Human Ecology, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1976
Man's Use o f an A n d e a n E c o s y s t e m 1
Stephen B. Brush 2
The Andes are characterized by valley systems that differ according to the steepness o f the environmental gradient as well as the human occupation and land use
patterns. This article discusses the natural and crop zonation in one valley o f the
eastern Andes o f northern Peru which includes many o f the principal plant and
crop zones o f the Peruvian Andes. The entire valley is exploited by one peasant
community. The article describes some o f the land use patterns o f the community and compares this valley system with others on the eastern slopes o f the
Andes.
KEY WORDS: mountain ecosystems; crop zonation; land use; Andes.
INTRODUCTION
The Andes provide one of the richest areas for the study o f h u m a n ecology
in the world. The area is marked b y sometimes dramatic ecological diversity,
where numerous climatic belts are compressed into small areas by sudden
changes o f altitude. Moreover, it is an area where isolated subsistence c o m m u nities survive on their ability to exploit several different natural life zones, s This
article will outline the ethnogeography o f one Andean c o m m u n i t y and suggest
three different patterns w h e r e b y diverse crop zones are integrated into single
subsistence systems in the area o f the eastern slopes o f the Peruvian Andes.
a This article is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the symposium, "Cultural
Adaptations to Mountain Ecosystems," given at the Annual Meeting of the American
Anthropological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 28, 1973.
2 Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
SThe natural life zone is the ecological unit used by Tosi (1960) in his detailed ecological
work on Peru. Tosi and Voertman (1964:191-193) define the natural life zone as analogous to a "plant formation" which is a reflection of three climatic variables: (1) mean
annual biotemperature, (2) mean annual precipitation, and (3) the potential evapotranspiration ratio. Any one life zone may contain several "plant associations." Tosi's model
is an adaptation of the Holdridge system.
147
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148
Brush
The subsistence strategies of many highland communities in Peru include
methods which predate the Spanish Conquest and which crosscut several different linguistic, ethnic, and even national boundaries. Recent ethnohistorical and
ethnographic analysis, dealing with the topics of Andean ecology and subsistence, has widened the Andeanists' knowledge of the general patterns of the
man-land relationship in the area. This recent work rests on a very sound foundation of work done by earlier generations of botanists (Weberbauer, 1936, 1945)
and geographers (Bowman, 1916; Troll, 1958; Pulgar Vidal, 1946).
One of the most important contributions to the general understanding of
ethnohistorical Andean economic and subsistence systems is Murra's (1972)
model of "vertical control" or "verticality." This model deals with an "Andean
ideal" of "simultaneous control of 'vertical archipelagoes' which are divided
among groups which are geographically distant from one another and which
differ according to the complexity of economic and political organization"
(Murra, 1972:430). Murra's model of vertical control is one in which different
ethnic groups attempt to control the maximum number of ecological "floors" in
an effort to achieve self-sufficiency. Systems of reciprocity and redistribution
mark the internal economies of communities, but trade may occur 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 archeological evidence.
The significance of Murra's 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 (reducci6n) of large numbers of persons ~m
new towns which were often established to meet European 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.
Perhaps the strength of the model is best supported by the fact that after
over 400 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 which may have its 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 that correspond to Murra's ethnohistorical model.
These include communities in the northern Peruvian Andes (Brush, 1973), in the
central Peruvian Andes (Burchard, 1972; Mayer, 1971, 1972; Fonseca Martel,
1972a,b), and in the southern Peruvian Andes (Gade, 1967; Webster, 1972;
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
149
Custred, t972). 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
The Andes, like other mountain areas, have a very steep environmental
gradient where diverse climatic zones are compressed into single valleys, and hillsides may span several thousand meters of altitude. As one geographer noted,
"nowhere else on earth are greater physical contrasts compressed within such
small spaces" (Milstead, 1928:97). Botanists such as Weberbauer (1936, 1945)
and geographers such as Yosi (1960) have described the tremendous range of
microclimates and plant communities that can be found within relatively small
areas in the Andes. The critical factor in the relationship between these microclimates is altitude or vertical location. It is a central core to which other environmental phenomena such as rainfall, temperature, winds, slope, drainage,
and soils can be linked.
Perhaps the most ambitious attempt to map the climatic diversity of the
Andes is that of Tosi (1960). Following Hotdridge (1947), Tosi mapped the
natural life zones of Peru by using airphotograph analysis and by relying heavily
on Weberbauer's botanical fieldwork. In covering the Andean area of Peru, Tosi
deals with seven altitudinal floors and eight "humidity provinces" (Tosi, 1960: 5).
These altitudinal floors and humidity provinces are combined in different ways
to yield 35 natural life zones or plant formations ranging from intermontane
deserts to alpine tundras to cloud forests.
In spite of the tremendous natural diversity that this indicates, the resource system of the indigenous population in the eastern Andes is limited to 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 other resource zones. The highest is the zone of natural pasture which lies outside the range of cropping because of frequent frosts.
Animals that are 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 andjalka in the central and northern highlands. Immediately below the pastures is the zone of potato and other
tuber production, also called puna or jalka. This 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 domesticated. 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
150
Brush
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 one 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 kichwa 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
montaaa, yunga, or temple, is used to grow tropical crops such as coca, plantains, manioc, sweet potatoes, citrus fruits, hot peppers, 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 archeological and ethnohistorical accounts of pre-Hispanic subsistence systems, indicates 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, we must consider both environmental features
(topography, exposure, altitude, precipitation) and the characteristics of the
particular crop or crops which are cultivated (Peattie, 1936: Chapter IV). As I
shall argue later, 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.
The resource system of subsistence Andean communities may be analyzed
on two different levels. The first is community wide: what are the resources that
are owned and controlled by the community for its maintenance? The second
level is that of the individual household: how are community resources distributed among the inhabitants? On this one, such things as social and economic
strategies and networks may be analyzed (Brush, 1972). The first is needed to
indicate a particular community's economic focus and its place in a larger regional context, and the second will help us assess the functioning of the subsistence system. The two levels are, in many respects, analogous, and similarities
and differences between communities vis-d-vis their resource systems are comparable to similarities and differences between individual households within single
resource systems. Just as there are communities that do not have access to the
entire range of regional resources, there are individual households within communities that do not have access to all community resources. In each case, both
the community and the individual household must develop strategies and
methods to tap the larger resource system for their subsistence. On both the
community and individual household levels, subsistence strategies designed to
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
151
provide access to resources involve systems of specialization and exchange.
Within communities, cycles of reciprocity are often used in the distribution of
scarce resources, and subsistence strategies usually rely heavily on the kinship
system (Brush, 1972).
A COMMUNITY RESOURCE SYSTEM: UCHUCMARCA
Uchucmarca is a mestizo village in the Chachapoyas region of northeastern
Peru (Fig. 1). The community stands at 3035 m altitude in the middle of a valley
that runs into the Marafi6n River, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon
River. Uchucmarca is an "indigenous community" or "peasant community" that
was founded in the late sixteenth century by a Spanish reducci6n. As such, it
controls its land as a corporation (lands cannot be alienated from the community), although usufruct rights are granted indefinitely to individual households
for subsistence purposes. The community's lands cover an altitude range of some
3500 m, crossing the eastern range or cordillera of the Andes to end in the high
jungle zone known as the edja de montana ("eyebrow of the jungle"). These
lands begin at 800 m altitude and cross a line of peaks that are over 4300 m.
Uchucmarca functions as an essentially self-sufficient subsistence community. Two major factors play a role in this: isolation and resource diversity. The
village of Uchucmarca is situated some 8 hr by mule from the nearest road, and
14 hr from the nearest regional market center, Cetendfn. Unitl 1966, when the
road was extended closer to Uchucmarca, Celend/n was over 30 hr away by
horse. Economic independence has resulted from the fact that the economy of
Uchucmarca, like that of many other isolated subsistence communities, remains
essentially nonmonetized and has only a few resources that can be readily and
profitably converted into cash. Any appreciable participation in larger market
systems is tied to the degree of monetization of the village economy.
Self-sufficiency is also related to the fact that the community of Uchucmarca has historically controlled an extensive and complex Andean resource
system. The resource system, which will be described in detail here, has sufficient land spread among several different altitudinal zones to meet the subsistence
requirements of most of the villagers without extended trade outside of the community. There are, however, increasing pressures within the community for
goods which cannot be produced locally and which only monetized trade networks reaching outside the village can provide. It must be emphasized that
whereas the resource system for the community as a unit is fairly complete the
actual internal distribution of land in various altitudinal zones is uneven, and
only a few households have direct access to land in all of the major crop zones.
As in most subsistence communities, Uchucmarca has an elaborate set of reciprocal relationships which rely heavily on the kinship system and which function to
distribute scarce resources and goods on a more equitable basis (Brush, 1972,
15 2
Brush
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Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
155
1973). This set of reciprocal relationships is similar to reciprocal relationships
that have been described for other highland communities in the Peruvian Andes
(Burchard, 1972; Fonseca Martel, 1972b; Mayer, 1972).
The lands controlled by the community of Uchucmarca fall into five
natural life zones in the Tosi life zone system (Fig. 2). These are (1) subtropical
thorn woodland (bosque espinoso subtropical), an area of xerophytic vegetation
found at the base of the valley well within the intermontane rain shadow of
Marafi6n Valley; (2) dry forest (bosque seco montano bajo), an area still affected
by the rain shadow, but where cereal production is possible during nondrought
years; (3) temperate moist forest (bosque h~medo montano), which is outside of
the rain shadow and has a temperate, frost-free climate suitable for the production of a wide variety of crops from cereals to tubers; (4) rain tundra (pdramo
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 (5) cool temperate wet forest
(bosque muy hf~medo montano), a dense cloud forest, c6ja de montafia, which
lies along much of the flanks of the eastern Andean cordillera.
Although classifications such as Tosi's natural life zones are useful for
general Comparative purposes, a cultural and ecological analysis of any subsistence system must deal also 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 focus of
definition is the particular subsistence activity that can best be carried out in a
certain area. Thus the primary delineation b'etween 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 that comprise the Uchucmarca Valley are the temple, tcichwa fuerte, kichwa, templado, jalka, jalka fuerte, and cdja de montafia
zones (Fig. 3). 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 c6ja de montafia zone, while
lower than the jalka fuerte zone, lies farther away from the village of Uchucmarca than any other zone. Within each zone there are a myriad of place names
with which most villagers are familiar, and it is common to name individual
chacras (plots). The very elaborate naming system is an indication of the intimate knowledge that most villagers have of the landscape within which they
work.
The temple zone (800-1500 m altitude) is the lowest and hottest zone in
valley, corresponding to the subtropical thorn woodland life zone. This narrow,
156
Brush
arid valley, well within the rain shadow of the Marafi6n Valley, is marked by
xerophytic vegetation and irrigated plots. The major cultigens are sugar cane,
coca, maize, citrus fruits, plantains, sweet manioc O'uea), cacao, and hot peppers
(a/0. 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.
The kichwa fuerte zone (1500-1900 m) begins at the edge of the rain shadow of the Marafi6n Valley, and is frequently marked by drought. The zone is
intermediate between 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 nondrought years,
wheat and maize are produced here. The other focus of activity is firewood gathering. Land tends to be abundant here, because of the threat of drought, and the
tenure is not commercial.
The kichwa zone (1900-2450 m)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-September). The major focus of agriculture here is the production of wheat and maize, which are important elements in
the diet of the population. 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 such as sharecropping
play an important role in distributing the land and crops of this zone.
The templado zone (2450-3100 m) is a transitional zone between the
warmer and drier lower valley and the cooler and wetter upper valley. It is transitional between the dry forest and the temperate moist forest natural life zones.
Rainfall is regular, and there is only a short dry season (June-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 that is grown exclusively in this zone is
the arveja or field pea (Pisum sativum). The nucleated village of Uchucmarca is
located in this zone. 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 transactions.
The jalka zone (3100-3500 m) begins immediately above the village of
Uchucmarca. Ecologically, this zone is analogous to Tosi's alpine tundra or aubalpine wet p~iramo and to the puna zone of the southern Andes of Peru. It is,
however, drier than the former and wetter than the latter. The valley widens
considerably here, and the vegetation is dominated by the typical Andean highland sedges and grasses such as Stipa ichu. Like the puna to the south, the jalka
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
157
is the area of potato production, and more land and time are devoted to the
potato and other tubers than to any other crop in the valley. 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 here, and
little competition for plots, which are easily obtained through petition to the
communal council.
The jalka fuerte (3500-4300 m) is the highest and most extensive zone in
the valley, and ecologically close to the subalpine wet pfiramo life zone. Rainfall
is heavy, with no appreciable dry season, and frosts are frequent here. 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 here. Beef, cheese, and milk are only rarely consumed in the
village, but over half of the village households own a few head of cattle as a
living bank account on the hoof which can be converted into cash by selling to
one of the itinerant merchants from the other side of the Marafi6n River.
The c6ja de montafia zone, also referred to as the montafia, lies on the
other side of the eastern Andean cordillera from the Uchucmarca Valley. It begins at roughly 2500 m 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 montafia 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 selfsufficiency, without the need to rely on extensive exchange or market 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. On the contrary, most households have
relative shortages in one of the two key types of resources, land and labor. In
order to overcome these shortages, households in Uchucmarca develop subsistence strategies that involve such things as reciprocal labor exchange (huasheo), a
sharecropping arrangement which exchanges land for labor (sociedad), working
for crops as well as cash, and reciprocal, nonmonetized exchange of different
crops from different zones (Brush, 1973).
158
Brush
THE
DETERMINATION
OF
CROP
ZONES
As n o t e d above, o u t o f the bewildering c o m p l e x i t y o f natural life zones in
the Andes, the A n d e a n subsistence farmers have delineated four major crop
zones: (1) a lowland tropical zone for coca, fruit, and sugar cane; ( 2 ) a t e m p e r ate grain-producing z o n e ; (3) a c o o l p o t a t o - t u b e r z o n e ; and (4) a zone o f native
wild grasses for natural pastures. I n t e r m e d i a t e zones, lying b e t w e e n these major
crop zones, m a y be added to this system as in U c h u c m a r c a . O t h e r i m p o r t a n t
zones are those w h i c h yield salt and f i r e w o o d , although these m a y n o t always be
designated as separate zones in the p o p u l a t i o n ' s description o f their environm e n t . Again, it is i m p o r t a n t to stress that the existence o f a limited n u m b e r o f
zones reflects the subsistence p a t t e r n o f a large and c o m p l e x area and n o t a
l i m i t a t i o n in e n v i r o n m e n t a l p e r c e p t i o n on the local level.
The delineation o f crop and resource zones in the A n d e s is directly related
to the natural z o n a t i o n o f the m o u n t a i n e n v i r o n m e n t , but it m a y not c o r r e s p o n d
exactly to the z o n a t i o n o f plant c o m m u n i t i e s . In U c h u c m a r c a , for instance,
there are five life zones, or natural plant associations, and seven zones in the
e t h n o g e o g r a p h y o f the villagers. One way to a p p r o a c h the h u m a n z o n a t i o n o f
the valley is to consider the " e f f e c t i v e " c r o p limits vs. the " a b s o l u t e " crop
limits. The effective limit for any one crop is the area o f o p t i m u m p r o d u c t i o n o f
that crop, and m a y serve as the basis for the local system o f vertical z o n a t i o n o f
c r o p zones. Using effective limits results in s o m e a m o u n t o f overlap b e t w e e n
zones in t e r m s o f c r o p distribution. The distinction b e t w e e n absolute and effective crop limits has been extensively treated b y Gade ( 1 9 6 7 : 1 5 3 f f . ) for the
Vilcanota Valley:
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 grew 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 cultuvar of a species . . . .
Table 1. Percentage of Certain Crops Planted in Different Zones During 1970
Temple
Crop
Potatoes
Kichwa
fuerte
10
Barley
F i e l d peas
B r o a d beans
-
Percent oftot~
land base a
2
6
Ocas
Maize
Wheat
aApproximafion.
7
-
Jalka
Jalka
fuerte
12
88
-
-
19
35
81
2
-
-
68
16
14
22
74
76
10
10
-
-
-
66
34
-
- '
12
3
19
43
15
Kichwa
Templado
56
Ceja de
montafia
159
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
Table II. Perceived Environmental Hazards Beyond Crop Zones
Crop
Maize
Wheat
Potatoes, ocas
Too high
Doesn't bear fruit
Insects (polvillo worm)
eat the grain, or the
grain rots on the stalk
from too much moisture;
too little gluten
Frost or late blight
(rancha) kills the plant
Field peas
Too little fruit
Barley
Too little gluten, and
the hulls are too thick
Too low
Drought
Plants wither
and are without
tubers
Peas don't cook
properly (too
hard)
Drought
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. (Gade 1967:154)
Table I 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 o f land, labor,
seed, and oxen are usually perceived as being too low outside o f certain altitude
ranges to warrant the risk. The dangers faced when a certain crop is planted
b e y o n d its effective limits are often phrased in a series of maladies that attack
the crop. These are summarized for crop limits in Uchucmarca in Table II.
SETTLEMENT LOCATION IN THE V A L L E Y
The village o f Uchucmarca is located in the templado, the transitional
zone between the lower grain-producing zones (kichwa) and the higher potato
and pasturing zones (jalka). This location between the kichwa and jalka (puna) is
common to many subsistence villages in the Peruvian Andes. The line that separates these two zones becomes higher in altitude as one moves south where the
diurnal period o f the summer months is longer than at the equator. Thus in the
Cajamarca region (7 ~ 16'S) the kichwa zone is found at roughly 2800 m altitude,
while in the Cuzco region (13~
the kichwa extends up to 3350 m altitude.
Dyer (1962:340) points out that the vast bulk o f 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, b u t are located on or near the
line o f demarcation between the kichwa and jalka zones, as in the case o f Uchucmarca.
160
Brush
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 explanation for the relatively high pre-Hispanic settlements is that endemic warfare
forced pre-Hispanic populations to seek the safest and most defensible positions
for their hamlets and villages, which 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
among conditions of regular frost, the occurrence of wet and dry seasons, and
the possible manufacture of freeze-dried potatoes (chu~o) 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 is the modern 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.
Murra (1960) argues that maize was more important as a ceremonial crop than as
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
they constructed there for the cultivation of maize.
The Spanish, who were grain eaters themselves, completed in many other
parts of Peru the process 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 including 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 reducci6nes of the 1570s, the Spanish moved much of the population who had survived the epidemics of the Conquest into new towns such as Uchucmarca. These
new towns became the focus 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.
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
161
PATTERNS OF ANDEAN ZONATION
In comparing the ecological zonation of the Uchucmarca Valley to the
zonation in the other parts of the Andes, two important features are apparent.
The first is the similarity between the ethnogeographical taxonomy of the crop
zones here and in other areas, despite the tremendous variety of Andean life
zones. The second is the location of the zones within a single valley system.
There are, of course, other Andean valleys that have the same spatial arrangement of zones. In other zonal systems, there is a wider displacement of zones
used by the population. In surveying different types of Andean zonal arrangements and human subsistence systems based on them, the relative spacing of the
zones is an important factor in determining the type of exploitation and corresponding socioeconomic features of the community. There are three types of
zonation that can be delineated: (1) the compressed type, ( 2 ) t h e archipelago
type, and (3) the extended type.
The Compressed Type
Uchucmarca is representative of the compressed type of Andean zonation.
The spacing of the crop zones in the Uchucmarca Valley is characterized by a
steep environmental gradient that places different zones very close to one another. 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 montafia zone in the Huallaga River drainage in 2 or 3
days. The entire valley is less than 50 km 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 1 day of the major settlement. The only zone that takes more
than 1 day to reach is the montafia 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 which 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 (Webster, 1971). Q'ero's lands go from
2000 to 5000 m altitude, and they are traversed by the people who exploit
various crop zones that may be up to 3 days apart. 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).
162
Brush
The Archipelago Type
The archipelago model suggested by Murra (1972) for the ethnohistorical
cases is a common pattern in the very upper areas of the Marafi6n and Huallaga
river drainages. Rather than continuous use of contiguous zones, this pattern
involves wide separation between some of the zones which are used. The exploitation of these widely separated zones depends on sometimes lengthy migrations. Contemporary villages that correspond to this pattern include those
studied by Burchard (1972), Fonseca Martel (1972a,b), and Mayer (1971, 1972)
in the Departments of Pasco and Huinuco. In the upper Marafi6n River area,
there are a series of villages, such as Rapayan in the Department of Hulnuco,
whose inhabitants make several (three to four) yearly migrations from their
permanent village sites to a different ecological zone in the montaia region of
the Huallaga River basin. There migrations usually involve treks of from 4 to 8
days. The people of Rapayan travel some 5 days to the area around the town of
Monz6n. In one of the more extended archipelagos, the people of villages around
Tayabamba trek into the Tochache area, some 11 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 jalka zones at an altitude
of roughly 3000 m. The long migrations are made to the montaia with altitudes
of roughly 1000 m 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 that 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 that involves traversing wide
portions of the Andean landscape which 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 montafia.
In these migrations down the flanks of the eastern cordillera of the Andes
to the montaia, coca is a central factor. Many households with subsistence bases
in the higher zones own plots of land in the montafia 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 done three or four times per year, and both men and
women participate 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 montafia.
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
163
The Extended Type
A third type of Andean zonation is the extended type. This is characterized by relatively long valleys that include the usual set of Andean crop zones.
This type, however, is marked by an environmental gradient less steep than the
compressed or the archipelago type. The zones are contiguous 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 the 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 that characterize the first two types, the products of the various zones move thrroughout
this system through exchange networks. These are often characterized by highly
developed market systems. Households living 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 monetized transactions.
The extended type of zonation and the corresponding type of human exploitation of that system are found primarily in 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 km
long and runs between altitudes of roughly 4300 and 1000 m. The width of the
valley floor allows cultivation along much its course. As evidenced by the impressive Inca terrace systems and ruins, the entire valley above 1500 m altitude
has been intensively exploited since before the European conquest. The modern
settlement pattern of the valley is characterized by a series of medium-sized
towns between which are interspersed smaller and virtually continuous villages,
hamlets, and homesteads. Much of the valley is controlled by haciendas. The
important towns are Sicuani (altitude 3531 m), Urcos (3120 m), Calca (2950
m), Urubamba (2880 m), and Quillabamba (1050 m). Cuzco, which is on a tributary of the Vilcanota Valley, stands at 3382 m. The densest population is
between Ollantaytambo (2790 m) and Sicuani (3531 m). 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 specialities for this
164
Brush
tuber: maize, firewood, and walnut leaves are brought from Urquillos; fruit
and bread from Urubamha; vegetables from Huayllabamba; and maize 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.
Daffy 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: 76)
Besides these three types o f zonation which integrate a number o f 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 environmental 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 (Brush,
1973). In the higher altitudes, there are communities that specialize in such
things as salt 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).
CONCLUSION
The heuristic typology developed here describes different ecological-subsistence systems on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes. In this typology, I
have attempted to organize some o f the recent ethnography that has been done in
the area and to suggest its similarity to tile ethnohistorical model suggested by
Man's Use of an Andean Ecosystem
165
Murra. There are, undoubtedly, additional types o f Andean integration which
should be apparent when geographic areas b e y o n d the eastern slopes are considered. This article suggests that in spite o f the tremendous upheaval caused b y
the Spanish Conquest the patterns of vertical control which Murra has analyzed
for the Andean highlands at the time o f the Conquest have analogous patterns
that operate today. The actual operation o f the system o f verticality depends in
part on the particular landscape within which it functions. In some communities
with steep environmental gradients, such as Uchucmarca, the system 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) which are outlined
here are based on different ways of integrating the complex Andean resource
system. Most highland communities have been successful in adapting socioeconomic systems to the complexity o f the Andean landscape in spite of the adverse
and repressive pressures from outside forces such as haciendas interested in land
accumulation and governments interested in tribute labor. Whether they can
continue to do so under such internal pressures as population growth, migration,
and increased integration into the monetized, commercial economy of Peru remains an open question.
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