 121 Lewis, W. Arthur, 122, 185 Life zones: concept, 6, 6n; of Uchucmarca Valley, 70-73 Livestock, 57, 79, 112, 115-116, 128, 129, 156, 159, 162, 163, 164. See also Cattle; Sheep Llama, 9, 72, 83 Llamellin, xiii Llapa, 113 Lockhart, James, 7n, 49n, 185 Lumbreras, Luis, 4In, 185 Luxury goods, 159 Mail, 28 Maize, 10, 77, 78, 83, 84, 88, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 107, 110, 111, 112, 113, 136, 141, 143, 146, 156, 161 Malaria, 35, 57n, 62, 74, 157 Malefijt, Annemarie, 16n, 185 Manco Inca, 47 Marginal productivity, 118, 122, 123 Maranon River, xiii, 2, 9n.6, 11, 22, 24, 26, 30-31, 35, 37, 42, 42n, 45, 62, 63, 70, 77, 79, 109, 144, 156, 162, 164 Mariategui, Carlos, 55 Market, 6, 7, 15, 16, 67, 97, 109, 110, 111, 129, 146, 156, 159, 162, 163, 164 Marriage, 136-139 Martinez, Hector, 4n, 58, 185 Martinez-Alier, Juan, 87n, 185 Matos Mar, Jose and Rogger Ravines, 4n, 185

Index Mauss, Marcel, 112, 185 Mayer, Adrian, 149-151 passim., 185 Mayer, Enrique, 9n, 11, 110, 185-86 Mayor, 59-60 Mazess, Richard and Paul Baker, 86n, 186 Meat, 116, 176 Meggers, Betty J., 93n, 186 Mellor, John, 122, 186; and R.D. Stevens, 121n, 186 Mendizabal, Emilio, 78n, 186 Mestizo culture, 50-53 Metraux, Alfred, 61, 186 Migration, 11, 13, 16, 32-39, 85, 155; seasonal, 96, 104, 127, 155, 178. See also Emigrants; Immigrants Miller, Soloman, 7n, 186 Mills, 31, 141; sugar cane, 74, 77 Milstead, Harvey, 2, 186 Minga, 50, 105, 107, 127, 133, 150 Minifundia, 85, 86 Mintz, Sidney and Eric Wolf, 65, 138n, 147, 186 Mitimaes, 43, 46, 50 Modernization. See Development Moeity. See Barrio Money. See Cash Montana, 10, 11, 13, 51 Μοηζόη, 13 Moon, in agricultural calendar, 99, 102-3 Morner, Magnus, 7n, 186 Mujumdar, Ν. Α., 121n, 186 Municipal organization, 52, 59-61 Murra, John, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 40, 42n, 45, 83, 186-87 Myint, H, 123, 187 Myrdal, Gunnar, 123, 124, 132, 187 Neighborhoods, 29-30, 134-35, 155 Network analysis, 149 Nietschmann, Bernard, 163, 187

197 Nuestro Seiior de los Milagros, 64, 65, 66-68, 166, 178 Nurske, Ragnar, 122, 187 Nutrition, 174-78 passim. See also Calories; Protein Oca, 9, 79, 88, 94, 99, 142, 143 O'Leary, Timothy, 4n, 187 Orlove, Benjamin, 9n, 187 Oxen, 87, 91, 92-93, 94, 98, 104, 145 Pachacas, celebration, 168-69 Paramo, 5, 70, 72, 73, 79 Pasco, Department of, 11 Patch, Richard, 7n, 102, 103, 187 Peasant Community of Uchucmarca, 19, 52, 54-59, 63, 70, 83, 84, 85, 142, 150, 155, 157; Executive Committee, 55-56, 58, 61, 84, 144, 146; General Assembly, 56, 166; income, 59; membership, 5658, 62; obligations of members, 5859; Vigilance Committee, 55 Peattie, Roderick, 9n, 10, 187 Peons, 87, 106, 141, 147. See also Wages; Minga; Journal Pepelasis, A. and P.A. Yotopoulos, 121n, 188 Perez de Guevara, Juan, 27, 50, 52, 157 Peru: geography, 2-4, 6-7; macroclimates 4-6; National Government 40, 55, 59 Plantains, 74 Political organization, 51, 52, 63. See also Peasant Community of Uchucmarca; Municipal organization Population, 32, 39, 57, 72, 155, 161, 164 Potato, 10, 18, 57, 66, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 88, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 127, 135, 136, 141, 142, 143,

198 145, 146, 154, 156, 161, 170-73, 177; late blight of 74, 171, 172, 177, 178 Priests, 64, 66 Production, crop, 174-75 Proteins, 78, 78n, 86, 156, 175-77 Pulgar Vidal, J., 4n, 6, 188 Puna, 5, 9, 79 Pusac, 15, 24, 31, 32, 33, 35, 62-63, 109, 129, 141, 157 Q'ero, 11 Quasi-group, 149 Quechua, 50, 51, 52 Rainfall, 70, 72, 73, 79, 99, 112 Rapayan, 11, 13 Ravines, Rogger, xiii, 42, 188 Reciprocity, 8, 50, 91, 105, 109, 112, 113, 133, 135, 140, 145, 147, 14852 passim., 155, 156, 157. See also Labor; Reciprocal exchange of Reduction, 8, 49, 54, 83 Religious organization, 63-68; officers, 64, 66, 67 Republican period, 52, 53 Residence, 134, 155 Resources. See Land; Labor Rezalones, 65, 167 Risk, reduction of, 95, 98, 103, 127 Road, 160, 162, 163 Rosenstein - Rodan, P.N., 121, 121n, 188 Rowe, John H., 41, 188 Sahlins, Marshall, 16n, 18n, 105, 111, 112, 124, 125-26, 135, 158, 188 Saints, 64-68, 101. See also Nuestro Senor de los Milagros; San Francisco; San Juan Bauptista San Francisco, 168-69 San Juan Bauptista, 166

Index Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro, 42, 46, 188 Sauer, Carl, 4, 83, 188 Savoy, Gene, 43, 188 Schjellerup, Inge, 49, 61n, 188 Schools, 160, 162, 164 Schoolteachers, 87, 106, 114, 141, 143 Schultz, Theodore, 123, 124, 188-89 Seasons, 4 Seed, 91, 94, 99, 104 Sen, Amartya Κ., 122n, 189 Serrano Culture, 7, 7n Sharecropping, 58, 78, 84, 86-90, 101, 176. See also Sociedad Sheep, 72, 79, 94, 98, 110, 115-16, 142, 143, 154 Simmons, Ozzie, 7n, 189 Smith, C. T„ 51, 189 Slash and burn cultivation (Rozo), 93, 93n.l Sociedad, 87, 133, 140^52 passim. 156, 157. See also Sharecropping Soils, 70, 72, 73 Specialization, 128-29 Stein, William, 7n, 50, 60n, 133, 189 Steward, Julian, 16, 189 Store, 144 Strategies, subsistence, 19, 127, 145, 147, 149, 152, 154, 156, 157 Sugar cane, 10, 15, 35, 37, 63, 74, 80, 141, 155, 163 Surplus, 91, 114 Tayabamba, 13, 46 Temperature, 70, 72 Templado zone, 78, 82, 84, 99, 141, 145, 146 Temple zone, 10, 61, 74, 77, 141 Terracing, 18, 83, 98 Theft, 95 Thomas, R. Brooke, 86n, 115n, 154, 189

Index Thompson, Donald, xiii, 42, 44, 45, 51n, 189 Thorbecke, E. and E. Stoutjesdijk, 103, 121, 121n, 126, 190 Threshing, 95, 104 Tinteriüos, 61 Tocache, 13 Toledo, Viceroy of Peru, 49 Tools, farm, 92-93 Tosi, Joseph, 6, 6n, 70-73 passim., 78, 190 Tribute, 49 Troll, Carol, 4n, 8, 18, 83, 190 Tullis, F. LaMond, 7η, 35n, 62, 63, 190 Tupac Inca Yupanqui, 45

199 Vazquez de Espinosa, Antonio, 42, 45, 51, 52, 191 Verticality, 6-9. See also Andes, zonation; archipelago Vilcanota Valley, 14, 80, 98 Viner, Jacob, 123, 124, 191 Voluntad. See Labor; Reciprocal exchange of

Uchucmarca, District of, 27, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 40, 45, 59-61, 63, 143 Ugent, Donald, 10, 170, 171, 190 Underemployment: assumptions of, 118, 120; concept of, 117-26 passim.; criticisms of, 123-24; explanations of, 122; in Peru, 121, 126; measurement of, 119-20, 121, 123 Unemployment, disguised. See Underemployment United Nations, 118, 190

Wages, 78, 92, 105-09, 123, 133. See also Jomal Water, drinking, 28 Weberbauer, Augusto, 6, 191 Webster, Steven, 9n.6, 10, 11, 191 Weeding, 66, 92, 94, 95, 105, 106, 107, 127, 135, 140 Wellisz, Stanislaw, 122, 122n, 124, 191 Wheat, 77, 78, 83, 84, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 106, 112, 113, 141, 143, 155, 161, 176, 177, 178. See also Faena Willey, Gordon, 41n, 191 Wolf, Eric, 149, 191 Women, 64, 94, 129, 135-36, 137, 168 Wonnacott, Paul, 122, 191 Wool, 113

Van der Wetering, Η., 121n, 190 Vayda, Andrew P. and Bonnie McCay, 16n, 190

Yudelman, M. G. Butler and R. Banerji, 119n.3, 122n.7, 191 Yunga, 10