ITATIONÍOJECT

COORDINATION ANDINFORMATION CENTER

Operated by The CDMAssociates

Sponsored by the U. S. Agencyfor International Development

1611 N. Kent Street, Room 1002Arlington, Virginia 22209 USA

Telephone: (703) 243-8200Telex No. WUI 64552

Cable Address WASHAID

iNlERNATiOMAL REFERENCE CENTREFOR COMMUNITY WATER SUPPLY ANDSANITATION (ÍKC) • • •

SOCIOCULTURAL AND -'ECONOMICCHARACTERISTICS OF CONDITIONS

JN ANCAS AND LA LIBERTAD, PERU

WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE

CALLEJONES DEMUAYLAS

AND CONCHUCOS:

IN AN EVALIÍAT1ON OF

CARE-SPONSORED W>\TE^ SEWAGE

AND HEALTH PROJECTS

WASH FIELD REPORT NO. 1

NOVEMBER 1980

I he WASH Project is managedby Camp Dresser & McKee

(Cooperating Institutions andsubcontractors aro1: Interna-tional Science and TechnologyInstitute; Research InanglcInstitute; University oí NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill;Georgia Institute oí Tech-nology—Engineering fxpen-ment Station.

Prepared For:The U.S. Agency for International Development

\po

SOCIO-CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICSOF CONDITIONS IN ANCASH AND LA LIBERTAD, PERU

WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE CALLEJONESDE HUAYLAS AND CONCHUCOS:QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED

IN AN EVALUATION OF CARE-SPONSORED WATER,SEWAGE AND HEALTH PROJECTS

by

Charlotte I. Miller, Ph.D.Consulting Anthropologist

CDM WASH Project

Submitted to:

Anamaria V. LongUSAIDPPC/E/PES

LIBRARY, INTERNATIONAL INFERENCECENTRE r-OR COM?/];...¡MiTV WAT-W SUPPLYAMD SA¡ ' . : ; Í A•;•!•;,N n :c)

P.O. Box 931 GO. 2 J O 9 AO 7 ho Hague

Tel. 1070) 814911 e;,t. 141/142

RN-L 0 :

Washington, D.C.November, 1980

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Number

Acknowledgements v

Summary: Implications of Socio-Culturaland Economic Findings 1

Purpose 4

Information-Gathering Procedures 4

Geography and Ecology 4

Demographic Trends 9

General Statistics 9

Migration 9

Age Proportions 11

Household Size 11

Health of Children 12

Economic Patterns 14

Land Tenure 14

Agricultural Practices 15

Household Division of Labor 16

Other Income-Producing Activities 18

Animals 19

Rural Wage Labor 19

Artisan Crafts 19

Urban Wage Labor 20

Mining 21

Marketing 21

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Page Number

Rural Labor Arrangements 21

Contractual 21

Cooperative 23

Employer-Employee 24

Transportation Linkages 24

Other Socio-Cultural Patterns 24

Language Use 25

Household Structure 26

Life Cycle Changes 27

Marriage 28

Trial Marriage 28

Legal and Religious Marriage 28

Activities 29

Child-rearing 29

Food Preparation, Diet and Kitchen 29

Crafts 31

Animals 31

Clothing 31

Bathing 31

Elimination and Toilet Training 31

Education 32

Informal 32

Formal 32

Rituals and Taboos 32

Curing 33

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Page Number

Susto 33

Agüitas 33

Birthing 33

Summary of Recommendations for EvaluationFieldwork 34

Bibliography 36

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIG.

FIG.

FIG.

FIG.

FIG.

1 .

2

3

4

5

Page Number

Map of Ancash 6

Agro-Climatic zones in theCallejón de Huaylas 8

Direction of EmigrationCallejón de Huaylas 10

Population Trends, Callejónde Huaylas, 1532-1970 13

Proportional OccupationalStructure by Province, Callejónde Huaylas, 1967 22

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for theircooperation in helping me to put together this information.

Ms. Sallie AlvinDr. Leslie A. BrownriggMs. Margaret A. BrushDr. Stephen B. BrushDr. Paul DoughtyMs. Polly DoughtyDr. Stephen W. DudasikMr. Joseph HarataniMs. Rita JanMs. Anamaria V. LongDr. Anthony Oliver-SmithDr. Margaret A. PierceDr. Robert Werge

Dr. Barbara 0. Bode

USAID/PPCAMARU IV CooperativeWashington, DCNational Science FoundationUniversity of FloridaGainesville, FLBoone, NCUSAID/NEUSAID/PPCUSAID/PPCUniversity of FloridaValdosta State, Valdosta, GAOffice of International CourseDevelopment and OverseasTraining/USDAFordham University

I would also like to thank the staff at the Microfilmreading room at the Library of Congress for their assis-tance in obtaining dissertation materials.

I would also like to express my thanks to Charles Pineo andMary Elmendorf for directing me to some existing studies onthis subject.

SUMMARY:IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIO-CULTURAL

AND ECONOMIC FINDINGS

The following discussion is based on the more detailed socio-cultural description contained in the body of this report.

Ecology. Water and sanitation practices will vary considerablyin the study areas because of differences in altitude, avail-ability of and closeness to sources of water, and populationdensity. For example, bathing will be much more frequentin urban areas than in rural areas. Closeness to largecities and towns, location on rivers or near the puna (tundra),use of irrigation in agriculture all will cause variationseven in small communities of the same size.

Demography. Women are more numerous in small communitiesand are the decision-makers in terms of water and sanitationpractices. They are the teachers of elmination and washingpractices to their children: the how and the where of hy-giene. Good projects in water and sanitation will focuson female participation. Because of male migration to urbanareas and back, men may be a resource for introducing inno-vations: brushing teeth, toilet paper, kitchen equipmentand hygiene practices. The women will decide, however,whether to adopt the innovations.

Health of Children. Women have an over-riding concern forthe health of their children. They are aware of the factthat many of their children die. However, because theirtheories of disease origin are often different from thatof "modern" medicine, the adoption of sanitary practiceswill not be necessarily linked to disease and would notbe as high as might be expected. For example, boiling waterhas such great cost in fuel, time and convenience that giventhe lack of belief in the germ theory, women will not adoptthe practice.

Economic Patterns. The fact that fields are scattered andthe peasants have animals as well as fields means that peoplecover a wide geographical territory in their daily roundof activities. The improvement of sanitary facilitiesin agricultural villages, therefore, may not be adequate

for daytime needs of agricultrual workers who include men,women and children. The provision of public toilets andother sanitation facilities in market places, on the otherhand, will meet a great need on certain days when thereis a great increase in population density in market towns.

Rural-Urban Migration. Women wno migrate to cities towork as domestics or to become traders, as well as menwho work in various types of urban jobs, also becomebearers of changes in sanitation and water practices whenreturning for periodic visits to rural communities forholidays such as Christmas, Easter, or the national holidays(fiestas patrias). These people become cultural brokerswho have been exposed to soaps, detergents, flush toilets,recreational swimming, showers, tubs and indoor plumbing.These features are associated with urban life, a muchmore prestigeous way to live than its rural counterpart.This is a major motivating factor which is increasingadoption rates of modern health and sanitation practices.It may be important to know that those change agents canbe used in projects to reinforce new behaviors whichprojects are attempting to introduce.

Communal Labor. Not all small towns have a legallyconstituted comunidad campesina (peasant community). Forthis and other reasons such as barrio (neighborhood)rivalry and other forms of factionalism, communities varya lot in terms of internal cohesion. The basic workgroup which could be called upon to implement a self-helpproject and the strength and reliability of that workgroup will also vary considerably depending on the internalsocial organization of the village. The decision-makingprocess is one of consensus arrived at in public assemblies.Officials (autoridades) in these communities may beextremely limited in their abilities to implement projectswhich have not met with the approval of a consensus,usually arrived at after lenghty public discussion over aperiod of weeks or months.

The difficulty of implementing sewage projects maybe linked to an inability to reach a consensus on theimportance of that way of removal of human wastes fromthe environment. The lack of modern sanitary facilitiesand sewage systems should not be construed as a lack ofa system for dealing with excreta. In Andean highlandcommunities, animals, particularly dogs and swine eathuman exreta and are kept, in part, to provide that serviceto the household. In addition, the cool and relativelydry climate inhibits the growth of micro-organisms whichat a lower altitude would be a more serious source of

disease. These two factors combine to minimize the spreadof disease through the fecal-oral contimination channels.

Language Use. The dominate use of Quechua by women inthese communities presents a serious barrier to communicatingwith them, the households' water and sanitation decision-makers. It is important to measure the degree to whichprojects have been able to overcome that barrier inreaching the target populations. The exclusive use ofQuechua, on the other hand, by outside change agents maybe viewed as depreciating and condescending by ruralresidents who are used to using Spanish in the publicsphere an in dealing with outsiders. Sensitivity tothis issue by project members is a factor to be lookedfor in project evaluation.

Household Structure. The physical structure of villageresidences promotes a multiple use of spaces especially inthe inner patio. The patio of most homes serves as themajor area for cooking, small animal husbandry, storage,visiting, bathing and even sleeping, under the overhang inthe best times of year. This multiple use of space isefficient for the needs of such households. Water orsanitation practices which would require the settingaside of segregated or private areas exclusively forhygiene might be viewed as highly costly. The buildingof a latrine which occupies a large proposition of asmall patio would be difficult for most families tojustify. Household resources, already strained by pooreconomic conditions in the agricultural sector and theeconomy in general cannot be expected to have a lot ofleeway for costly imported items. The introduction ofsuch a simple practice as washing hands before cooking,in fact, involves a complex of behaviors, including theconvenience of basins, soaps, towels and storage facilitiesto the water source. The associated goods cost moneywhich require cash purchase, and cash, in these communitiresis relatively difficult to get.

Education. Knowledge about sanitation and modern practicesis present in most villages through cultural brokers. Theuse of educational or training strategies to accomplishthe adoption of innovation in this sector, linked tothese projects, is important to note. When Peruvian,urban, middle-class outsiders go to these communities ashealth agents or teachers, they often do so with a tragicmixture of consescention and ignorance about local,rural conditions. Rural residents have learned to respondto such outsiders with resignation and passive resistance.They are likely to give overt agreement to theories and

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practices which are imported by such agents from the outside,but in practice are very selective in experimenting with andadopting innovations. Knowledge and positive appreciationof rural conditions is greatly lacking among officialchange agents.

A summary of recommendations for evaluation field work pro-cedures will be found at the end of this report.

PURPOSE

This paper is prepared to provide a PPC evaluation teamwhich is reviewing CARE-implemented water, sewage andhealth projects in Ancash and La Libertad, Peru, withinformation on socio-cultural and economic patterns inhighland (sierra) portions of those departments. Sincemost of the CARE projects covered in this evaluation arelocated in the Callejones de Huaylas and Conchucos, thispaper will focus on information relating specifically tothose valleys. Since 1952 many anthropological studieshave been conducted in the Callejón de Huaylas. However,the data base for the Callej6*n de Conchucos and theChimbóte areas (also sites of sub-projects) is verylimited. Therefore, this paper reflects that limitation.

INFORMATION-GATHERING PROCEDURES

This report was prepared by reviewing published works,Ph.D. dissertations, government and international organi-zation documents and statistical abstracts. In addition,the author interviewed approximately ten social scientistsand other long term residents of the region to obtaintheir perceptions concerning aspects of the evaluation,especially about specific observations referring towater use, excreta disposal and sanitary conditions invarious sierra communities. These procedures were conductedover a period of twelve working days between October 30,1980 and November 14, 1980. Most of the data is onAncash due to the lack of much published information onLa Libertad. Brush's community study of Uchucmarca(1977) is, however, in La Libertad.

GEOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY

Geography. The area in which evaluation will take placeincludes portions of the departments of Ancash and La

Libertad. The department of Ancash has surface area of36,308 square kilometers and covers areas of costal,sierra and lowland jungle (see FIG. 1). As of 1978,population was estimated at 726,665. The altitude in thesierra portions ranges from 2000 to 22,000 meters abovesea level. The valley floor of the Callejón de Huaylas 'ranges from a little over 3000 to 2000 meters in altitude.The capital of Ancash is Huaraz, a city of approximately40,000 inhabitants, located at the southern end of theCallejón at 3050 meters above sea level. The Santariver, which forms the Calle jóla, has created one of onlythree major arable intermontane valleys in the sierra ofPeru (the other two being the Mantaro and the Cuzcoregions). In terms of general prosperity the Callejónde Huaylas is neither as wealthy as the Mantaro valleynor as poor as the Cuzco. The Mantaro region is unusuallywell off due to its proximity to Lima for marketing itsagricultural and mineral products, while the Cuzco regionis considerably poorer due to loss of agricultural produc-tion as a result of endemic drought.

The Callejón de Huaylas is a significant and spectacularpart of the Santa riverine system, often referred to bythe tourist agencies as the "Switzerland of Peru."Towns and villages are strung out along the river banksof the valley floor, with a few located along the lowerreaches of its major tributaries. Agricultural landsare situated on the slopes and foothills of the twomountain ranges, the Cordillera Negra to the west and thesnow-covered Cordillera Blanca to the east, forming thevalley. The so-called left (west) bank is very sharplyinclined, dryer and less irrigable than the right, whichis somewhat more gradual in sl<jpe and therefore moredensely populated. The Callejón de Conchucos is a valleyin the western part of Ancash, formed by the Mosna riverwhich flows into the Maranon in a northwestern direction.It is linked to the Callejón de Huaylas by a gravel roadwhich passes through Recuay, to the south of Huaraz, Itis a narrower and more isolated valley than the Callejónde Huaylas, which is linked to Lima by a paved highway.

The Department of La Libertad had a surface area of23,241 square kilometers. As of 1978, a source reportedits population as 606,368, of which its coastal capital,Trujillo, accounted for well over half, around 350,000inhabitants.

Ecology. In the northern sierra, typically, the weatheris dry, meaning rains every other day or so, from Decemberto April. However, rainfall has been extremely limited

-5-

' ^ ^ A & ö l H A'aSÍt AA- ANCASHCap : HUARA2LA LIBERTAD

O .»0 3Ü CI 30 «i*

Reprinted from: Pedro Felipe Cortázared., Documental del Peru: Departamento deAncash. Series I, Vol. 2, Lima, 1966ioppw> s-a.

-6-

during the past two years. Huaraz, at approximately 3050meters altitude has a usual temperature range from freezingto approximately 68°F or 26° C.

Water is an extremely limiting factor on expanding agricul-tural production and livestock raising to additional lands.Frosts, in the southern portions of the Callejó'n deHuaylas and in the higher zones of arable land (above3200 meters) prevent a greater degree of multiple cropping.Frosts do not usually occur below 3000 meters altitude.There are glacial lakes and streams of glacial run-offthrough-out the eastern side of the Callej6*n de Huaylas,originating in the Cordillera Blanca. This water sourceis less effected by short term climatic changes. Thesestreams allow a high degree of irrigation agriculture onthe east bank (right side), while dry farming (rainfalldependent) is practice on the west. Doughty reports thatin 1979-1980, agriculture in non-irrigated lands nearHuaylas in the northern end of the Callejón was greatlyreduced by drought (1980).

The ecology of the Callejó'n de Huaylas (in its southernmore broad portion) was studied by a team of agriculturaleconomists from CIMMYT, who were looking at maize producersin 1976-1978. Benjamin (1979: p.7) reports three agro-climatic zones for the valley: low (2,400-2,600 meters)above sea level, intermediate (2600-3000 meters) andhigh (300-3500) (see FIG. 2). He reports that availabilityof irrigation and socio-economic complex made up of farmsize, crop commercialization and variety of seed usedwere the key factors influencing farm decision-making.Rain-fed farmers were found mostly in the high agro-climaticzone on the west bank of the valley, where rainfall wasreportedly more plentiful. He also reports that therewere three distinctive categories of farmers by farmsize and crop commercialization: (1) small farmer-peasantaveraging 1.6 hectares (less than 3 hectares); (2) mediumsized farmer-peasant, commercial, averaging 2.9 hectares(3 to 7 hectares); and (3) large farmer and agrarianreform communal property, averaging 26.3 hectares (morethan 7 hectares). Benjamin reports that small farmersare distributed in the intermediate and high zones,while medium sized farmers are found in the low zones(where they have bought out smaller farmers to producetruck garden crops for Lima via the new paved road).Large farms were found in the two upper zones. In theCallejö*n de Huaylas, maize was a very important subsistancecrop, since 80% of maize surface is cultivated by smallfarmers. (This differs from the higher Mantaro andCuzco regions where many parts are too high for successful

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F I G . 2; AGRO-CLIMATIC ZONES IN CALLEJÓN DE HUAYLAS/^

1 I 2- In1trm«diott

3-High

«lib. fronàscoroso*c.

2,400 - 2,600 m .2,600 - 3,000 m.3,000 - 3,500 m.

x , o-,q\

maize cultivation.) Benjamin also reports that off-farmincome is extremely important for small and medium farmfamilies. The males work as agricultural wage laborersfor others in the planting and harvesting season, migratingto industrial jobs in the two slack periods of agriculturaldemand: August to September and February to March.

Benjamin also states that approximately a third of themale farmers devote more time to off-farm activities thanon-farm activities. (See below for a discussion of migration.)

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

General Statistics. Peru has a rapidly growing populationtotaling over 17 millions by 1979 by most estimates (USDC/BC: p. 181). Its growth rate is estimated to range between2.5% (Ibid.) and 2.9% (USAID Mission to Peru, CDSS FY 81).

Over 100,000 people live in Callejón de Huaylas, outof a total Ancash population of approximately 750,000(This statistic is rather shaky and an attempt to getmore recent and better population data from local sourcesis advised.) The loss of tens of thousands of lives inthe earthquake of May 31, 1970 drastically reduced thepopulation size of the valley. Some estimates are ashigh as 70,000 deaths. Dudasik reports a slightly higherbirthrate for the valley at 39/1000 population (1978:p. 104) than for Peru as a whole 38/1000 population(USDC/BC: p.181). According to the Bureau of the Census,birthrates for Peru as a whole have been decreasingslightly from 40/1000 population in 1972 to 38/1000population in 1975.

Migration. The Callejô*n de Huaylas has experienced ahigh degree of outmigration (emigration) in recent years,largely destined for Lima (see FIG.3). The majority ofmigrants are reportedly male. This trend seems to holdtrue for steps in the migration process. The smallestcommunities are losing the most adult men. Dudasikreports this for Marian, a village only 3 kilometers fromHuaraz (1978): p. 108). However, small rural villagesprobably tend to lose young people (post primary schoolof both sexes, although predominantly male) to regionalcenters for employment opportunities and schooling. Inmy experience in the central sierra, many young people tryto escape to the towns as soon as there is an excuse,such as advancing schooling, to get away from the heavyand boring chores which are often their responsibilitiessuch as animal tending and searching for wood fuel.

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; v ^ ' - £

Dota «ourei. Ptru, Censo Nacional dê Población, (961

CALLEJOS DE

1 1 : f ' i¿i; ••*i¡s-'"-^' -:

ANCASH COAST 2 7 X

CENTRAL SIERRA

2 %

' • • V

MONTAfiA ANO SELVA

O 4 %

SOUTH SIERRA1 3 %

N.K.W.

REPRINTED FROM N y l e K. W a l t o n , HXJMñN SPATIAL ORGANIZATION IN AN ANDEAN • ,VAIXEYr THE C3UL.I.E.TOW DF, HTTaVT.AÍ! PP.TíTT ÍD>> T> /H s e a i - > s f i nm 1 O 1 ^ P*

Stein reports that the small towns, district andprovincial capitals included, have experienced a declinein population, over the past few generations, although hepresents no statistical data to support his contention.^(1974:3) He points out that rural areas, in the Callejónde Huaylas, like Vicos, have exprienced no populationdecline, while towns such as Marcará and Carhuaz whichwere largely destroyed in the disaster of 1970, have lostmany survivors. Furthermore, Stein attributes small town—Huaraz and small town—Uma migration to the socio-economic reforms of the Velasco government which greatlyfavored urban industrial classes over rural ones, especiallytownsmen and rural landlords (1974: 3). Stein points outthat industrialization has been emphasized by nationalpolicy at the expense of rural sectors through sucheconomic policies as allowing pre-expropriationdecapitalization of rural enterprises, indeminificationof expropriated proprietors which allowed them to re-invest in the safer urban sectors, passage of highlyadvantageous labor legislation which greatly benefitedurban industrial workers, and severe price controls whichrequired famers to produce foods for market below costresulting from subsidized imported foods for urbanconsumers. These policies resulted, says Stein, in theelimination of investment in agricultural activities forall levels of land tenure, and the great reduction ofinvestment in agricultural research and extension activities.

Age Proportions, Because of migration patterns, existingstatistics are inadequate to describe the age pyramiddifferences among community nucleuses of different sizes.However, for Peru as a whole, 43% of the population isunder age 15. (CDSS FY 81). Because of what we knowabout birth rates, we would expect a larger young populationin rural sierra areas, accounting for infants and children.(We would also expect a larger proportion of women.)Nationally, only 4% of the population is over 65 years ofage. We would expect these people to be mostly found inurban costal areas due to the stress of high altitude onthe elderly causing a higher mortality and emigrationrate. Dudasik's study supports these conclusions usingdata from the village of Marian. (1978: pp. 106-108).

Household Size. Dudasik reported that household size forthe Callej5h de Huaylas as a whole was approximately 7members per household. In Marian, he found it substantiallyreduced: 4 members per houselhold. This finding mightindicate that in general, households in small communitiesin the highlands are impacted greatly by outmigration,which in turn influences household size. Mayer's study

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of a sierra community in Cerro de Pasco, a contiguousdepartment to Ancash, emphasizes not size of household,but its composition. He found a significant number ofhouseholds withoug a male head, but none without adultwomen (and only 3 men lived alone). He also found that athird of the households in his study had more than oneadult woman, while nearly half have only one male. (1974:p. 57). He suggested that the labor of men could bereplaced by hired help, but the labor of women in farmmanagement, child care and food processing was irreplacable.He also found that houselholds with absent males had ahigher socio-economic status than those with men presentand those without any men at all (1974: p. 75). Yhiscorrelates strongly with Benjamin's finding that off-farmincome is extremely significant. Mayer reports that mostabsent men (59%) were employed in blue collar (industry,mining and construction), skilled trades and white collarjobs (1974: p. 75), while the rest were involved inagricultural labor elsewhere, self-employement orschooling. Women migrants, Mayer found, were a third innumber of men and had fewer opportunities in a morerestricted list of occupational categories. Most of them(54.9%) were engaged in trade and agriculture, while therest worked as domestics, went to school or lived withrelatives. This statistic in itself tends to show thatmost modern sector jobs tend to favor men. While Mayer'sstudy is not precisely on the study area of this evaluation,the region is similar to Ancash, with the possibleexceptions that mining is not a significant occupationalcategory for Ancashino migrants, and coastal plantationagriculture at large sugar plantations is more significantin Ancash. In many ways, however, the work of men in acompany mining town like La Oroya (in Junin) and a coastalplantation like Paramonga is both socially and economicallysimilar. The employer is a total institution; the employeehas much competition for employment.

Health of Children. Children are strikingly unhealthy inPeru and especially in the sierra. Specific statisticsfor the study region were available, but can be assumedto be similar to general statistics for rural Peru. Ingeneral, 48.4% of deaths are children under 5 (CDSS FY81). Of those, 60% are attributable to "malnutrition-related" diseases, spread by poor sanitary conditions.Malnutrition reduces resistance and poor sanitationensures infection (Harrison 1977: p. 411). The statisticson infant mortality (under age 1) are complex, but indicatea high rate, whatever figures one uses. Peru has aninfant mortality rate of between 130/1000 live births(USDC/BC: p.181) and 148/1000 live births (Hobbs and

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^Thousands

- 1 3 -

FIGURE 4

1Ö0

160

120

100

8o

6o

Uo

20

h:X

. Pre-Conquest3:1 • population

according toprojectedestimations

• *

• •

I97O sfcihouaiie end a

1962 Ranrahirca avalancha ; !.;

1

Indian »,Population

175** 1795 18^2 137Í 19U0 196:.l ; (

1500 I6OO • 1700i

1800 1900

• P0PUUTI0K TP.Ein)S .CALLEJ<5Í! PE KÜAYLAS, 1532-1970

Various data sources BICWReprinted from Nyle K. Walton, Human Spatial Organization in anAndean Valley: The Callejó'n de Huaylas, Peru (Ph.D. Dissertation,1974, University of Georgia) 280 p. *p. 23.

Arriaga, 1980). The USAID Mission to Peru estimates thatin the most deprived regions such as the southern sierra,infant mortality is around 200/1000 live births (CDSS FY81). The generally poor health of children and theirpoor survival rate contributes to family decisions tohave large numbers of children, a rate suspected to betwice as high in the sierra as on the coast. However,overall, Peru's fertility seems to be gradually decliningfrom 6.04/woman in 1962 to 5.61/woman in 1975 (USDC/BC:p. 183). A caveat should be issued here that severalstatisticians have called the quality of Peru's quantitativedata into question, including Hobbs and Arriaga (1980).

ECONOMIC PATTERNS

Peru in general has been characterized by a largely ruraland agrarian population which is becoming increasinglyurbanized. Much of the push for migration can be foundin an understanding of land tenure and carrying capacityof land. The growing rural population of the highlandsis rapidly reaching its carrying capacity; that is, itcannot support the population growth with the relativelyscarce agricultural lands of the sierra.

Land Tenure. The reforma agraria (agarian reform) was anattempt to redistribute land in order to redress theextremely unequal and discriminatory land tenure patternswhich prevailed in pre-revolutionary Peru. The reformoperated on the hypothesis that the limiting factor toeconomic justice was ownership of resources. However,according to Matos Mar in an article in Caretas, a Peruviannews magazine, in 1979, the reform influenced the livesof a small percentage of farmers, around 20%, implyingthat 80% were not influenced. However, statistics from pre-revolutionary Peru indicate that 93% of the arable landwas owned by the upper 10% of the population, while 0.1%of the land was owned by the remaining 80%. In the lightof these figures, 20% experiencing improvement can bea very significant change (ALLDATA: PERU).

Nevertheless, the basic imbalances remain, with largestate-owned cooperatives, managed by technocrats from theoutside, taking the place of elite-owned latifundia.Futhermore, the state lacks capital to invest in theseenterprises which were frequently decapitlized by theirprior owners before expropriation. Therefore, farm sizeremains small for the average farmer. See above discussionof farm size under Ecology. The economic decision-makingof small farmers differs from that of medium and largefarmers in Peru and in the Callejón de Huaylas inparticular, as discussed above (Benjamin, 1979).

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The Callejón de Huaylas was an area with early experimen-tation with communal ownership of large estates whichhappened in Vicos under the sponsorship of the Cornell-Peruproject in the 1950s and 1960s. A young anthropologistwho worked on the Vicos project, Mario Vasquez, becamethe head of the reforma agraria under the Velasco government.(He now is an employee of a united Nations entity inCentral America.) When I visited the Callejón de Huaylasin 1977, I visited Vicos. One resident said that thecommunally owned transport was ruined, that there wasmuch dispute about the allocation of choice fields andthat cooperation in general had broken down. An outsideobserver reported that the Vicos community had beendiscriminated against during the agrarian reform infavor of the state-owned enterprises, simply because itwas privately owned. This made the residents bitter.

Agricultural Practices. Small farmers in the sierra of Ancashgrow a complex of crops including maize, wheat, potatoesand barley in roughly the same proportions. Mediumfarmers specialize in maize and a few other marketablecrops. Benjamin also reports that the use of animalmanure was at lower levels in the Callejó"h de Huaylasthan in the Mantaro or Cuzco areas. Higher levels ofchemical fertilizers were used when affordable. Mediumfarmers tended to take entrepreneurial risks by advancingplanting dates of their maize to get better prices.Maize is now grown year around, where it used to be aseasonal crop. Associaterd cropping is common amongsmall farmers, especially the maize-bean complex. TheCallejón de Huaylas, because of lower frost risk, hashigher infestations of plant insects and diseases reportedfor maize. One possible reason for the low usuage ofanimal fertilizer would be the impact of the 1970 earthquakeand the agrarian reform on animal populations. Oliver-Smith reports the fairly rapid and extensive slaughteringof animals for food by survivors of the avalanche andearthquake in the Yungay region of the Callejón (1974).Another factor, the decapitalization of latifundia,involving the slaughter and sale of animals by priorowners, has been allegedly a reason for the lower animalpopulation in Peru since the reform was instituted. Ifthis allegation is valid, this is probably true for thestudy/region as well as Peru in general.

Small farmers who are, in general, less involved in sellingcrops, rarely use technological packages from "modern"agricultural sector. Brush reports for Uchucmarca in LaLibertad that subsistence agriculture is completelyunmechanized and does not include elements such as

-15-

fertilizer, herbicide and insecticide (1977: 91). Inthe Callejón de Huaylas, an area particularly strickenwith crop diseases, according to Benjamin (1979), the useof insecticides is limited to farm operators who have thecash flow generated by their involvement in marketactivities. This is generally true of other available-for-purchase elements such as fertilizers.

As a result, the practice of letting lands lie fallow iscommon when appropriate, especially among subsistencefarmers and some small commercial growers. Brush reportsthat fallow practices vary with the crop produced,availability of rain and/or irrigation waters, altitudeand crop rotation. Tuber crop fields, dryer areas andhigh zone fields are more likely to be fallowed. Fallowplots are left unplanted for from 5 to 15 years inUchucmarca, according to Brush (1977). Mayer reports forthe Central Sierra an average fallow period of 12 yearsfor potato fields. Land devoted to lower altitude crops,such as corn and other cereals are generally not allowedto lie fallow, even among subsistence farming strategies,according to Brush. The use of chemical fertilizersreported by Benjamin and the good linkages to urbanmarkets found in the valley floor of the Callejô*n deHuaylas, bypasses the necessity of fallowing bottom landsthere, but would probably be found in intermediate andhigh zones. Dudasik reports that in Marian, fallow landsare frequently used as pasture (1978: 112).

(Postscript on Land Tenure: Several scholars have decryedthe system of tiny land holdings as a system which exploitssmall farmers (Stein 1974: 4: Walton 1974: 62-3) whileMayer (1979) points out the adaptive advantages accruingto small farmers by diversifying risks through dispersionof micro-holdings throughout a system of discontinuousecological zones.)

Household Division of Labor. Since most households,(excluding residents of provincial capitals Huaraz, Yungayand Caraz) in all provinces of the Callej6*n de Huaylasare self-identified as farmers (Walton 1974: 55), it isinteresting to look at the activities of household members.First, it is important to understand some generalinformation about the division of labor in the region.

General Patterns: The basic division of labor in ruralcommunities (meaning an integrated area with a town ofvillage nucleus and rural hinterland) is determined bysocial class. Older studies [i.e. Barnett (1960) andSnyder (1960) ] use the racial categories of Indian and

-16-

Mestizo (or its Quechua equivalent mishti meaning white)to describe a pattern of social division where Mestizoscontrolled land and access to markets and governmentalservices, while Indians provided manual labor. Stein(1974) prefers to call these classes "countrymen" and"townsmen," and he points out the nature and degree ofpost-Velasco change in rural social structure for thecentral part of the Callejón de Huaylas near Vicos in thefollowing citation:

"...although the power of townsmen in the ruralsector is somewhat reduced, townsmen still exercisean extraordinary degree of 'vertical control' in theheights as petty patrons of small-holdings, asintermediaries in economic transactions, as localand regional authorities, and more recently as repre-sentatives of proliferating national agencies whomake regular trips from their district, provincialand departmental seats into the rural sector toInspect the progress of their rural clients and toannounce new rules and decrees. Townsmen are subjectthemselves to increasing control of the nation,especially Lima, the seat of the system of internaldomination of Peru." (1974: 4-5)

Stein, therefore, feels that little social change in astructural sense has arisen from the agrarian reform inthe CallejíSh de Huaylas. Thus, it seems that the ruralresidents are the clients and employees of the townresidents. (When we say rural residents, here, we meanresidents of smaller population aggregates as well asdispersed households.)

Village and Rural Households. Within households, however,there is a sexual and age grade division of labor, invillages and rural hinterlands alike. Women are involvedin child care, meal preparation, food processing, carryingwater for use within the house, artisan production,especially spinning, knitting and weaving, laundry, house-cleaning (especially firetending and sweeping), agriculturaltasks such as weeding and harvesting, small animal tendingin the kitchens, large animal tending (occasionally) andmarketing activities of artisan goods, and small cropssurpluses. Men are involved in all agricultural tasks,especially felling trees and brush for clearing, plowingand harvesting, wage labor in towns and in rural areasfor cash supplements and in-kind contributions to householdincome, contributions to communal labor projects, largeanimal herding, artisan production, negotiation for saleof crops with intermediaries and other dealings with the

-17-

outside world, especially those that require a command ofSpanish. Children are helpers in many household andagricultural tasks, often assigned according to gender.In addition, children act as apprentices in artisanactivities and help gather firewood, haul water and tendanimals, when they are not in school. Girls as young asfive help with food processing, meal preparation, andinfant care. Boys and girls both help with gatheringwood, hauling water and tending animals. Boys sometimesaccompany their fathers to the fields. Children alsoserve as sentinels in ripening fields, sleeping overnightin little huts of grasses, twigs or cornstalks, calledchozas. Women and girls also can be found in agriculturaltasks at times of intensive labor shortage, especiallyharvest, planting and when men are absent from thehousehold. At one limestone quarry I visited in Junin in1979, all males in a kinship group from age six up wereworking on some tasks ranging from blasting, removing,shoveling, hauling to breaking rocks. The elderly, asmentioned above, are generally absent from rural communities,primarily due to high mortality. Older adults pursuegender-distinguished tasks as they are able. From timeto time, one will see old people carrying burdens ortending animals. Children are also increasingly encouragedto attend school, and when they finish primary school inthe local village, those with ability, interest and themoney for uniforms and books, go to town to attend secondaryschool. (Secondary school may begin at 4th or 5th year.)On these trips, these older children, who are alsoliterate, become very important links with the outsideworld, doing specialized marketing, running errands,maintaining ties with influential kin, and dealing withtown-based institutions.

Other Income-Producing Activities. Most sierra familiesneed a steady source of cash, besides agriculture (Samaneigo1974; Mayer 1974). As Mayer notes for the Mantaro valley,"no Mantaro family can live without a steady source ofcash: the self-sufficiency strategy in agriculture canonly be pursued if there are other sources of cashavailable to the family " (1971: 89). Families andindividuals unable to operate in both worlds are forcedinto commercial agriculture or are driven out of agriculturealtogether into the rural wage labor or urban migrantlabor markets. Only the better-off families are subsistence-based: that is, they grow crops only to feed themselvesand pursue taste rather than market preferences in farmingpractices. Mayer emphsizes the extremely fluid nature ofthe economic strategy system, allowing households toshift from year to year from one strategy to another,depending on the availbility of work elsewhere (1979: 91).

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Animals. Peasant-herders in the high zones often growsubsistence crops to feed household members, while theirmajor income-producing tasks are animal husbandry related,keeping sheep, llamas and alpacas. However, many householdswhich do not specialize in animal husbandry keep animalsto improve the possibilities of cash flow in theirhouseholds, a stored, moveable and relatively non-perishableresource. Cattle, poultry, swine and guinea pigs (cuyes)are also kept, especially at the lower altitudes. Animalsmay be slaughtered to get cash for a particular purpose.

Rural Wage Labor. According to Brush, in areas likeUchucmarca in isolated La Libeitad, there are two kindsof non-reciprocal labor: labor for cash called jornaland labor for an in-kind payment called minga. Themajority of these arrangements is under the category ofminga in isolated areas, with payment in crops ratherthan cash (Brush 1977: ). Often jornal arrangementsare combinations of cash, liquor (aguardiente), cocaleaves and lunch (merienda). From my experience, thisdefinition of jornal is common throughout the sierra.According to Brush, the crop payments are usually worthmore than jornal payments, but sources of cash are scarce.In an area with better internal transportation, thissituation may be more favorable for laborers when theremight be competition among employers for scarce outmigratinglabor. On the other hand, employers might import laborersfrom more povery-stricken, desperate southern regions suchas Puno or Ayachucho. (This was a pattern in Junin.)

Artisan Crafts. According to Pierce's interview, beforethe earthquake, artisan crafts in the area were generallyunavailable for sale. They were made in the home forhousehold use, or for gifts to kin on ritual occasions.When a purchaser desired a craft product requiring specialskill, he/she would make a contract with an artisan andgive a downpayment for materials as a guarantee to theartisan. Now, artisan entrepreneurs show their waresregularly in the Huaraz market, where I observed thefollowing products in 1977: stonework, woven goods(saddle bags, ponchos), chairs and basketry. I wouldguess that raw wool, fur and leather goods would beseasonally available from highland Harneros. None of theartisan production of this area is well-known nationallynor has much external market, unlike the central andsouthern sierra. There are no towns I know of whichspecialize in a particular skill such as San Pedro deCajas in Junin which is known for pictorial tapestries.It would be interesting to find out if these activities

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are growing and becoming more commercialized with greaterlinkages to the national capital via the post-earthquakepaved road. One would expect successful artisans whoaccumulate some working capital to relocate in towns tofacilitate marketing. I observed this pattern in Junin.

(Postscript on Rural Wage Labor. It should be emphasizedthat the rural sector of Ancash has a history of providingworkers for coastal agricultural plantations such as Paramonga.)

Urban Wage Labor. The seasonal migration of sierraresidents to towns and cities was a long standing patternwhich has been greatly increased since the 1970 earthquake.Dudasik reports the phenomenon of a "disaster boom economy"in Huaraz which resulted in the monetization of previouslyisolated barter-oriented peasant villages such as Marianon the outskirts of Huaraz. The "boom" was created bythe funding of jobs in clean up and reconsturction projectsfor manual laborers who in general were drawn from theranks of the rural peasantry (1978), Since many of thereconstruction jobs used building materials which wereimported from the outside, the workers required new skillsand understanding of more sophisticated building projects,including the use of reinforced concrete and other "materialesnobles" (top quality building materials as opposed toadobe) required by funding sources. Walton reports thatthe survivors among the townsmen, who were the hardesthit by the disaster in terras of lives and property lost,resented the migration of rural Indians into the towns ofthe Callejón (1974: 204-5). The sharp pre-earthquakesegregated settlement pattern of rural Indians and urban mestizosbecame no longer true with what Walton called the"ruralization" of the towns. The townspeople told Waltonthat they believed "that the Indians were spoiled by thegovernment dole of food and housing materials," after theearthquake. (Ibid.) It should be noted there that nohousing reconstruction project were undertaken by any reliefagencies in rural areas. Therefore, anyone who wantedhelp had to migrate to the towns. However, Waltonpointed out that the real issue, in his estimation, wasthat the "Indians no longer felt compelled to give freelabor to the towns" and that Indians were "demanding moreofficial help, and getting it" (1974: 207). Dudasik'sstudy also demonstrates that Huaraz's businesses experienceda spurt of sales which as of 1975 had surpassed pre-1970sales statistics, illustrating the nature of the spreadof the boom's effect into many areas of economic life there.

Migration to coastal cities is also important. Somemigrants earn money in the rare industrial jobs, unskilled

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construction jobs, vending activities on the streets, oreven in petty thievery. The Thieves Market in La Paradain Lima's run-down downtown district is full of theproducts of the forrays of the under-employed into thecriminal subculture.

Mining. Mineral extration activities are less importantin Ancash, than in some other parts of Peru such afJunin, but there are some areas which have more miningor quarrying than others. In the study region, Recuayprovince shows greater mining activities than other areas(Walton 1974: P. 55; see FIG. 5.) The Callejón deConchucos was the site of an ancient civilization whichinfluenced much of what is now Peru having its headquartersat Chavin. That civilization was known for ancient stoneworking crafts, and the museums of the region have examplesof the stellae and gargoyles of feline figures characteristicof that culture's artisitic style. Today in the marketsof the region, one can find copies of the ancient stonework for sale to tourists.

Mining activities outside the region may attract somemigrants from Ancash and La Libertad. However, it wouldnot be expected to be a large percentage.

Marketing. Marketing of agricultural surpluses andartisan carfts through intermediaries or directly installs (puestos) at markets or fairs is an increasinglycommon way of generating cash for the rural household.The fair circuit, where a market rotates through sevenlocations in each week throughout the region, is relativelynew to the Callejón de Huaylas, due to the recentimprovements in roads which encourage the formation ofmicro-bus companies to service rural towns and villages.Most retail marketers are probably women. The morecapital intensive wholesale operations (intermediariosor mayoristias) are usually men. Women also operaterestuarants and food-sales stands at fairs, fiestas andmarkets which generate cash income for household expenses.

RURAL LABOR ARRANGEMENTS

Contractual. Coastal plantations, at one time, recruitedlaborers through contracts for specific periods of timeincluding the costs of travel to and from the site ofwork. The greater ease of travel and the greater knowledgeof the rights of workers has made workers increasinglyhesitants to enter into such contracts. One would expectto find little of this type of arrangement at present.

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FIGURE 5

i. CCCOPATIOHAÏ, SHUJCTUHE BY PROVIHCE»CAMJEJÍM DS KUAïLftS, 196T .

Province

tfuaylas

ïungay

Carhuaz

Ruaraz

Reeusy

Total

Kuraaer ofFcalliea

3.36T

5,691

T.822

2,669

• PercentAgriculture Pastoral

81.3

&t.k

65.8

82.8

59.5

eo.9

3.3

2 .3

2.1»

' 3.0

12.1

3.8

¡

Mining1

0.2

: 0.0

0.0

2.1

19.9

2.9

Totalntiretl

1

eit.s

66. T

88.2

BT.9

91.5

8T.6

PercentCrafts Troda

k.6

3.8

5.2

6.6

2.5

5.0

1..6

6.0

3.2

2.0

2.8

3.3

Unclascifledlabor

6.6

3.5 :•

3.U

3.5

3.2

k.1

TotalUrban

15.2

13.3

U . 8

12.1

8.5

"Population of the three largest towns, Huaral, ïungay and Caraz, i s excluded.

Data source: Alberto Coluda Isnal, "los Centros Poblados del Callejón de Huaylas,"Cinco Entudloa acerca del Calle.Ton de Huaylaa (Lima: "Instituto Indigenista Peruano, I967),8a. •

1

H S iNylenK' W a } t o n ' H u m a n Spatial Organization in an Andean Valley: Thede Huaylas, Peru (Ph.D. Dissertation 1974, University of Georgia) p! 55.

Cooperative Labor. There are many ways in which ruralresidents enter into agreements to aid one another withtheir labor. Brush describes a "generalized reciprocity"known as volundad or ayuda among the people of UchucmarcaLa Libertad—something we might call "neighborliness."This behavior, of pitching in and helping with whateverwork there is to be done without explicit thought of theeventual return is mostly limited in Peru to close kin.Within the household, there is considerable crossing overgender lines of responsibility to aid other members withtheir tasks (1977: 104). A second type of cooperativelabor can be termed "balanced reciprocity" where a specificservice is offered in exchange for a specific return.The Quechua term for this is huasheo and the services areroughly equal in value (1977: 105). A third kind ofcooperative labor arrangement is that which is requiredby membership in a comunidad campensina. Membership inthe peasant community gives members the right to use landin the community. In return, a member must participatein periodic work obligations, especially the constructionand upkeep of trails, roads, bridges and communityfacilities, such as water systems. The work party,itself, is called a faena. These work parties areorganized as social events with music and refreshments(Brush 1977: 59). More affluent or absent members whowish to retain their membership can pay a fine often infood and drink for those who work.

Another type of cooperative labor exchange is the exchangeof land and labor in sociedad, partnership, a kind ofsharecropping. An owner of an unused plot agrees to leta worker who wishes to cultivate more land than he/shepossesses use his field, providing seed and the servicesof oxen. The worker provides his/her labor. The yieldand extraordinary costs are divided between the twopartners. Another type of labor, similar to the faena,which was traditionally expected of rural residents, wascalled la republica. Until recent years, according toStein, it was customary for Indians to provide gratuitouslabor for town projects, whether or not the workers werebeneficiaries of them. The sorts of projects coveredwere the construction and maintenance of public buildings,roads, bridges and irrigation systems. The labor tributewas levied as a kind of tax on the labor of rural residents.This sort of labor is deeply resented by many Indianswhose relationship to large landowners in the pre-revolutionarydays was similar to that of serfs to manor lords. Indeed,the type of labor tribute described by Stein (1974: 4)is almost identical to patterns common in colonial Peruand feudal Europe. The difference between the faena and

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la repubulica is that the former is decided on by anassembly of comuneros, similar to a town meeting, whilethe latter was assessed of rural residents by theauthorities in the towns. Walton's report above of Indianrefusal to provide services to towns probably refers to larepublica rather than faena labor.

Employer-Employee Relationships. These relationships arediscussed above under Rural Wage Labor. The jornal,daily wage payment, sometimes including liquor, coca andlunch, and the minga, or in-kind crop payment, were thetwo basic forms of payment.

TRANSPORTATION LINKAGES

There are two major paved roads in the study area, the Pan-American Highway which runs along the coast north and south,and the Pativilca-Caraz Highway, built after the earthquakewith relief funds. In terms of regional integration, itshould be noted that major arteries link the localitiesto the national capital rather than together in regionalentities. The road to the Callejón de Conchucos cutsoff to the right of the Pativilca-Caraz Highway betweenTicapampa and Recuay. It is not paved, and is not easilypassed in inclement weather. In fact, during the rainyseason, the paved road to Huaraz was cut by gushingmountain -streams due to the lack of sufficient culvertcapacity in its construction. In 1977, I was stopped atone of those streams, as residents and truck drivers cutaway a part of the road to allow the stream to passunhindered, without further undermining the asphalt.The relatively high number of hamlets 64% of the totalof over 1600 aggregations contained approximately 90% ofthe population in 1961 (Walton 1974: 59). The need forfrequent, closely spaced settlements is related to thelack of affordable transportation for people and goodsto larger commercial centers. Most people in the smallersettlements relied on food transport for meeting theirdaily needs. With a paved road in the Valley, regulartransport services have probably increased. However,many smaller towns, especially those at the higher altitudesremain relatively isolated. To summarize, transportationlinkages are very important in influencing social andeconomic patterns in particular localities.

OTHER SOCIO-CULTURAL PATTERNS

The previous discussion of population patterns and trendsand the economic patterns of the sierra portions of the

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area gives an idea of the broad structure of basic intra-and inter-community relationships. However, for aneffective and accurate evaluation of village water,sanitation and health projects, the evaluation team willfind it useful to take into account several other patternswhich influence construction, use maintenance andreplication of such projects. Specifically, this part ofthis report will deal with language use, householdstructure, education, and rituals and taboos.

LANGUAGE USE

The sierra of Peru is an area where indigenous languagesespecially Quechua and Aymara are widely spoken. As onemoves north, however, the use of Aymara becomes practicallynon-existent and the use of Quechua very limited, as arule. Ancash, in the north-central sierra, is an exceptionto that rule, since it is an enclave of Quenchua-speakingpeople who have but recently become more widely bilingual.Data from the 1950s Indicated that the town-mestizo vs.rural-Indian social and economic barrier was reinforcedby distinctive patterns of language use. Stein describedit as follows.

Townsmen, of course, are literate and speak Spanish,which characteristics separate them from illiterateand Quechua-speaking countrymen whom they refer toas "Indians." Townsmen also speak Quechua, and mayspeak it almost exclusively at home, but tend todeny or hide their skill when they fear being "putdown" for it. Mangin says that they avoid speakingSpanish with servants and members of lower classesbecause they do not wish relations of equalitywith them. (1974: 8)

In other words, traditionally, mestizos maintained theisolation and dependence of Indians by observing thecommunication barrier.

According to recent studies, Bode (1974), Oliver-Smith(1974) and Dudasik (1978) all report a wider use ofSpanish in the Callejón de Huaylas. Bode says that almostall people in the departmental capital of Huaraz knowsome Spanish but communicating in Quechua was equallyeffective (1974). Dudasik reports for Marian that whilethe men are functionally bilingual, the women are likely

to be monolingual in Quechua. Oliver-Smith stated in aninterview that for optimal effective communication in small

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villages and rural areas of the Callejón de Huaylas, Quechuawas very helpful (1980). Doughty reported in the late 1960'sthat the most well-liked and effective of the Peace Corpsvolunteers in Vicos was a young woman who took the time tolearn some Quechua to aid her in her school teaching. Whenthe Peace Corps was removed, she was specifically asked toreturn. (Doughty n.d. 156-157). Brownrigg reports thatAncashino Quechua is substantially different from thatspoken in southern Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, so much soas to be mutally unintelligible.

In summary, Quechua is widely used in the study area, andis likely to be the exclusive language of women in smallvillages hamlets and rural areas. The use of Quechua byoutsiders can be viewed as either an expression of respectfor the local culture or as a symbol of the isolation forthe rural folk. The Quechua of the region is distinctiveand not viewed as intelligible by speakers from other areas.

HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE

The household is a very basic unit of work and mutual aidfor sierra residents. However, the notion of self-sufficiency of the household contained in the concept ofrural peasantry is not a correct understanding of howhouseholds function in highland Peru. Brush (1977) pointsout that households are mutually dependent on one anotherfor various types of aid and support, making the communitythe unit of self-sufficiency rather than the household.

The physical structure of the household reflects themultifunctional nature of the setting. In small townsand hamlets, the front door of the house opens directlyon the street, and often the walls of the house are shared(attached) between neighboring structures. There isusually a side entrance which leads into the patio areain the back of the house. People bring horses into thepatio, in isolated communities, which rely on horse-backtransportation, for the purpose of unloading burdens fromthem such as crops, firewood or saddles. The horses arekept, however, in pastures at some distance from thehouse. The house itself usually consists of an entrywayreception area and one or two bedrooms. These rooms openonto the patio where the kitchen building is often aseparate structure, or perhaps a leanto on the side ofthe main house. The patio is essentially a walled backyardwhere the major part of family daily life takes place.There is usually an overhang from the house roof which

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covers at least a part of the patio area. This overhangwould shelter for drying wet blankets and saddles, orclothes during the rainy season. Another part of thepatio will usually have a little garden with a few herbsand vegetables such as cabbages. A good part of thepatio and kitchen will be devoted to firewood storage.The patio is also used for tethering an animal temporarily—such as a horse for an early morning journey, or ananimal being fattened for killing. Often the patio isused for sorting, drying and processing crops such ascorn and wheat. There is usually a loft above the housewhich is accessed by stairs outside the building or byladder from inside the house. The main purpose of theloft is food and seed storage. It may be floored withwattle and daub or wood planks. The kitchen is keptseparate from the house due to danger of fire. Cuyes(guinea pigs) are kept in the kitchens to protect themfrom animals (dogs, wild animals) and the cold. Dogsare not allowed in the kitchen because the cuyes arethere and because they are viewed as dirty. People donot view dogs as pets or family members, but as watchanimals, a part of the outdoors and nature. The patiowill also house chickens, dogs, and, in some parts ofPeru, rabbits. These animals have no special cages inmost homes—unless one is talking about the urban middleclass or elite. (Steve Brush, personal communication,11/19/80) .

Life Cycle Changes. In all societies a cross-section ofhouseholds at any given point in time will give astatistical description of types of households, but thattype of a study will not necessarily show how a person ora family goes through what Goody has called the developmentalcycle of domestic groups (1956). Mayer's study of aPeruvian sierra community (1974) indicates that the studyof that cycle shows some interesting pattern with respectto the relationship between people and resources. Mayerdescribes five 12-year cycles of a farmer's life duringwhich time he acquires access to increasing parcels ofland through inheritance and marriage, and finally retiringto a more subsistence type of strategy towards the endafter parcels are passed on to offspring and other kin.Snyder (1960) described a different pattern for younggirls from that of young men in the town of Recuayhuancanear Vicos in the Callejón de Huaylas. Young girls arekept close to home for the first twelve years where theylearn the female gender role through imitation andapprenticeship. At age 3 or 4 they actively begin toparticipate in infant care and carrying water from springs,gradually learning tasks of greater and greater

-27-

responsibility as they get older. At approximately twelveyears of age, many of them would enter domestic service,to relieve their parents of having to feed and clothethem. According to Snyder, this work was very burdensome.

Domestic service involves a work day of fifteento sixteen hours, occupied mostly with foodpreparation, and washing clothes, carrying water,sweeping and waiting on table. (I960: 205)

Many of these girls would be kept at domestic servicelong after they wish to cease working because theiremployers would refuse to pay them ior long periods,promising to pay later if they stayed longer. Marriagewas one escape from this servitude.

Marriage. Most households are formed based on the fact ofthe union (de_ facto or de jure) of a man and woman whichresults in offspring. When the children are very young,the family members in the household would be a nuclearfamily with the possible addition of a spinster aunt, agrandmother or visiting cousins who have no place tolive. With the pattern of male emigration, many maleheads of households are absent for periods of time rangingfrom a season to years. During this period, the womanwill act as head of household and manager of familyactivities. Some unions end in permanent separations.

Trial Marriage. According to ancient custom among thehighland Indians of Peru, many families practice a formof trial marriage. A young couple will be encouraged tospend time together gradually approaching a real livingtogether situation. Often parental recommendations andadvice are important in the mate selection process.

Legal and Religious Marriage. The legal and religious(Catholic) forms of marriage ceremonies are practicedrarely by highland Indians. The paperwork for such ritualsis extremely expensive, requiring trips to capital cities,the filling out of forms and many other tasks which arebeyond the capabilities and interests of rural peasants,who are neither literate nor able to pay for such services.The paperwork required for both civil and religiousweddings are equally difficult. The religious ceremoniesare often impossible for lack of clergy as well. Massceremonies are sometimes held.

In summary, because of the difficulties involved, mostrural residents initially do not go through the formalityof legal or religious marriage. Rather they practice a

-28-

kind of consensual union based on long indigenous traditionsof gradual mate selection through a trial marriage process.Women as well as men can initiate separation.

Househould Activities. The house is the center of allfamily activities except agriculture. The fields are forthe most part dispersed in different ecological zones inthe open country surronding the town, village or hamlet.In the Callejón de Huaylas, the vast majority of theinhabitants live in population clusters rather than indispersed farmsteads. The fields, for the most part, arelocated at some distance from the house. Many times, thechacras (fields) are so far that workers do not return tothe house for the midday meal. In certain areas, somefields are located at such a distance that an overnighttrip must be made to plant, cultivate or harvest crops.These trips would usually be made by men and boys.

Child-rearing, Babies are swaddled and carried on theirmother's backs in mantas (carrying cloths) until the motherlearns to recognize slight physical signs of urinationand defecation as early as 5 or 6 months of age. Atthose ages, children are not swaddled so tightly, but arecontinued to be carried on their mother's backs untilthey are ambulatory. Infants and small children wearshirts, sweaters and rags until they are ambulatory. Then,they sometimes run around with bare bottoms or are dressedin rags until toilet training when they begin to weardresses and long pants. Babies and small children areusually breast-fed until two years of age. Solid foodsare introduced gradually during the first year. Childrenare taught the appropriate tasks for their gender primarilyby imitation of their elders. Little girls begin as soonas they can walk to carry dolls or bundles on their backsin small mantas. By age five or six it is not unusual tosee a small girl carrying an infant on her back. Womenand children forrage for firewood on excursions near thehome. (Brush reports that in Uchucmarca men made additionalspecial trips for high quality firewood to certain zones—usually more distant—to obtain firewood in quantity.Residents of zones too high for trees or completely bareof trees and brush from previous assaults rely on dungfor fuel.)

Food Preparation - Diet and Kitchen. Rural residentsgenerally have a diet based on potatoes, maize, beans,wheat, field peas, barley, oca (an Andean tuber) andbroad beans. The diet is occasionally supplemented byanimal protein in the form of mutton, pork, guinea pig,and rarely, chicken or beef. During rainy months trout

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are caught in streams (Brush 1977: 176). Potatoes areprepared in various forms, but are usually boiled. Bitterpotatoes which are poisonous in their unprocessed stateare made into chuno, freeze-dryed potato starch. Potatoesare also sun dryed after boiling (papa seca). The mostcommon way of preparation is boiling. The potatoes arealways boiled with their skins on. Peeled potatoes ofthe native varieties absorb so much water when boiledthat they explode and do not retain their solid form.Wheat and barley are often prepared in some kind of soup.They are also prepared by toasting over the fire to makea kind of granóla called máchica. Maize kernels andbroad beans are also toasted before eating. In the rainyseason, corn-on-the-cob is eaten (choclo) and made intohumitas and tamales, husk-wrapped steamed corn dishes.Broad beans are prepared fresh at that time also. In the high-lands, the native fruits guindas (a berry) and tunas (cactusfruit) are available in season. Some European fruit treeshave been successfully cultivated in the highlands, but theyare not a major dietary in-put for most peasants. Lowlandtropical fruits are occasionally available in the marketsof Huaraz, but are too costly for most rural residentsto afford as more than a very rare treat. The kitchens ofsimple rural homes consists of a room or small building inthe patio area where several rocks are left on the floorand a fire of wood or dung built among them. The wallsof the kitchen often have a small shelf for a few condimentssuch as salt, or a small bottle of hot peppers. There arepegs for hanging clothes and a few utensils. Sometimes onewill see a picture of a religious figure or saint, utensils,pots, pans and dishes are few. According to M. A. Brush(1980) the housewife will usually keep a large jar ofwater near the hearth which is used for washing handsoccasionally, adding to the soup or stew, or adding tothe freezing wash water to make it more bearable for thehands. A corn beer called chicha is made at home. Foodpreparation is mostly done by women and children, but asBrush (1977) pointed out, there is considerable crossingover of gender lines of responsibility to help in foodpreparation tasks. According to M. A. Brush, men rarely,if ever, help with water hauling activities (1980).

In villages without running water, water hauling tooksubstantial amounts of time and energy of women andchildren. In villages with running water at faucets onthe street corners, such as Uchucmarca, women in particularare reportedly pleased at the improvement in their lives.Water storage for kitchen and washing purposes was notreported by any interviewers. (It is a practice on thecoast where water trucks sell water by the drum toresidents of desert squater settlements.)

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Crafts. The household is the location for practicingnative crafts, especially weaving and other hand work.Looms are usually set up on the patios under the overhang.Spinning is usually done with a hand spindle. The spinningwheel is relatively unknown. In communities in Juninwhich specialized in weaving, all kinds of appropriatetechnology for spinnning at high speeds had been invented.However, it is extremely common to see women in nativedress, with a baby and bundle on her back walking downthe street or road in the highlands spinning as she goes.(She will probably be watching a couple of sheep as well.)

Animals. The presence of animals in the household isdiscussed above. Animals are allowed in the patio andthe kitchen, but not in the bedrooms or foyers. Only cuyeswhich need the warmth of the fire are allowed in thekitchen. All other patio animals remain outside.

Clothing. The rural peasants usually do not own muchclothing. The USAID Mission to Peru Project Paper ofSeptember, 1980 on Rural Health and Sanitation reportedthat some children had their clothes sewn on in such away that the clothes could not easily be removed. Womenare more prone to wear the traditional multi-layered fullskirts and slips, mantas and village-specific hats, whilemen and children will more likely wear non-descriptfactory made "modern" clothes. Women usually knit hats,sweaters and leggings for babies when they can afford thematerials. Men wear ponchos when working in the fieldsor tending herd of animals, but it is increasingly uncommonto see mean wearing tradtional ponchos in the streets oftowns and cities.

Bathing. Bathing is, by all reports, an extremely rareevent in sierra households. Weekly or bimonthly spongebaths are probably all that adults and older children do.Younger children are probably bathed more frequently. Inareas near Huaraz and Chongos where there are mineralsprings, public bath house facilities are available andare regularly used by a minority.

Elimination and Toilet Training. In interviews withPierce (1980), S. Brush (1980), M. A. Brush (1980) andBrownrigg (1980), a general pattern of elimination in thestreets followed by the removal of the feces by rovingpigs seems to be general in the area. A definite problemwith the introduction of latrines has been demonstrated

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historically in the area through Peace Corps and earthquakerelief efforts. Children, when toilet trained, and generallyencouraged not to do it in the house, but are not instructedspecifically where to go. Many people go in vacant lotsor fields which are informally known as being set asidefor the purpose. The usually position is squattingrather than sitting. Dudasik indicated a motoric problemwith the introduction of sitting style latrines in theearthquake relief efforts, as well as a lack of educationas to how to use them. At first, he reported, they werewell received, but later they were abandoned by all,Peruvians and foreigners alike, due to misuse.

The pattern of going in fields may be viewed as a reuseor fertilization pattern, although there was no specificreport of this belief.

EDUCATION

Informal. Most education is informal in rural villagesand hamlets of the sierra, with people learning fromwatching and copying thier elders, rather than beingtaught explicitly in a formal, classroom setting. Thisis especially true of health and sanitation practices,since schools do not have any better facilities thanother structures in the villages.

Formal. The arrival of village or hamlet level schoolingis relatively recent. With recent government budget cutsacross the board, expansion of the school system by thecreation of more small rural school rooms is unlikely inthe short run. This would have to be investigated furtherat the local level. Boys tend to stay in school longerthan girls. In Vicos, prior to the Cornell Peru project,there were no high school graduates (Doughty, n.d.).Within ten years, several community members, all males,had graduated from secondary school at Carhuaz. Thepresence of the Peace Corps allowed for the staffing ofrural schools which had previously had no teachers. Theteaching aspect of the Peace Corps work in the region wasthe best accepted and most positive experience of theirpresence.

RITUALS AND TABOOS

The area of rituals and taboos brings a kind of symbolicunity to the culture of the regional society, accordingto Stein (1974: 10). What he means by this statement is

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that many mestizos employ, believe in and subscribe toIndian or indigenous customs relating to heatIn, folkmedicine and other ritual parctice.

The majority of mestizos practice the second wakeceremony, held after burial, which is viewed asan Indian custom; mestizos employ the art of shojma(diagnosis and treatment of disease by means ofrubbing a patient with a cuy) and other folk medi-cal techniques; although coca is allegedly takenby Indians only, mestizos on occasion chew it ordrink it in the form of tea ...(1974: 10).

Curing. The art of diagnosis of disease by rubbing thebody with cuy, called shojma, is pan-Andean and is expectedto be found in the study region.

Susto. Susto is a disease widely recognized in LatinAmerican as having a psychic origin. It is believed tocause infant deaths through "soul loss" as a result oftrauma such as loud noises or a fall or a close call withdanger. It can also cause serious disease in adults whoseem to lose appetite and weaken. There are many folkremedies in Peru for susto. One of the simplest is totake a raw egg in its shell, holding it in the hand andrubbing the egg's shell all over the body of the afflictedperson. Then, the egg is broken into a glass of water.If the white of the egg is milky, the susto is believed tohave come out of the affliected person into the egg.Another cure involved baths made from flower petals oft n e retama plant. Other more elaborate cures specify thetime of day, the person who should to the curing (fatherof mother of the victim, and the use of salt and water.Another simple cure is to give the victim a quick drinkof water to keep the soul from escaping, as soon aspossible after the fright has occured.

Agüitas. Various teas made from herbs such as mint (yerbabuena), yerba luisa, camomille, cinnamon, anise, andother plants including coca, are believed to have medicinaland health giving properties.

Birthing. The act of giving birth in the Peruvian sierrais an event which takes place in the home, attended by alocal midwife or a close friend or relative ( a comadre).

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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVALUATION FIELD WORK

Because of the striking differences among communitiesof different ecological zones and/or degree of linkageto the departmental capital, Huaraz, and the nationalcapital, Lima, evaluators are advised to seek astratified sample of communities which represent thesedifferences: valley floor, intermediate zone, andhigh zone; on paved highway, on major gravel road, onseasonally passable road, not accessible by vehicles.

Because of the distinctiveness of Picoy (Ancashino)Quechua in the region, evaluators are advised toobtain the services of an Ancashino interpreter, pre-ferably female, since most of the monolingual speakersof Quechua will probably be female.

Questions about community participation in sewageprojects mentioned in CARE reports should be carefullyexplored, since the loss of the cycle of traditionalextreta reuse may be viewed as a high cost. That is,beneficiaries may view benefits as marginal and notworth the cost in labor. Also, labor may be providedprimarily by men, while benefits may be viewed asprimarily accruing to women and children.

Opinions of women should be carefully solicitedseparately from those of men (not in the company ofmen) since their frankness may be greater under suchconditions. It should be remembered that adult womengreatly outnumber adult men in the study area, andthat therefore women are the majority of the targetpopulation. It is also pointed out that men due towork activities are often absent from the householdand use sanitary facilities less.

Attention should be paid to conflict among variouslevels of community organizations, especially to howsuch conflict enlightens the history of the handlingof community funds and decision-making regardinglabor inputs. Muncipio organization is likely to bemore hierarchical and easier to study than the moredemocratic asambleas of comunidades campesinas.Evaluation team is advised to make sure to get bothsides. Ad hoc pro-agua potable comités are a longtradition, but may be prone to instability of managerialcontinuity. Evaluators are advised to interview formermembers and leaders, rather than only the incumbents.

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6. Because of the intensity of foreign presence in theregion, people are likely to be suspicious of the utilityto them of information gathering efforts. It would beadvisable to take small gifts to give to participantsin the the study. Perhaps several items relating towater use, such as soap, shampoo, soap dishs, basinsand toothbrushes could be offered to allow the inter-viewees a choice while at the same time obtaininginformation about their preferences. Their choicescould be looked at as a part of the study results.They should also be asked (afterwards) why they madethe choice that they did.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Area Hand Book for Peru

Barnett, Cliff R.

1960 An Analysis of Social Movements on a PeruvianHacienda. (Cornell University, Ph.D. disser-tation, 1960)

Benjamin, Alan

1979 The Argo-Economic Context of Maize Productionin Three Valleys of the Peruvian Sierra.CIMMYT Economics Department, Mexico, DF, March1979 (typed 2nd draft version, Xerox).

Bode, Barbara 0.

1974 Explanation in the 1970 Earthquake in thePeruvian Andes. (Tulane University, Ph.D.dissertation, 1974)

1980 Personal communication

Brownrigg, Leslie A.

1980 Personal communication

Brush, Margaret A.

1980 Person communication

Brush, Stephen B.

1980 Person communication

1977 Mountain, Field and Family: The Economy andHuman Ecology of an Andean Valley. Universityof Pennsylvania Press, 1977, 199 p.

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Carlos, Samaneig 0.

1974 Location, Social Differentiation and PeasantMovements in the Central Sierra of Peru(University of Manchester, Ph.D. dissertation)

Cortázar, Pedro

1966 Documental del Peru: Volume 2, Departamentode Ancash, Primera Series, ioppe S.A. Lima

Doughty, Paul, et al.

n.d. No title. Study of Changos and Vicos Peace[1967] Corps Evaluation. Xerox. 194 p.

Doughty, Polly

1980 Personal communication.

Dudasik, Stephen W. Jr.

1978

1980

The Sociocultural Effects of Natural Disasterin a Peruvian Highland Community. (Universityof Florida, Ph.D. dissertation, 1978)

Personal communication.

Elmendorf, Mary and Patricia K. Buckles

1978 Socio-cultural Aspects of Water Supply andExcreta Disposal. World Bank PU Report No.RES 15. September 1978, 54 p.

Ferroni, Marco

1978 Personal communication.

1976 Toward a Food Policy for Latin America's UrbanAreas: Lima as a Case Study. Department ofAgricultural Economics, Cornell University,Ithaca, NY, March 1976 (Mimeo)

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Harrison, Paul

1977 Basic Health Delivery in the Third World.New Scientist. February 17, 1977, pp. 411-413.

Hobbs, Frank B. and Eduardo E. Arriaga

1980 A Critical Estimation of Infant MortalityEstimation Techniques Applied to Peruvian Data,Paper presented at the annual meetings ofthe Southern Regional Demographic Grcup,Tallahassee, FL. October 15-17, 1980.

Mayer Enrique Jose

1974 Reciprocity, Self-Sufficiency and MarketRelations in a Contemporary Community in theCentral Andes of Peru. (Cornell University,Ph.D. dissertation)

1979 Land Use in the Andes: Ecology and Agriculturein the Mantaro Valley of Peru with SpecialReference to Potatoes. Centro Internatinal dela Papa Lima, Peru, 1979.

Oliver-Smith, Anthony

1974 Yungay Norte: Diaster and Social Change in thePeruvian Highlands. (Indiana University, Ph.D.dissertation, 1974)

Pierce, Margaret A.

1980 Personal communication.

Snyder, Joan

1960 Group Relations and Social Change in an AndeanVillage. (Cornell University, Ph.D. disserta-tation, 1960)

Stein, William W.

1974 Countrymen and Townsmen in the Callej6*n deHuaylas. Peru: Two Views of Andean SocialStructure. Council on International Studies,Special Studies No. 51, State University of NewYork at. Buffalo: 1974, 78 p.

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