Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes

By Amy Eisenberg

Explores the relationship between indigenous people, the management of natural resources, and the development process in a modernizing region of Chile
 
Aymara Indians are a geographically isolated, indigenous people living in the Andes Mountains near Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the most arid regions of the world. As rapid economic growth in the area has begun to divert scarce water to hydroelectric and agricultural projects, the Aymara struggle to maintain their sustainable and traditional systems of water use, agriculture, and pastoralism.

In Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes, Amy Eisenberg provides a detailed exploration of the ethnoecological dimensions of the tension between the Aymara, whose economic, spiritual, and social life are inextricably tied to land and water, and three major challenges: the paving of Chile Highway 11, the diversion of the Altiplano waters of the Río Lauca for irrigation and power-generation, and Chilean national park policies regarding Aymara communities, their natural resources, and cultural properties within Parque Nacional Lauca, the International Biosphere Reserve.

Pursuing collaborative research, Eisenberg performed ethnographic interviews with Aymara people in more than sixteen Andean villages, some at altitudes of 4,600 meters. Drawing upon botany, agriculture, natural history, physical and cultural geography, history, archaeology, and social and environmental impact assessment, she presents deep, multifaceted insights from the Aymara’s point of view.

Illustrated with maps and dramatic photographs by John Amato, Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes provides an account of indigenous perspectives and concerns related to economic development that will be invaluable to scholars and policy-makers in the fields of natural and cultural resource preservation in and beyond Chile.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Release date: Aug 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9780817386665

Book preview

AYMARA INDIAN PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT IN THE ANDES

AYMARA INDIAN PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT IN THE ANDES

AMY EISENBERG

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS

Tuscaloosa

Copyright © 2013

The University of Alabama Press

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Typeface: Garamond & Stone Sans

Cover photograph: Truck traffic on International Chile Highway 11 at the Chile-Bolivia border crossing. Photograph by John Amato.

Cover design: Erin Kirk New

∞

The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eisenberg, Amy, 1954–

Aymara indian perspectives on development in the Andes / Amy Eisenberg.

  p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8173-1791-1 (trade cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8173-8666-5 (ebook)

1. Aymara Indians—History. 2. Aymara cosmology. 3. Aymara Indians—Social conditions. 4. Indigenous peoples—Ecology—Chile. 5. Rural development—Chile. 6. Economic development—Chile. 7. Chile—Environmental conditions. I. Title.

F2230.A9E57 2013

305.898'324083—dc23

2012043130

Dedication

It is with great admiration and respect that I dedicate this book To my beloved mother and father, Mildred and Solomon Eisenberg,

and

To the Aymara Indians

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Aymara: Pre- and Post-Columbian History

2. The Aymara Community Today

3. Jaqin Uraqpachat Amuyupa—Aymara Cosmovision

4. The Aymara Cultural Landscape

5. Social and Environmental Impact Assessment

6. Aymara Responses to a Changing Environment

7. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Illustrations

FIGURES

I.1. Map of northern Chile

I.2. Aymara woman drying llama meat

1.1. Tuapaca (Thunupa) at Tiwanaku, Bolivia

1.2. Map of areas of Tiwanaku trade and interaction in south-central Andes

1.3. Machu Picchu, ancient fortress city of the Inca

2.1. Highland Aymara agriculturist

2.2. Aymara weaver of the highlands

2.3. Desiccated Altiplano alluvial pasturelands

2.4. Desecrated pinturas rupestres near Puxtiri (Putre)

2.5. Truck accident with cargo spill alongside wetlands on the high plateau

2.6. Aymara woman with vegetation

2.7. Highland Aymara men performing ceremony

3.1. Taapaca, mountain achachila overlooking Puxtiri (Putre)

3.2. Fiesta de San Andres, Pachama, with coca leaves

3.3. Water is the creation place of Aymara camelids

3.4. Puxtiri (Putre) pastoralist with newborn animals

3.5. Bofedales and camelids on the high plateau

3.6. Bofedales with Aymara system of water channels

3.7. Diminishing water resources on the Altiplano

4.1. Physiographic transect of the study area

4.2. The Atacama Desert

4.3. Map of arid regions of northern Chile

4.4. Aymara in Surire, Azapa, from highland Surire

4.5. Valle de Lluta, Chile Highway 11, and Atacama

4.6. Transect of the ecological zones of northern Chile

4.7. Destruction of the Colqa de Zapahuira by highway development

4.8. Map of diversion of the waters of the Río Lauca

4.9. Map of South America showing Provincia de Parinacota, Chile

4.10. Vicuñas, wild camelids on the high plateau

4.11. Declining water resources on the Altiplano

4.12. International trade between Chilean and Bolivian Aymara at the Feria Bipartita Tambo Quemado

4.13. Llareta (Azorella compacta) on the Altiplano

5.1. The diversion of the Río Lauca at Cotacotani

5.2. Aymara llamas mating on Chile Highway 11

5.3. Interview with Altiplano pastoralists and artisans

5.4. Lagunas de Cotacotani in Parque Nacional Lauca

6.1. Highway truck traffic at the Chile–Bolivia border

6.2. Aymara mother and wawa on the high plateau

TABLE

1.1. Aymara Communities along an Altitudinal Transect

Preface

This book presents our participatory ethnographic research and partnership with the Aymara Indians in the Andes of northern Chile that began in 1998 in an attempt to understand Aymara Indian perspectives on development within their sacred geography. Together, we developed a study design that would engage Aymara people directly in the assessment of their cultural and natural resources along an altitudinal gradient from the coastal city of Arica to the Altiplano, the high plateau surrounding Lago Chungara by the Chile–Bolivia border.

This interdisciplinary project draws upon ethnoecology, American Indian studies, applied anthropology, botany, agriculture, natural history, physical and cultural geography, history, archaeology, and social and environmental impact assessment. We conducted ethnographic interviews with Aymara people in more than 16 Andean villages along an altitudinal transect from sea level to 4,600 meters. We also performed a systematic social and environmental impact assessment along International Chile Highway 11, which connects Arica, Chile, with the highlands of Bolivia.

For Andean people, economic, spiritual, and social life are inextricably tied to land and water. The Aymara of Chile comprise a small, geographically isolated minority of the northern border Region XV, Arica y Parinacota, who are struggling to maintain their sustainable and traditional systems of irrigation water distribution, agriculture, and pastoralism in one of the most arid regions of the world, the Atacama Desert. We explore the ethnoecological dimensions of the conflict between rapid economic growth and a sensitive cultural and natural resource base through collaborative research methods. The paving of Chile Highway 11, the diversion of Altiplano waters of the Río Lauca to the arid coast for hydroelectricity and irrigation, and Chilean national park policies regarding Aymara communities and their natural resources and cultural properties within Parque Nacional Lauca, the International Biosphere Reserve, are examined from the perspectives of the Aymara people. The potential of indigenous resource management of this protected area is discussed within the context of human–land reciprocal relations.

The findings, based on Aymara Indian local knowledge, are designed to aid in understanding and appreciating the needs and cosmological vision of Andean communities in the poorest province of Chile. The Aymara are actively involved and are committed to having their perspectives and cultural concerns expressed and incorporated into historic, natural, and cultural resource preservation legislation and policy.

Acknowledgments

Nayax Aymar arst'irinakar yuspagartwa. I give great thanks to the Aymara people—my teachers and friends—for their kindness, patience, active participation, and collaboration in this study.

Aruskipt'asipxañanakasakipunirakispawa

Nayax yuspagarsmaw to superb Aymara linguists Juan de Dios Yapita and Awki, Justo Llanque-Chana, for their friendship and invaluable expertise in Aymar aru. Sincere thanks to Dr. Martha J. Hardman for inspiring me to aruskipaña (communicate). Yuspagarpa to my dear jilata, Aymara professor Manuel Mamani M. of the Universidad de Tarapacá, for collaborating on this study, assisting with the interview instrument and recommended readings, providing introductions into Aymara communities, interviewing, and sharing translations and the beautiful language of his people. I am most grateful for collaborators Profesor Roberto Jara Miranda, Presidente Junta de Vecinos de Putre; and Profesora Juana Crespo Cancino, director of the Escuela de la Mujer in Putre, who are steadfastly devoted to the Andean communities. They taught us much about life in the highlands.

I appreciate the support of Dr. Richard W. Stoffle at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, who taught me some practical lessons about fieldwork. Many thanks to distinguished professor of conservation biology Phil Rundel, archaeologist Alan L. Kolata, geographer Wayne Bernhardson, and anthropologist Dr. Henry F. Dobyns, who kindly shared their knowledge of Andean natural history, political ecology, history, and ethnography. Mil gracias to Profesora Eliana Belmonte Schwarzbaum of the Museo Arqueológico San Miguel de Azapa, ethnobotanist Milka Castro-Lucic, archaeologists Catherine Westfall, Mario Rivera, Calogero Santoro, and other international colleagues for their exquisite work and valuable contributions.

I wish to acknowledge Fernando Elorza Marcos, director regional Suplente Corporación Nacional Forestal Región de Tarapacá, as well as his helpful staff for granting permission to conduct research in Parque Nacional Lauca and for providing accommodations at the CONAF refugio in Putre for the duration of this study. I extend my warmest gratitude to the Aymara Guarda Parques for sharing their living space and for orienting us about park conditions. I greatly appreciate the botanical teachings of Federico Luebert and Dr. Rodolfo Gajardo of the Universidad de Chile.

Special thanks to Dr. John and Charlotte Reeder for their expertise on the South American Poaceae, Phil Jenkins, curator of the University of Arizona Herbarium, and research associate Anthony Brach at the Harvard University Herbaria. I wish to acknowledge the reference librarians and technical support specialists Jose D. Noriega at the University of Arizona, Luke Nelson at the University of Oregon, and Gregory J. Kelly at the San Francisco Public Library. Sincerest gratitude to Narda Murillo Pozo and Jose Antonio Vargas Guzman of Potosí, Bolivia, for their diligence and careful translation of the recorded Aymara interviews.

I extend my heartfelt thanks to John Amato, RN, for his superb photodocumentation and his companionship and assistance in every aspect of this project. I am blessed with the love, encouragement, and support of family and friends and am most grateful for the generous tzedakah of the Howard Bendalin Scholarship and the Irving Louis Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy. This study was partially funded by USAID grant project PCE-5063-A-00-3033-00, Development of Sustainable Agriculture in Arid Regions of Chile, through the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group Project 5 U01TW00316-10, directed by Dr. Barbara Timmermann of the University of Arizona. I am exceedingly grateful to Dr. Rudolph Ryser, chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies; Dr. Leslie Korn; copyeditor Laurel Anderton; and acquiring editor Joseph Powell at the University of Alabama Press.

Introduction

The Aymara Indians of Region XV, Arica y Parinacota, and I collaborated on an Andean ethnoecological investigation that documents Aymara Indian perspectives on development within the Aymara cultural landscape of northern Chile. From 1998 to 1999, we carried out a social and environmental impact assessment as well as a needs assessment in the extreme north of Chile to evaluate and articulate social, environmental, and cultural indices of change and to seek ways to manage change responsibly and proactively. The research setting encompasses the coastal city of Arica, the economic and administrative focal point of Region XV in the northernmost zone known as Norte Grande, which includes the provinces of Arica and Parinacota. The study area comprises Aymara communities along a west-to-east altitudinal gradient from the Chilean seacoast to the Bolivian border, at 4,600 meters above sea level (Figure I.1).

This work is about giving voice to the Aymara people. Of primary importance is to engage and cooperate with the Aymara community of Chile in order to strengthen their ongoing capacity-building efforts. The Aymara Indians of Chile are a vulnerable and impoverished population facing a series of disruptive external pressures that are affecting their traditional livelihoods. We explore Aymara Indian perspectives on the construction of Chile Highway 11, the creation of Parque Nacional Lauca, and the diversion and canalization of the international Río Lauca for hydroelectricity and irrigation on the arid Atacama coast. Technology should be responsive to human needs, and Andean people should be the consultants in projects that affect their ethnosphere. Development in the Andes of northern Chile must consider the individual and collective needs of the local Aymara people and their communities, in their terms. Environmental transformation must be grounded in a careful understanding of the Aymara and their way of life. This project attempts to contribute to that understanding.

Collaborative Research

Collaborative ethnographic research is a commitment to cross-cultural communication, understanding, mutual respect, and cooperation, which are at the foundation of efforts to address issues of human welfare and opportunity. Principal to this approach is to integrate and engage the Aymara people in the investigatory process in a genuinely collaborative manner. Community participation, respectful dialogue, empirical fieldwork, and accurate documentation of social and environmental impacts through systematic analysis of community and household needs, constraints, and Aymara concerns and strategies for survival are quintessential. An Aymara Indian ethnographic assessment addresses critical human issues regarding ethnicity, development and change, poverty and power, social justice and equity, and environmental transformation and sustainability, with consideration for promoting the economic well-being and cultural integrity of Aymara communities in the poorest province of Chile. Through ethnoecological inquiry, we examine the relationships and complexities of environmental systems, natural resource management, policy, human activities, and environmental change in partnership with the Aymara people.

The most important objective of the participatory process in this study was to engage Aymara people directly in discussing their personal and collective experiences regarding development, policy, and the ensuing environmental transformation. Professor Manuel Mamani M., Aymara linguist, folklorist, and ethnomusicologist of the Universidad de Tarapacá, taught us the basics of the Aymara language and introduced us to Aymara community elders. Professor Manuel Mamani M., as well as Roberto Jara Miranda, Presidente Junta de Vecinos de Putre; and Juana Crespo Cancino, director of the Escuela de la Mujer in Putre, provided introductions in the Andean communities and assisted in developing and revising the interview instrument by removing potentially biased and leading questions toward an appropriate and acceptable language for the Aymara people and their communities. There were five different generations of the interview instrument, which underwent a number of adjustments after field testing before arriving at the final version. Collaborators Manuel Mamani M., Roberto Jara Miranda, and Juana Crespo Cancino facilitated translation of the interview instrument into the Aymara language and Castilian.

Formal tape-recorded interviews were conducted individually and privately in more than 16 Aymara communities, from sea level in Arica, through the Precordillera, to Parque Nacional Lauca and Lago Chungara on the Altiplano at 4,604 meters above sea level, near the Chile–Bolivia border (Table I.1). The paved transportation corridor, Chile Highway 11, directly penetrates the 192-kilometer altitudinal transect of the study area within the Aymara cultural landscape. We interviewed both female and male Aymara representatives using a 23-question interview instrument and also conducted more than 100 informal open-ended interviews while employing participant observation. Thus, information from both formal and informal data sets contributed to the research findings.

Reciprocity is the guiding principle of Aymara society, and in keeping with this fundamental Andean value, we compensated every person we interviewed with gifts, including photos of themselves and their family and friends. We consulted Professor Mamani M. from the Altiplano village of Guallitire to determine appropriate, useful, and culturally traditional gifts to give to each Aymara participant. We respected confidentiality and privacy in the field, and this continued to be a priority throughout the ongoing consultation process. We provided a clear explanation of the purpose of the field research to all participants and encouraged their questions and discussions about the project. We made every effort not to disturb people with interviewing while they were working. We conducted some interviews in participants' homes in the evening and others in the field during their rest or leisure time. Prior to interviewing, we always asked each participant for permission to tape-record and photograph them, and in every case, they gave their consent.

Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF) granted us permission to conduct research in Parque Nacional Lauca and provided a place to live in the Precordilleran Aymara village of Putre for the duration of the fieldwork. Professional photographer John Amato, RN, photodocumented every aspect of this project, applying ethical standards and approved scientific research methods in visual anthropology. Since our research plan involved the people we wished to photograph, we strongly considered the feelings of those people. John took more than 4,500 images illustrating our interviews, Aymara life and communities, social and environmental impacts, potential threats and areas of concern to the Aymara people, effects that were discussed and require further analysis, and cultural and natural resources including archaeological sites within the study area. We found visual ethnoecology to be a useful resource for reconstructing information about Aymara life and culture.

Photodocumentation and natural history exploration were quite helpful for orienting ourselves, providing an overview of the study area, and recording geographical, biological, and cultural phenomena while reinforcing and referencing ethnographic statements. Sound visual ethnoecology penetrates the cultural cliché, a projection of our own patterns for organizing the visual world onto indigenous peoples. Aymara culture, as every culture, must be seen on its own terms. Through the lens of visual ethnoecology, it is possible to learn to see through the eyes of the Aymara people. Their perceptions are directly related to their interactions with their total environment, in which Andean history, cosmology, and ecology are interrelated elements that shape the Aymara world (Collier and Collier 1986:xv-xvii, 5–17).

We employed topographical maps for orientation and reference, especially during interviews to indicate specific locations, resources, and areas of impact and concern. We consulted a portable Global Positioning System at each interview site along the altitudinal transect to determine its elevation and latitude and longitude. Recorded interviews were translated and transcribed from Aymara into Castilian and from Castilian into English with the assistance and expertise of Professor Mamani M., Narda Murillo Pozo of the Universidad Tomás Frías in Bolivia, and Dr. Jose Antonio Vargas Guzman of Potosí, Bolivia. We carefully reviewed each interview, including the meticulous clarification of Andean idiomatic expressions provided by consultants who were familiar with the language of the region.

We provided the preliminary report generated by the fieldwork to Aymara experts, participants, and collaborators for technical review to ensure that it did not contain confidential information or inaccuracies. Participative research is an ongoing interactive process; therefore consultation with Aymara experts and Andean archaeologists, botanists, biologists, ethnologists, linguists, and geographers continues. We also presented CONAF, the managing body for Parque Nacional Lauca, with the report. Ongoing dialogue, feedback, suggestions, and corrections from Andean experts are highly regarded and gratefully received and acknowledged. There have been many helpful teachers throughout the process and we continue to maintain established friendships with a willingness to understand and identify the needs and priorities of the Aymara of Chile.

We attempted to elucidate the experiences, observations, perceptions, and cultural concerns of the Aymara people in order to provide information that can be used by Chilean government land managers and developers. Contextualizing our findings and translating them into management information can help achieve the goals of incorporating Aymara concerns into sustainable resource management, preservation policies, and legislation. The Aymara have the right to fully participate in decision-making and to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the use of their land, water, and cultural resources. In accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Chilean authorities and government agencies are required to consult and cooperate with the Aymara regarding any project that affects their land, territory, and resources and is connected with the development, utilization, and exploitation of minerals, water, or other properties.

Respectful dialogue and consultation with the Aymara people concerning development that affects their cultural and natural resource base is requisite. It is a commitment toward diminishing poverty and malnutrition, enhancing opportunities for Andean communities to determine and pursue their own sustainable livelihoods, and setting policies to promote the protection of their traditional resources. This approach centers on equitable development, which elicits local control and direction of the research process from problem definition to mitigation recommendations and monitoring. This study depends on and is only possible with the generosity and involvement of the Aymara people. The findings, based on Aymara Indian perspectives, are designed to aid in understanding and appreciating the cosmological vision, local knowledge, resources, and needs of Andean people for the benefit of their communities.

Environmental and social justice is founded on an equitable participatory philosophy, as well as principles of disparity mediation and mitigation. The Aymara showed great interest in having their perspectives, cultural concerns, and needs recognized and incorporated into historic and cultural preservation legislation. They seek effective ways in which to communicate with government authorities in order to better the lives and livelihoods of their people and their communities.

The organization of this treatise is as follows: chapter 1, The Aymara: Pre-and Post-Columbian History, is an ethnohistorical account of Aymara culture and society that provides information on Andean institutions and polities and their transformations through time. Present-day realities of Aymara life are most effectively grasped through examining Aymara history, which provides understanding of who the Aymara people are, how they came to be, and what their responses are to development within their ancestral homeland. An Aymara agriculturist of the interior Valle de Lluta reflected on his people's history and cultural legacy with the poignant statement, One should take pride in one's land and culture. There is a popular saying in Aymara, ‘They cut our branches, they burn our leaves, they pull out our trunks . . . but never could they overtake our roots.’ This was addressed to the Spaniards. In the Aymara language, Jaqi aru, it is expressed, K'utarapxiw quqanakasxa, ukatxa phichantapxarakiw, quqa tunu lawanaks jik'irapxi, ukatsi janipuniw jik'supkit qhuya tunu saphanakasxa (Justino Llanque-Chana, personal communication, 15 April 2002; Juan de Dios Yapita, personal communication, 30 July 2012).

Chapter 2, The Aymara Community Today, examines the current situation of the Aymara people and their responses to development in the Andes. It emphasizes a historical perspective for understanding the ambient conditions of the contemporary Aymara while considering their present-day realities and the strategies, solutions, and systems they have devised for living in one of the most challenging environments in the world. Agriculture and pastoralism are the principal activities that provide their communities with sustenance, social life, and the continuance of their core cultural values. Ecological complementarity, an enduring Andean vision of organization that is fundamental to the Aymara people within their environment, is discussed. The Aymara perceive their profound cultural geography holistically, as a single universe.

Chapter 3, "Jaqin Uraqpachat Amuyupa—Aymara Cosmovision," is about the Aymara worldview—their cosmological vision and the cultural significance of Andean sacred resources and ceremonial places. Jaqin uraqpachat amuyupa is defined as the Aymara people's thinking about the world (Justino Llanque-Chana, personal communication, 26 April 2002). A holistic understanding of Aymara cultural cognition of the physical and spiritual dimensions of their environment is essential for effectively assessing the social and environmental impacts of development within the Aymara sacred landscape. The dynamics and intricacies of Aymara traditional belief systems, rituals, and places of ceremony are presented to furnish the reader with an awareness and comprehension of the specific consequences of development and the gravity of the desecration of Aymara cultural resources and ceremonial places. The Aymara define themselves in terms of their cosmological universe and sacred geography.

Chapter 4, The Aymara Cultural Landscape, provides a detailed description of the biogeography of Aymara communities, their livelihood practices, and resource management strategies within the respective physiographic ecological life zones of the research setting. The diverse ecosystems along the altitudinal gradient of the study area consist of many interacting biotic and abiotic components including climatic patterns and processes, topography, geology, soils, hydrology, and flora and fauna. An interdisciplinary scientific assessment of these constituents encompasses Aymara botany, medicine, ecology, history, archaeology, and toponyms.

Ethnoecology, within an interdisciplinary framework, comprises the study of the environment, agropastoral sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and human–land reciprocal relations. The complex ecological life zones along the altitudinal gradient, which are interconnected by cultural patterns of transhumant and economic activities, are the Atacama Desert; the coastal valleys of Lluta and Azapa; the pampa, or desertic plateau; the Precordillera, or sierra; and the Altiplano, or high plateau, with its verdant bofedales boglands. The Aymara possess an acute perception and detailed knowledge of their environment and continue to sustain an established partnership with their natural resource base. Cultural concepts of landscape and management and the dynamic linkage between the Aymara and their surroundings, at the interface of a matrix of asymmetrical and external social forces, are explored from the vantage point of the Aymara people.

Chapter 5, Social and Environmental Impact Assessment, is an overview of the history, principles, and methods of participatory cultural and environmental impact assessment and its immediate relevance to Aymara communities in the Andes of northern Chile. The development of Highway 11, the diversion of the Río Lauca for hydroelectricity and irrigation on the Atacama coast, and the creation of Parque Nacional Lauca within the Aymara holy land are examined from the standpoint of Aymara experience. Chapter 5 considers ways in which impact assessment is applied to the cultural realities of Aymara life. It discusses the meaning of environmental change for the Aymara people, who incorporate the biophysical environment into their definition of themselves and their reciprocal relations. The Aymara were neither consulted prior to environmental transformation nor compensated for impacts to their resources as a consequence of development within their holy land.

Chapter 6, Aymara Responses to a Changing Environment, presents perspectives and specific concerns expressed by Aymara people regarding development within their homeland. Direct responses are based on ethnographic interviews with Aymara residents of Region XV, Arica y Parinacota. We gave every person we interviewed the opportunity to discuss her or his personal and collective perceptions and experiences regarding environmental transformation in the Andes. We attempted to represent Aymara viewpoints from each ecological life zone, from littoral to cordilleran. Gender is a significant consideration in ethnography, as it may influence responses. Aymara mitigation recommendations reflect a highly detailed and practical knowledge of their resources and should be carefully considered and adopted by developers and government agencies in view of the negative social, environmental, and economic effects of development on the Aymara community.

Chapter 7, the conclusion, is an overview of our participatory research findings with the Aymara of Chile regarding development within their sacred landscape. The Aymara people are knowledgeable experts in their Andean environment and are intrinsically aware of factors that have adverse impacts on the resources within their holy land. Their expressed concerns are representative of the Aymara culture of northern Chile. We attempted to articulate their perspectives into information that can be effectively utilized by government agency land managers of Region XV. The findings of this Aymara ethnographic assessment are the basis for mitigation discussions and policy-relevant recommendations from the Aymara community to the local Chilean government in the extreme north. Findings consolidate specific Aymara recommendations by place and resource within the physiographic life zones of their environment. The Aymara are resource managers within the Andean Cordillera who continue to sustain a mutual and enduring relationship between one another and the elements of land, water, and the supernatural (Figure I.2).

1  /  The Aymara

Pre- and Post-Columbian History

Tarapaca, also known as Tunupa (Rivera 1991:28), Thunupa, or Tuapaca, was an Aymara deity. The Indians say that he had such great power that he changed hills into valleys and from valleys made great hills, causing streams to flow from living stone. They called him Maker of all things created, Father of the sun who gave being to men and animals. Tarapaca traveled north along the highlands giving people instructions on how they should live. He spoke to them with love and kindness, admonishing them to be generous and good and to do no harm to one another. In most places, he is known as Ticci Viracocha, but in the province of Collao at Lake Titicaca, he is Tuapaca (Thunupa). The people heard it from their fathers, who in turn had it from the old songs, which were handed down from very ancient times (Osborne 1968:74).

In many places, they built temples to Tarapaca; created great statues in his likeness, such as the huge forms at Tiwanaku; and made offerings before them (Figure 1.1). The central figure of the Gateway of the Sun represents this Aymara celestial deity, Thunupa, who personifies the elemental natural forces such as the sun, rain, wind, and hail that are intimately associated with the productive potential of Altiplano ecology. He is the embodiment of the lightning and thunder that rips violently across the high plateau in the rainy season. This is the manifold image of Tarapaca, creator-spirit and Lord of the Atmosphere, who brings wind and rain, lightning and thunder, life and death (Kolata 1996b:158, 181; 1993:148).

It is said that Tarapaca's body was placed in a boat made of bundles of totora and set adrift on Lake Titicaca, where the gentle waters and wind carried him away with great speed. The boat came to the shore at Cochamarca, where it struck the land with such force that it created the river Desaguadero. On the water, his body was released many leagues away, to the seacoast at Arica (Osborne 1968:87). Within the Aymara cosmovision, water is the place of creation and return (Mamani M. 1989:90; 1996:233; Bastien 1978:215; Rivera 1991:4), and the dead travel the road to the sea (Bouysse-Cassagne 1986:207). This occurred in the former region of Tarapacá, which today is Region XV, Arica y Parinacota.

Tiwanaku Expansion

Most of the valleys in the extreme north of Chile were inhabited by Aymara-speaking Colla groups from the Bolivian high plateau at the time of Tiwanaku expansion. This period represented reciprocal influences between the coast and the Altiplano and a large degree of regional integration and development in the south-central Andes (Mujica 1985:104–107; Rivera 1975:9). The inhabitants of this country possessed a high level of social organization, evidence of which may be seen in the great ruins of the temples and monuments of Tiwanaku on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca.

Tiwanaku's influence on the western periphery begins in the coastal valleys in approximately 380 C.E. (Rothhammer 1990:46), and before 1000 C.E., this civilization had achieved considerable size in both mountain and desert regions (Murra 1984:123). Its ability to incorporate other societies and ethnic groups into a greater productive whole required balance and power. Tiwanaku was a dynamic mosaic of populations that were linked together by a network of strategic policies and political relationships between interrelating and intricate parts, with reciprocal influences traveling between coast and highland (Lynch 1988:1).

In the dry valleys of the coastal Atacama Desert, local peoples lived in densely settled villages, where trading with highlanders was practiced for centuries (Kolata 1993:243–245) (Figure 1.2). The number of people, political unity, and regulation of resources were important variables associated with the development of vertical control of multiple ecological levels in the Andean region. Tiwanaku and its ideology expanded over much of northern Chile, particularly in the western valleys, which were in direct contact with the core area of the Titicaca basin. Altiplano people had access to the valleys of the western Andean slopes