Native Pastoralism in the South Andes

Abstract

Although it has usually been recognized that the Andean llama and alpaca (Lama glama and Lama pacos, respectively; Gilmore I950) were aboriginal domestic herd animals, it has been widely assumed that pastoralism never became a primary mode of adaptation in the New World, and that even subsequent to the conquests it was anomalous and restricted to European animals. Ethnographers of the Central Andes have considered the herding of lamoids a subsidiary enterprise undertaken by communities based primarily on cultivation. The early chronicler Poma asserted that it was invariably a task of age-grades, and in I93I Troll was sure that no pastoral economy had developed anywhere in the Andes apart from tuber cultivation (Murra I965: I88-I89). Murra's research has revealed the important role of alpacas and llamas in the economy, social stratification, and ritual of the aboriginal Andean states, but he too concludes that herding was always carried out in upland grazing stations by kin, retainers, or a social class based in agricultural communities. However, because control of herds was a key basis of wealth and prestige in the south central Andean plateau and Titicaca basin, such hierarchical situations were likely to develop under the centralized regimes of this area whether or not pastoralism was previously an independent enterprise in some communities. Even under these regimes independent pastoral communities could have continued in the harsh puna uplands or remote cordillera flanks, jurally subservient but in de facto control of their herds. The elitist bias of most colonial reports, usually overlooking provincial situations, could have continued to obscure the existence of such communities. I suspect that a similar research bias has perpetuated our ignorance until recently. Gade (I969) has reconsidered several misconceptions regarding the Andean lamoids, but does not directly consider the question of pastoralism. This matter remains to be resolved by ethnography and ethnohistory. Recent evidence in Andean ethnography substantiates the contemporary existence of pastoral communities based on herding of native lamoids, and strongly suggests that similar adaptations were ancient. Lynch (I97I ) has analyzed archeological data from the Callejon de Huaylas of the north central Andes which suggests that pastoral transumance may have developed in preceramic times and furnished an appropriate human ecosystem for the domestication of cultigens. Insofar as this area is peripheral for the distribution of the llama and probably outside the range of the alpaca one suspects that these lamoids were neither late domesticates nor nec-