Society-AYMARA

The Aymara Indians are located mainly on the Bolivian and Peruvian
altiplano, centering about Lake Titicaca. Their Peruvian distribution
gradually contracted because of the expansion of the Quechua Indians,
especially, but not exclusively, during the time of the Incan Empire.
Other peoples found within the Aymara area include isolated remnants
of the formerly widespread Uru and Chipaya Indians (cf. Tschopik 1946:
502; La Barre 1948: 33; also cf. Vellard 1959-60).

Linguistically, Greenberg classifies Aymara with Quechua as a separate
group within the Andean subfamily of the Andean-Equatorial language
family. The Aymara language may be divided into a number of local
dialects. The Uru-Chipaya are linguistically distinct from the Aymara
and belong to a separate subfamily of the Andean-Equatorial family
(Steward and Faron 1959: 22-23; Voegelin and Voegelin 1965: 77-81).

As in the case of many other Indian groups, the Spanish Conquest had
serious effects on indigenous demographic trends among the Aymara.
Epidemics, warfare, and colonial exploitation led to a decline in
the population. While many authors suggest that population decline
has halted and perhaps even been reversed in recent times, demographic
trends are difficult to assess, owing to a lack of accurate census
materials as well as a lack of consensus on how to define the population.
The most recent estimates, however, suggest that the Aymara number
between 600,000 and 900,000 with the majority living in Bolivia (cf.
Tschopik 1946: 504; La Barre 1948: 36; Bouroncle Carreon, 1964: 10;
Carter 1965: 1, 17; and Plummer 1966: 55).

The history of the Aymara has been characterized by shifting pressures
from dominant groups. Prior to their conquest by the Inca around 1430,
the Aymara are thought to have been organized into a series of independent
states or subtribes, which were probably also dialect groups. Their
incorporation into the Incan Empire resulted in a significant degree
of Incan acculturation up to the Spanish Conquest, beginning in 1535.
Further fundamental changes in Aymara culture took place during the
Spanish colonial period. From around 1820 to the present time, the
Aymara have been under the rule of the Peruvian and Bolivian Republics,
and pressures toward Westernization have continued. Many dramatic
changes have occurred within the last 25 years, as both the Bolivian
and Peruvian governments have undertaken programs of land reform and
programs aimed at rural development and the incorporation of indigenous
populations into the national mainstream.

The majority of Aymara are dependent on agriculture for at least part
of their subsistence. A variety of crops is grown, the most important
being potatoes, quinoa, and barley. Regional variations in principal
crops follow variations in the environment. Animal husbandry is a
secondary activity, with sheep, llamas, cattle, and alpacas being
the main domestic animals. Fishing is widespread, but its economic
significance varies regionally. In a few areas around Lake Titicaca,
it is the dominant activity. Migratory labor of various types, part-time
craft specialization, and marketing round out the picture of major
economic activities.

Important shifts in economic structure and activities have taken place
in the past few decades. Previous to land reform programs, the majority
of the altiplano lands were held by owners of large estates (haciendas
or latifundia). Many Aymara were dependents of these estates, exchanging
labor or crops for usufruct rights to arable lands. The exploitative
nature of the hacienda system is well documented in the Latin American
literature. Other Aymara lived in free communities, where they held
lands, but were subject to enroachment by the landed estates. Further,
much of their produce was siphoned off by profiteering middlemen on
whom they were dependent for cash needs. Migratory labor, usually
on a temsporary basis, provided an alternative for those who could
not make a living in the altiplano.

Land tenure has changed with the breaking up and redistribution of
hacienda lands to former serfs. The primary productive activities
(agriculture, fishing, and crafts) are responsive not only to subsistence
needs but to market demands as well. Marketing has become an increasingly
important activity, with Aymara replacing non-Aymara middlemen. Migration,
both temporary and permanent, to obtain wage-paying jobs has increased.
Like other twentieth-century peasant groups, the Aymara are increasingly
linked to a cash economy and respond with shifts in their adaptive
strategies and consumption demands.

Aymara social organization is highly variable and has been adapted
to local and temporal economic and political forces. The most common
domestic unit is the patrilocal extended family, residing in either
a single household or a compound. Composition of this unit changes
with time. Daughters tend to marry out, while newly-married sons tend
to reside with their fathers until they can establish separate households,
either within the compound or elsewhere. Traditionally, new houses
were built on land supplied by the fathers, but increasing access
to economic alternatives has led to a shortening of the period of
dependency and an increase in neolocal residence. Economic cooperation
among extended family members is usual, but the amount of interdependence
again is variable, and changes have resulted from changes in economic
activities and the land tenure system.

The patrilineal emphasis in Aymara kinship relations seems to be undergoing
a change to bilaterality. Fictive kinship ties are formed through
compadrazgo (the establishment of coparent and god-parent ties at
baptism, marriage, and other events). These ties may be horizontal
(linking equals) or vertical (linking the poorer to the richer and
cross-cutting ethnic boundaries). Marriage restrictions ideally extend
out to second cousins.

Those related by compadrazgo are also prohibited from marriage. The
traditional form of marriage, where the parents made elaborate arrangements,
has declined, while elopements have become the most common form. Monogamy
is the rule, but there is a sort of trial marriage period, during
which the couple live together before going through the formal wedding
ceremony. Marriage marks adulthood; after marriage a man can participate
in the decision-making processes of the community. Infanticide and
abortion are frowned upon, but practiced.

Community organization and linkages to the national government again
are variable. There are differences both between and among Peruvian
and Bolivian communities, hacienda communities, ex-hacienda communities
and free communities, and towns and villages. Tschopik, for example,
writing in the 1940s, differentiated between nucleated settlements,
which were divided into "moieties," and dispersed settlements, which
were divided into sociogeographical units called ayllus, headed by
the hilaquata (jilacata) and an informal advisory council. Each ayllu
was usually composed of several unrelated extended families and tended
to be endogamous (Tschopik 1946: 538-541).

The Buechlers, on the other hand, compare the differences in organization
between a free community and a hacienda community, before and after
government reform programs, and note that the structures they have
described are but two of the many variants to be found in Bolivia
(Buechler and Buechler 1971: 5-7, 50-67, 104-107). Access to leadership
roles within communities tends to be based on prestige. Traditional
routes to prestige included community service, sponsorship of rituals,
and becoming a specialist in magic. Newer routes to prestige mobility
include accumulation of wealth, military service, and an ability to
manipulate extracommunity ties and organizations.

Aymara supernatural beliefs and practices are a blend of aboriginal
(Aymara and Quechuan) traits with elements derived from Christian
missionaries. The imposition of Spanish Catholicism was the most widespread
and influential of the missionizing efforts, but it is worth noting
that Protestant missionaries have made inroads during the twentieth
century. Aboriginal traits include beliefs in a number of nature spirits.
Magicians, who become so by "being called by God," serve as mediators
with the supernatural realm by performing magical rituals (e.g. seances,
weather magic, and fertility rituals) and by divination. They may
also take part in curing when the disease is diagnosed as having a
supernatural aspect. They also perform sorcery.

Private rituals and feasts mark life crisis events, the most important
being baptism, the first haircut, marriage, and death. Elaborate fiestas
dedicated to the devotion to particular saints and the pursuit of
more secular enjoyments (drinking, dancing, eating, visiting, and
marketing) are community events, although sponsorship and organization
of the fiesta fall to particular individuals known as cargueros. In
some communities the cargo offices are arranged in a prestige hierarchy
based on the importance of the fiesta and the costliness of sponsorship.

The classical civil-religious hierarchy, in which a man achieves high
prestige and community importance by serving alternately in hierarchically
ranked civil and religious offices, may be found in some Aymara communities,
but for the most part the two systems are separate.

The ethnographic literature on the Aymara may be divided spatially
between sources focusing on Peru and those focusing on Bolivia. This
division reflects important differences between these two countries
in terms of political linkages and government policy affecting the
Aymara. The literature may also be divided temporally, with the major
break in the twentieth century ethnographic accounts of the Aymara
falling between those studies done from 1900 to 1942 and those done
in the 1950s and 1960s. This temporal aspect is important, both in
relation to shifts in government policies toward the Aymara and also
in relation to changes in ethnographic interests and methods.

Culture summary by Eleanor C. Swanson and Robert O. Lagace



Bouroncle Carreon, Alfonso.
 Contribucion al estudio de los Aymaras [Contribution to the study of the Aymara].
 America Indigena, 24 (1964): 129-169, 233-269.
 Buechler, Hans C. The Bolivian Aymara.
 By Hans C. Buechler and Judith-Maria Buechler.
 New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
 12, 114 p. illus., map.
 Carter, William E. Aymara communities and the Bolivian agrarian reform.
 Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1965.
 5, 90 p. illus., maps, tables.
 La Barre, Weston.
 The Aymara Indians of the Lake Titicaca plateau, Bolivia.
 Menasha, American Anthropological Association, 1948.
 250 p. illus.
 Plummer, John F. Another look at Aymara personality.
 Behavior Science Notes, 1 (1966): 55-78.
 Steward, Julian H. Native peoples of South America.
 By Julian H. Steward and Louis C. Faron.
 New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1959.
 Tschopik, Harry, Jr.
 The Aymara.
 In Julian H. Steward, ed.
 Handbook of South American Indians.
 v. 2.
 Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1946: 501-573.
 Vellard, Jehan.
 Etudes sur le Lac Titicaca, VIII, Origine des populations indigenes actuelles du haut plateau [Studies about Lake Titicaca, VIII, Origin of the contemporary indigenous populations of the high plateau].
 Travaux de l'Institut Francais d'Etudes Andines, 7 (1959-60): 1-27.
 Voegelin, Carl F. Languages of the world: native American fascicle two.
 By Carl F. Voegelin and Florence M. Voegelin.
 Anthropological Linguistics, 7 (Oct.
 1965).


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