Human Ecology in the Andes (Ecology)

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Human ecology encompasses a broad field, contemplating the relationships between human societies and the biophysical environment. Investigations include anthropogenic impacts and feedbacks, mostly of non-Western and nonindustrialized societies, or rural populations within more contemporary urban societies (see Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology article “Human Ecology”). The Andes is the world’s longest aboveground mountain range, a chain of mountains that runs north to south from Venezuela and Colombia to Tierra del Fuego, stretching approximately six thousand kilometers through territories of seven countries in western South America. Demarcating the Andean geographic and cultural region and subregions is problematic, evolving since colonial times (see Gade 1999, cited under General Overviews). Western observation of the connections between humans and the Andean environment can be traced to 16th and 17th-century Spanish Colonial chronicles. Reports such as Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga’s visit to the León de Huánuco province in 1562 inspired modern Andeanists such as Ukrainian anthropologist John V. Murra, who studied ecological factors affecting the development of Andean civilizations (see Land Use and Verticality and Agrarian and Exchange Systems). Murra’s ethnohistorical work in the mid- to late 20th century on the vertical nature of Central Andean production systems has deeply marked human ecological Andean studies. Earlier influences on discussions of environmental dynamics influencing Andean cultures included the work of naturalists and field researchers such as Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer Carl Troll (see General Overviews), and Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello (see Defining the Andean Region). This article emphasizes human ecological research informing connections between humans and the physical environment. Sustainability and social development both emerge as major topics, in more than less conflictive relationships, especially since Colonial Spanish times. The highlands of the Central Andes are the core of studies of the Andean region, as reflected in this article. Nonetheless, the questions and approaches are applicable to the whole region. Predominant attention on Central Andes—Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia—mirrors its peculiar history as the heartland of pre-Hispanic civilizations, including Inca and early colonial developments, as well as the unique domestication of flora and fauna, making this area one of the most biodiverse on the planet (see Gade 1999, cited under General Overviews). A considerable segment of recent research evidences public concern about environmental crises caused by industrialization, as well as interventions based on the social and natural sciences. The Andean region illustrates these global-local conflicts, through debates on human ecology linked with concerns about the environment’s impact on human livelihood and development, as well as the biophysical footprint of anthropogenic actions. The preparation of this article was possible thanks to a Research Fellowship at the Central European University (CEU), supported by the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Foundations. The administrative work of the Fellowship Coordinator program, Maja Skalar, was crucial. Substantial conversations with CEU Professor László Pintér and colleagues at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy were important for the article organization. Megan Anderluh, Assistant Editor at Oxford Bibliographies, as well as James Titus and Sinchu Mohan, from SPi Global, were very helpful during the article revisions. The generous support and insights from language faculty, professional translator and interpreter, Patrícia Beták, were essential to the completion of this work.

General Overviews

Considering its remarkable size and long history, the Andean region still awaits appropriate socio-ecological and geological historical interdisciplinary study. The first widely acknowledged scientific attempts to analyze Andean environment and cultures feedbacks can be traced to the work of naturalists and field researchers, such as Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) (see Humboldt and Bonpland 2009, Humboldt and Bonpland 2011), Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello (1880–1947) (see Tello 1930, cited under Defining the Andean Region), and German geographer Carl Troll (1899–1975) (see Troll 1935). Troll’s pioneering work in landscape ecology and mountain geoecology in tropical America had a fundamental role in Andean cultural geography (see also Troll 1968, cited under Defining the Andean Region). His maps and diagrams have been borrowed or adapted for decades by Andeanists such as Ukrainian anthropologist John Murra (see Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b, all cited under Land Use and Verticality). Murra is probably the most recognized scholar within human ecological Andean studies, mostly recognized for his work on precolonial verticality, while promoting scholarly work on societies and their livelihoods over several millennia in the Andes (see Murra, et al. 1986). Masuda, et al. 1985 debates human-nature conceptual models from Murra’s “vertical archipelago” (see Murra 1975, cited under Land Use and Verticality), while covering “ecological complementarity” to include concurrent control of ecological zones contiguous or horizontally disseminated, beyond macro vertical management. Murra, et al. 1986 presents a multifaceted view of societal organization and their livelihood in the Andean region, from Inca times to the colonial conquest until the transformations of 19th-century republics. Brush and Guillet 1985 (cited under Cultivation and Herding) provides a valuable synthesis of the small-scale agro-pastoralism subsistence model in the Andes through the articulation of household production and consumption, complemented with supra-household resource access, exchange, and management. Gade 1999 offers an environmental history of Andean organisms and biodiversity, informed by the lenses of societal livelihoods that interacted with a vast arrange of creatures, both native and introduced species. The articles emphasize dissonant harmonies on a region where scholarship emphasized purportedly isolated and stable communities. Young 2011, a geographic overview of the tropical Andean mountains, emphasizes change and biodiversity in the varied earth surface and ecological systems, within biogeographical barriers and elevational gradients, including human impacts on biodiversity in coupled natural-human systems. The most salient review for Andean socio-technological studies is Morlon 1996, which covers agriculture and herding socio-technologies, including traditional infrastructure and planting tools, as well as social systems of rural Andean agriculturalists. For studies on Andean exchange and market cultures since precolonial times, Lehmann 1982 and Larson, et al. 1995 are remarkably useful resources, especially if combined with more current reviews, such as Mayer 2002.

Gade, Daniel W. 1999. Nature and culture in the Andes. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
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Gade, an US geographer, provides an environmental history of Andean species and nature, such as forests, malaria, tapirs, llamas and alpacas, coca, rats, and food plants, with essays deeply informed by the lenses of the societal livelihoods that interacted with them. For nature/culture interfaces, provides an assessment of the depiction of lo Andino (the Andean) tradition and its spatial boundaries. Compares cultural ecology and ecological analysis, including cultural and historical geography perspectives.
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Humboldt, Alexander von, and Aimé Bonpland. 2009. Essay on the geography of plants. Edited by Stephen T. Jackson and translated by Sylvie Romanowski. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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Humboldt’s 1799–1804 investigation expedition to Central and South America with botanist Bonpland inspired remarkable scientific explorations of the 19th century. Chronicles of the journey were published after Humboldt’s return to Europe, starting with this essay, which is among the most referred writings in natural history, and one of the foundation works of ecology and biogeography. Humboldt was the first to publish precise descriptions of Andean topography through cross-section diagrams, which appeared in this book (see also Gade 1999).
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Humboldt, Alexander von, and Aimé Bonpland. 2011. Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the new continent: During the years 1799–1804. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Humboldt engraved the Andes in the intellectual world map. In the colossal thirty-four volumes of his discoveries, Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, the Personal Narrative section amalgamated with scientific meticulousness and poetic elicitation, and became particularly significant. Considered the most renowned scientist of his time, Humboldt’s writings inspired figures such as South American liberator Simón Bolívar and naturalist Charles Darwin, along with artists and essayists, such as Henry Thoreau, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Edgar Allan Poe.
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Larson, Brooke, Olivia Harris, and Enrique Tandeter, eds. 1995. Ethnicity, markets, and migration in the Andes: At the crossroads of history and anthropology. Durham, NC, and London: Duke Univ. Press.
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Collection of ethnohistorical essays on different periods of Andean history, with case studies in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia written by anthropologists and historians. Focuses on the history of market development in the highlands, debating the residents’ participation, as well as nonmarket-based economies, including the extent of the presence of commercial exchange and different interpretations of money.
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Lehmann, David, ed. 1982. Ecology and exchange in the Andes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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This assemblage of essays contains rural Andean case studies written by anthropologists, economists, and historians. Addresses the impact of capitalist development on peasant societies and the extent that influence was shaped by Andean cultures, ecologies, and climate. The discussion of the limits of the verticality system (see Land Use and Verticality) includes cultural debates of reciprocity and market-oriented strategies. Useful for scholars interested in accessible ethnographies of peasants in globalized neoliberal economies.
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Masuda, Shozo, Izumi Shimada, and Craig Morris, eds. 1985. Andean ecology and civilization: An interdisciplinary perspective on Andean ecological complementarity. Papers from Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Symposium No. 91: “An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Andean Ecological Complementarity,” held in Cedar Cove, Florida, USA, May 18–25, 1983. Tokyo: Univ. of Tokyo Press.
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Significant collection of essays and case studies selected from a symposium on the “character, evolution, and effects of the creative dynamism between man and environment in the central Andes” (pp. xii–xiii), influenced by John Murra’s “vertical archipelago” (see works by Murra under Land Use and Verticality and Exchanges). The term “ecological complementarity” includes contiguous or horizontal control of ecological zones, beyond macro vertical management.
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Mayer, Enrique. 2002. The articulated peasant: Household economies in the Andes. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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This substantial book covers findings and detailed reflections from more than three decades of research in Andean communities. Reflects how rural household livelihoods are embedded within larger socioeconomic structures since pre-Hispanic times, overcoming extreme challenges for their production, mostly in Andean Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Central aspects include trade reciprocity and redistribution in pre-Columbian economies; the impact of the Spanish Colonial regime on rural households; cargo systems and wealth, profit-loss relations of on-site conservation, land tenure histories, and networking in contemporary barter communities; and the impacts of neoliberalism.
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Morlon, Pierre, ed. 1996. Comprender la agricultura campesina en los Andes centrales (Perú–Bolivia). Lima, Perú: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos y Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos Bartolomé de las Casas.
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Anthropologists, geographers, agronomists, and economists present a vast array of agriculture and herding socio-technologies of rural Central Andean agriculturalists. Covers traditional Andean infrastructure and planting tools, such as terraces and chaquitaclla, the functionality of sectorial-fallow systems, models of ecological complementarity, and agricultural risk minimization in the high Andean plateau. Available in Spanish and French.
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Murra, John V., Nathan Wachtel, and Jacques Revel, eds. 1986. Anthropological history of Andean polities. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Valuable assortment of essays by scholars from the Andes, Europe and the United States, combining archaeology, anthropology, and history. A multifaceted view of societies in the Andean region over several millennia. Analyzes social organization facing the challenges of the Andean landscape through the impact of the Inca system on different regions and how colonial conquest altered 19th-century republics.
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Pulgar Vidal, Javier. 1996. Geografía del Perú: Las ocho regiones naturales. Lima, Perú: Peisa.
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Based on verticality concepts, Peruvian geographer and lawyer Pulgar Vidal presents the most commonly adopted conceptual model of geographical differences in Peru, combined with field observations, including toponymical denominations of folk categorizations.
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Troll, Carl. 1935. Los fundamentos geográficos de las civilizaciones andinas y del imperio Inca. Revista de la Universidad de Arequipa 9:127–183.
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Published in German in 1931, “Die geographischen Grundlagen der andinen Kulturen und des Inkareiches,” Ibero-Amerikanisches Archiv 5:258–294. Describes Andean culture as formed by the synthesis of indigenous and colonial traits. Highlighted native Andean farming tools, which are manual and individual, unlike European agricultural utensils such as the plow that used animals. Some technologies above 3,500 meters are still used now. Insightful remarks on the central division of lifestyles and the Inca civilization in the upper limit forest on the eastern Andean slope. Available in Spanish and German.
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Young, Kenneth. 2011. Introduction to Andean geographies. In Climate change and biodiversity in the tropical Andes. Edited by Sebastian K. Herzog, Rodney Martínez, Peter M. Jørgensen, and Holm Tiesse, 128–140. Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE).
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In this scholarly report, US geographer Young presents an updated overview of the tropical Andean mountains (above 500 meters) in the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, emphasizing features of change and diversity in the varied earth surface and ecological systems, within biogeographical barriers and elevational gradients. Also reviews the complex factors contributing to the distribution of species and ecosystems, besides the human impact on biodiversity in these “couple natural-human systems.”
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Defining the Andean Region

The term Andes presumably derives from the Quechua Antis, which originally meant people, not mountains (Gade 1999, cited under General Overviews). As explained in Gade 1999, the Andes as a region could be considered a “mythic space,” since its geographic and cultural configuration have changed over the last five hundred years. Defining this region and its subregions is problematic. Firstly, the physiographic coherence of western South America was not appreciated before the 19th century. Secondly, the Andes cannot be delineated by physical or altitudinal thresholds. Thirdly, the six thousand kilometers length of mountain ecosystems does not form a solid geographic unit. Finally, the label “Andes” focuses on the Central Andes (Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia), the most studied section. Gade 1999 reviews the main subdivisions of the Andean region. The expression tropical Andes has been applied from Venezuela to northern Argentina. The midsection or Central Andes captures attention from researchers, due to its history of pre-Hispanic civilizations, as well as its unique domestication of flora and fauna, assembling one of the planet’s most biodiverse spaces (see Gade 1999 and Young 2011, cited under General Overviews). Due to interactions and migrations to lowland cities and the Amazon, contemporary definitions of Andean culture include additional spaces (see Varese 2016). Tello 1930 develops the pioneering concept of multi-environmental ties, evident in the prehistoric diffusion of plants and animals (see also Gade 1999). Troll 1935 (cited under General Overviews) and Troll 1968 had a fundamental role in Andean cultural geography. Troll’s maps and diagrams have been borrowed or adapted by Andeanists for decades. Following Troll, Dollfus worked on the ecological foundations of Andean livelihoods since precolonial times (see Dollfus 1981). Denevan 1992 explains how the pristine 1492 image of the Americas was a myth, since vegetation and wildlife, in landscapes including the Andean region, were already influenced by humans when the Europeans arrived. Lauer 1993 overviews basic geoecological features differentiating horizontal and vertical societal development in Andean agricultural landscapes since the European conquest. The depiction of lo Andino (the Andean) tradition focuses on agropastoralism, using environmental diversity to minimize subsistence risk and define spatial boundaries. Dissenters emphasize issues of scale and dissonant harmonies (see Gade 1999). Masuda, et al. 1985 (cited under General Overviews) discusses the “vertical archipelago” (see Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b, all cited under Land Use and Verticality), and “ecological complementarity” of practices from precolonial to more current times. Morlon 1996 (cited under General Overviews) on Andean socio-technological agricultural systems confirms social scientists’ particular interest in the Central Andes. This spatial focus has expanded, thanks to recent studies of ecological change and risks (see for example, Young 2011, cited under General Overviews).

Denevan, William. 1992. The pristine myth: The landscape of the Americas in 1492. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82.3: 369–385.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1992.tb01965.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
US geographer Denevan explains how the pristine 1492 image of the Americas as an untouched natural landscape was a myth, probably more applicable to the 1750s, following the demographic decline of the original peoples due to introduced diseases, among other factors. Explains how vegetation and wildlife were already vastly influenced by humans by the time the Europeans arrived.
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Dollfus, Olivier. 1981. El reto del espacio andino. Lima, Perú: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
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French geographer Dollfus studied the maps in Troll 1968 (cited under Defining the Andean Region) to explain ecological foundations of the Andean region, discussing geological and mountain ecosystems, as well as geo-systems, and natural factors in the formation of landscapes. A more anthropocentric approach focuses on the Andean space occupations, from the precolonial to more contemporary challenges of Andean livelihoods. Book only available in Spanish. The chapter “The Tropical Andes” in Murra, et al. 1986 (cited under General Overviews) summarizes the main topics in the book.
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Lauer, Wilhelm. 1993. Human development and environment in the Andes: A geoecological overview. In Special issue: Mountain Geoecology of the Andes: Resource Management and Sustainable Development. Edited by Hugo Romero. Mountain Research and Development 13.2 (May): 157–166.
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Discusses basic geoecological features through horizontal and vertical societal development in terms of historical stages and spatial distinctions. Lauer presents maps of Andean climatic differentiation and vegetation belts, as well as hydrothermal belts for phases of development in Andean agricultural landscapes, from the Hispanic conquest, to the “enlightenment” of the independence times, to technological modernization. The Bolivian Callawaya mountain peoples illustrate the dynamics of land use and subsistence systems, including vertical accessibility to agrarian belts.
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Tello, Julio C. 1930. Andean civilization: Some problems of Peruvian archaeology. Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists 23:259–290.
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A pioneering work on multi-environmental ties, especially evident in prehistoric diffusion of plants and animals, which makes the Andean central subregion one of the world’s richest areas in terms of flora and fauna domestication (see also Gade 1999, cited under General Overviews).
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Troll, Carl. 1968. The cordilleras of the tropical Americas: Aspects of climatic phytogeographical and agrarian ecology. Paper presented at Proceedings of the 1966 UNESCO Mexico Symposium, Mexico City, 1–3 August 1966. In Geo-ecology of the mountainous regions of the tropical Americas. Edited by Carl Troll, 15–56. Bonn, Germany: Dummlers Verlag.
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The highly influential 20th-century German geographer Troll has a fundamental role in Andean cultural geography. His pivotal recapitulation and overview of his Andean research revises some of the most recognized maps of South America, including the Andes. His maps and diagrams have been borrowed or adapted (see Murra 1975, cited under Land Use and Verticality, and Thomas 1976, cited under Adaptation) for decades now. Spanish translations of this article were prepared for a geoecology symposium in Mexico.
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Varese, Stefano. 2016. Relations between the Andes and the Upper Amazon. In Latin American History: Oxford Research Encyclopedias. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Peruvian anthropologist Varese describes the ethnic and ecosystemic relations between Andean and Amazonian spaces comprised by the eastern slopes and foothills of the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, close to the lowland of Amazonia, the world’s largest tropical rain forest. The interactions of peoples and biotas are covered since times before the 16th-century European invasion through colonialism to modern times.
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Adaptation

The biological concept of adaptation has a long-lasting impact on social and environmental sciences, especially in the last decades of research on Andean socio-ecological feedbacks. From a cultural-biological point of view, high-altitude natives’ adaptation to hypoxic stress (deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues of the body) has intrigued researchers such as pioneering physician Carlos Monge who studied Andean highlanders in the late 1920s. The canonical Baker and Little 1976 attempts to answer this question through a wide-ranging study of a rather isolated population settled at high altitudes for generations in southern Peru. Wiley 2004 is a “biocultural ethnography” based on data from a Himalayan region, showing how high-altitude environments act together with biological and sociocultural features to influence reproduction, decreasing birth weight and augmenting infant mortality. The book compares the case study data with populations in other mountain ecosystems, including the Andes. Beall 2007 reveals more genetic variance and potential for natural selection among contemporary Tibetans, compared to Andean natives, while both reflect inherited features to endure high-altitude hypoxia. Frisancho 2013 studies how environmental influences during growth and development have lifelong impacts, particularly emphasizing “developmentally acquired enlarged residual lung volume (p. 151).” The Andes is a region highly susceptible to natural hazards. As explained in Oliver-Smith 1999 (cited under Sustainable Development and Socio-environmental Risks), the natural bases of this fragile situation lies in two dimensions: climatology and geology. A combination of these conditions create extreme events such as El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warm air and masses producing torrential rains and water masses. The uneven topography of unstable steep mountains assembling wide microenvironment and complex gradients in the Andean highlands experience high variation in micro-climates and vegetation under uncertainty in temperature, rainfall, frosts and hailstorms, configuring high risks for crops. Due to a combination of complex geological factors, the Andes experience extreme instability of seismic phenomenas and active volcanoes, along with fragile soils and avalanches (see more details of these features in Oliver-Smith 1999). Nonetheless, this Andean region characterized by natural phenomena with great potential for destruction, has been inhabited for more than ten thousand years and has hosted major cultural complexity for the last four thousand years, requiring sophisticated human ecological adaptation, including the production of sustainable agriculture largely extended during pre-Columbian civilization. Oliver-Smith 1999 summarizes the basic adaptation strategies to these natural climatic and geological forces during pre-Hispanic times through the following patterns: the control of multiple ecological tiers (see Andean Water and Land Management and Land Use and Verticality sections), dispersed settlements, appropriate building materials (e.g., thatched roofs) and techniques (e.g., trapezoidal-shaped doors), along with proper preventive actions under a culture of reciprocity and economic redistribution (e.g., storehouses). Inspired and influenced by John Murra’s “vertical archipelago” model of simultaneous control of multiple ecological tiers (see Land Use and Verticality and Exchanges sections), generations of scholars have studied agricultural risk minimization in the Andes from pre-Conquest to contemporary times. Brush 1982 discusses biotic zonation, especially cultural adaptations to land use. Comparing the cultural ecology of tropical high mountains in the Central Andes and the Himalayas, Guillet 1983 discusses vertical production zones and work strategies based on socio-environmental contexts and external factors. The concept of “production zone” in Mayer 1985 (cited under Land Use and Verticality) presents a human-made product beyond passive adaptations to natural environmental variations. Brush and Guillet 1985 (cited under Cultivation and Herding) explains adaptation to microenvironments and its risks, through coping strategies such as the selection of a repertoire of crops, tools, and tillage techniques. Probably the best example of household adaptation to environmental stress is Thomas 1976, a model of the annual low energy flow system of a typical Peruvian altiplano family of herders. The analytical representation confirms the necessity of diversifying subsistence, as well as the importance of the networks for exchanging animal protein into calories. Mayer 2002 (cited under General Overviews) highlights contributions and omissions of Thomas 1976, such as the outflow/inflow from one house to another. More contemporary analyses focus on the limits of agricultural management of biodiversity, the costs and benefits in rural smallholder agriculture, and socio-technological procedures for managing environmental risks. Knapp 1991 analyzes high Andean agricultural adaptive strategies, contending farming patterns are better explained by individual decisions to maximize labor efficiency rather than environmental factors or long-term cultural preferences. Orlove, et al. 2002 exemplifies using ethno-ecological knowledge for adaptation agricultural practices, such as forecasting rains using folk meteorological observations. See also sources under Land Use and Verticality, Sustainable Development and Socio-environmental Risks, and Agrarian and Exchange Systems and its subsection Cultivation and Herding for more on how Andean communities adapted to their environment.

Baker, Paul T., and Michael A. Little, eds. 1976. Man in the Andes: A multidisciplinary study of high altitude Quechua. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross.
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The compendium presents a multifaceted examination of a single human population exposed to environmental stress, covering twenty chapters of results from a project conducted by 17 scientists studying natives centered on the Nuñoa district (4050 meters above sea level) in southern Peru from 1964 to 1972. The central theme studies how the Quechua population adapt to high altitudes, where the central environmental pressures are low oxygen and low temperature. The contributions assemble a collection of debates and interpretations of biological reactions to environmental stress.
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Beall, Cynthia M. 2007. Two routes to functional adaptation: Tibetan and Andean high-altitude natives. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (suppl. 1): 8655–8660.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0701985104Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based upon quantitative genetics, genetic admixture, and candidate gene approaches, the research reveals more genetic variance and more potential for natural selection in the contemporary Tibetan population compared to Andean natives studied, both exposed to the evolution assortment for features that compensate the critical enduring high-altitude hypoxia.
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Brush, Stephen B. 1982. The natural and human environment of the central Andes. In Special issue: State of Knowledge Report on Andean Ecosystems; Vol. 2, Human Population and Biosphere Interactions in the Central Andes. Edited by Paul T. Baker. Mountain Research and Development 2.1: 19–38.
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Presents a useful synthesis of geologic and climatic features to discuss biotic zonation, especially regarding human occupation and land use for the Central Andes, a space that contains “some of the earth’s most abrupt environmental contrasts (p. 19).” Socio-technologies include plants and animals adapted to a diversity of climatic and biotic belts, agricultural techniques, settlement patterns, and exchange.
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Frisancho, A. Roberto. 2013. Developmental functional adaptation to high altitude: Review. American Journal of Human Biology 25.2: 151–168.
DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.22367Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This review article written by Peruvian anthropologist Frisancho synthesizes results based on the conceptual framework of developmental functional adaptation, entailing that environmental influences during the growth and development periods produce long enduring impacts during adulthood. The piece is particularly illustrative for understanding the impact of the “developmentally acquired enlarged residual lung volume (p. 151).”
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Guillet, David. 1983. Toward a cultural ecology of mountains: The central Andes and the Himalayas compared. Current Anthropology 24.5 (December): 561–574.
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Comments by Ricardo Godoy, Christian Guksch, Jiro Kawakita, Thomas Love, Max Matter, and Ben Orlove. Compares similarities in cultural patterns in mountain areas of the Central Andes and the Himalayas. Presents adaptations based on (1) vertical production zones with complex interaction of characteristics, such as social organization, land tenure, and productivity; (2) population strategies for vertical production zones; and (3) possible changes in productive strategies based on socio-environmental contexts. The comparative approach becomes more inspiring nowadays due to common threats around the world, such as climate change and infrastructure projects with large socio-environmental footprints.
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Knapp, Gregory. 1991. Andean ecology: Adaptive dynamics in Ecuador. Boulder, CO, and London: Westview.
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US geographer Knapp, former student of William Denevan (see Denevan 1992, cited under Defining the Andean Region), analyzed variations in high Andean agricultural adaptation strategies through a methodologically ambitious project on adaptive dynamics ecology in Ecuador. Compares results from simulation models and empirical descriptions, discussing costs and benefits. Contends farming patterns are better explained by individual decisions to maximize work efficiency facing a specific social organization and human density, compared with environmental factors or long-term cultural preferences.
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Orlove, Ben, John Chiang, and Mark Cane. 2002. Ethnoclimatology in the Andes: A cross-disciplinary study uncovers a scientific basis for the scheme Andean potato farmers traditionally use to predict the coming rains. American Scientist 90.5: 428–435.
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Examines the belief among Andean residents that the apparent size and brightness of the Pleiades could inform the abundance of the next rainy season and harvests. The scientific validation of this ancient folk forecast advocates for the exchange of knowledge between folk meteorological practices and scientific accounts, considering local practices that predate scientific meteorological modeling.
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Thomas, R. Brooke. 1976. Energy flow at high altitudes. In Man in the Andes: A multidisciplinary study of high altitude Quechua. Edited by Paul T. Baker and Michael A. Little, 379–404. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross.
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US anthropologist Thomas modeled the annual energy flow system of a typical family of Nuñoa district in Andean southern Peru, presented in kilocalories. The canonical model, characterized as low energy flow, confirmed the diversity of subsistence activities of altiplano herders since sole dependence on agriculture would be risky. The exchange network reproducing animal protein into calories is basic for the adaptive system. Mayer 2002 (cited under General Overviews) highlights the contributions of Brooke’s model and some omissions, such as the outflow/inflow from one house to other houses.
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Wiley, Andrea S. 2004. An ecology of high-altitude infancy: A biocultural perspective. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511610943Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based upon ethnographic and human biological data from the Himalayan region of Ladakh, India, this book assembles a “biocultural ethnography” showing how high-altitude environment acts together with biological, social, and cultural factors influencing reproduction by decreasing birth weight and augmenting infant mortality. Chapter 6 compares the Ladakh data with populations in other mountain regions, such as the Andes.
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Andean Water and Land Management

Andean residents have adjusted to the environmental challenges of their livelihood through societal organization, landscape management, and technological interventions. The natives learned how to modify their biophysical context through experimentation with and design of socio-technologies to manage their environment with different degrees of success. The environmental stress posed by the Andean highlands prompted socio-technological responses that transformed and humanized the natural landscapes in order to allow sustainable production alongside complex risks and uncertainties. There are for example raised field systems or camellones, and pond fields or cochas, buffering frosts on the high Andean plateau to allow sustainable agriculture. Artificially irrigated moors or bofedales, steep slopes sculpted into terraces of cultivation platforms or andenes, as well as complex hydraulic architecture for irrigation canals, water dams, reservoirs, silt dams, and reservoirs allowed larger agricultural extension. See Water for more on these systems. During pre-Hispanic times, these engineered landscapes were complemented by organizational socio-technologies such as the “vertical archipelago.” By synchronizing production at different ecological gradients, this regional model minimized the uncertainties and risks of extreme weather and climatic events such as frosts, hails, mudslides, localized floods and droughts (see Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b, all cited under Land Use and Verticality). Risk minimization and ecological complementarity currently continues at the community level, through concurrent agrarian activities at different contiguous vertical production zones (see Guillet 1983, cited under Adaptation; Mayer 1985 and Goland 1993, both cited under Land Use and Verticality), as well as horizontally disseminated ecological zones (see Masuda, et al. 1985, cited under General Overviews; Zimmerer 1999 and Young 2009, both cited under Land Use and Verticality). Contemporary microlevel design practices are visible in fields, furrows, and fences, along with hydraulic systems (see Water), influenced by local conditions, or more collective managerial strategies such as the “sectorial fallowing systems” in highland peasant communities. Leaving an important proportion of communal lands fallow can contribute to soil quality conservation and a decline of pathogen effects (see Brush and Guillet 1985, cited under Cultivation and Herding; Orlove and Godoy 1986, cited under Cultivation and Herding).

Water

In the Central Andes, obtaining enough moisture for agrarian production in arid and semiarid settings is an essential struggle regarding water. The rainy season is short, and extra water is needed for many crops, such as maize and alfalfa. Rivers are the usual source of water, distributed by artificial irrigation systems (Brush and Guillet 1985, cited under Cultivation and Herding). Andean coastal hydraulic systems have been extensively researched (Kosok 1965), whereas the highlands—with the exception of the surroundings of the Titicaca Lake—are less studied, due to problematic access complicated by diverse terrain (Lane 2016). The last decades, however, have seen innovative research on highland terracing or andenes (Denevan, et al. 1987; Gelles 2000; Guillet 1992; Treacy 1994; and Trawick 2003); raised field systems or camellones, also referred as waru-waru in Quechua (Erickson and Chandler 1989), pond fields or cochas (Flores Ochoa, et al. 1996), and naturally or artificially irrigated moors, locally known as bofedales (Palacios Ríos 1996). Socio-technological systems for managing water in the andenes are the most studied, especially in the Colca Valley of southwestern Peru, where relevant Visitas (administrative chronicles from the Spaniard Colonial times) were found, providing some of the best documentation of precolonial irrigation and terracing in South America (Guillet 1992). Denevan, et al. 1987 features interdisciplinary investigations of sustainable high agrarian production for dense populations in Andean pre-Columbian societies. Studies such as Gelles 2000, Guillet 1992, Treacy 1994, and Trawick 2003 examine the collective organization and rules for understanding these technologies, as well as social changes related to their management. Mitchell 1980 (cited under Land Use and Verticality) studies ecological zonation in the central Andean highlands and community irrigation systems as devices allowing maize cultivation in upper elevations. Lane 2016 reviews social organization and engineering innovations in the highlands, with emphasis on water management on the north-central Andes during pre-Columbian times (CE 1,000–1,480).

Denevan, William M., Kent Mathewson, and Gregory Knapp, eds. 1987. Pre-Hispanic agricultural fields in the Andean region. Proceedings from the 45th Congress of Americanists at Bogotá, Colombia in 1985. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
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US geographer Denevan led a multidisciplinary research project to investigate why ancestral terrace-cropping techniques were abandoned in the southern Andes of Peru (Colca Valley). The papers present the results of the exploration, explaining geological, demographic, and economic factors for the reduction of cropping areas in terraces.
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Erickson, Clark L., and Kay L. Chandler. 1989. Raised fields and sustainable agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. In Fragile lands of Latin America: Strategies for sustainable development. Edited by John O. Browder, 230–248. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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Erickson and Chandler reconstructed some eroded raised fields or camellones (Spanish), also known as waru-warus (Quechua), pre-Columbian forgotten technologies in the Lake Titicaca Basin, in order to compare current agricultural techniques relying on heavy capital inputs (e.g., machinery, petro-chemicals, and imported seed), which only benefited small portions of residents. The results promoted the traditional camellones as more ecologically sound, contingent on labor force availability, aiming for sustainable development, “highly sustainable productivity” (p. 245) and the minimization of the impact of meteorological events such as frosts.
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Flores Ochoa, Jorge, Magno P. Paz Flores, and Washington Rozas. 1996. Un (re)descubrimiento reciente: La agricultura en lagunas temporales (qochas) en el Altiplano. In Comprender la agricultura campesina en los Andes centrales (Perú–Bolivia). Edited by Pierre Morlon, 247–256. Lima, Perú: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos.
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Synthesizes previous studies on pond fields (qochas in Quechua), natural or artificial, especially around Lake Titicaca in Peru (3,850–3,900 meters of altitude). The area has mostly artificial rain-fed qochas. Shows how the inhabitants managed and classified the qochas in four types, according to their shapes and depth. The latter feature determines their hydraulic properties, especially the period of time with water.
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Gelles, Paul H. 2000. Water and power in highland Peru: The cultural politics of irrigation and development. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
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A detailed ethnographic work on irrigation politics in a community at the Colca Valley in the Peruvian southern Andes. Applying political ecology to irrigation, Gelles presents a conflictive case of change within narratives of identity, control, and social decision.
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Guillet, David W. 1992. Covering ground: Communal water management and the state in the Peruvian highlands. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
DOI: 10.3998/mpub.10159Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This ethnographic work is part of the series Linking Levels of Analysis, edited by US anthropologist Emilio Moran, concentrated on understanding the “relationship of local-level systems, and larger, more inclusive systems” (p. ix). Analyzes contemporary irrigation practices in a village in Southern Peru at the Colca Valley, an area renowned for its irrigated and terraced cropping (three to four thousand meters of altitude), based on the effects of recent state laws on water distribution practices. Discusses traditions and changes surrounding property rights and water irrigation.
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Kosok, Paul. 1965. Life, land and water in ancient Peru. New York: Long Island Univ. Press.
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The single volume of two intended volumes, due to Kosok’s unexpected death, constitutes a canonical contribution on irrigation in coastal Andean societies and a reminder of the connections between highlands and coastal socioeconomic Andean developments, reflecting verticality as a cultural socio-ecosystem (see Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b, all cited under Land Use and Verticality). Combining field survey and aerial photography, brings a platform of research questions and hypotheses about the meaning of irrigation for Andean studies and beyond.
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Lane, Kevin. 2016. Water technology in the Andes. In Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-Western cultures. Edited by Helaine Selin, 4409–4429. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
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Presents a well-balanced illustrated overview of pre-Hispanic water management technologies, including coastal vestiges, as well as continuities with the present and a critique of unsustainable changes. Lane divides water technologies into two main types: dry and wet. In the former, water is a “periodic component” (e.g., terraces and irrigation canals) (p. 4410); in the latter, “water is an integral part of the technology” (e.g., dams and reservoirs) (p. 4410).
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Palacios Ríos, Félix. 1996. Pastizales de regadío para alpacas en la puna alta (el ejemplo de Chichillapi). In Comprender la agricultura campesina en los Andes centrales (Perú–Bolivia). Edited by Pierre Morlon, 207–213. Lima, Perú: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos.
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Peruvian anthropologist Palacios revised older work on artificially irrigated moors or bofedales, through studying the largest peasant community in the Chucuito province of the southern Peruvian Andean plateau. Describes how the extension of the bofedales, vital during the dry season, determines the size of the herd for each shepherd. The smallest bofedales are generally managed by a single family and are irrigated by springs, whereas the largest are shared and depend on more artificially designed canals. Available in Spanish and French.
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Trawick, Paul B. 2003. The struggle for water in Peru: Comedy and tragedy in the Andean commons. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
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US anthropologist Trawick analyzed conflicts for water access in southern Andean rural Peru by comparing evolving cases in the Cotahuasi Valley, a narrative of tragedy and decay. Indigenous communities, with their reciprocal and stable irrigation “common-property,” managed systems effectively. These irrigation socio-ecosystems were degraded or ruined by external agents, such as colonialism and production of market commodities (e.g., alfalfa). Discusses the changes and Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” as moral and cultural problem.
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Treacy, John M. 1994. Las Chacras de Coporaque: Andenería y riego en el Valle del Colca. Lima, Perú: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
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This posthumous book from US cultural geographer Treacy comes from his doctoral dissertation, edited by María Benavides, his wife Blenda Femenías, and former advisor William Denevan. This notable empirical study located at the village of Coporaque at the Colca Valley of southwestern Peru aimed to discover the origins, management, and abandonment of irrigated terrace agriculture.
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Land Use and Verticality

The first scientific studies of the “highly telescoped climate from glaciers and puna above 5,000 meters to the tropical rainforest below 400 meters above sea level” (Gade 2016, p. 83), are mostly from 18th and 19th centuries, and developed by Alexander von Humboldt. Conceptually, the vertical organization of landscapes can be traced to Humboldt’s landmark observations in 1802 on mountain Chimborazo in Ecuador (see Humboldt and Bonpland 2009 and Humboldt and Bonpland 2011, both cited under General Overviews). Humboldt based the first Andean zonation on thermal aspects and wild flora. Colombian naturalist and mathematician Francisco de Caldas provided an early analysis of the thermal differences on crops in a vertical slope (Gade 2016). Tello 1930 (cited under Defining the Andean Region) is a pioneering work on multienvironmental ties and the diffusion of plants and animals. Troll 1968 (cited under Defining the Andean Region) contains maps of climatic verticality, also based on Humboldt’s work. Pulgar Vidal 1996 (cited under General Overviews) is the most commonly adopted model of geographical differences in Peru, relying largely on native categories. Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b contribute with a socio-environmental, ethnohistorical perspective, the “vertical archipelago” model, based on pre-Columbian organization of agriculture. Viceroy Toledo’s program of reducciones (regrouping traditional groups living in scattered hamlets) worked against the simultaneous use of land at different altitudes. Contemporary vertical land use is smaller scale and more contiguous than precolonial times, featuring horizontal control (see Mayer 1985; Mayer 2002 and Masuda, et al. 1985, both cited under General Overviews; Zimmerer 1999; Young 2009). Mitchell 1980 examines how the community irrigation system allowed maize cultivation in upper elevations. Golte 1987 documents cyclical complementarities in Andean agriculture at a small communal scale. Peruvian anthropologist and former student of Murra, Enrique Mayer showed how social organization of time and energy in Andean peasant communities allowed diverse contiguous production zones (see Mayer 1985). Brush 1977 (cited under Agrarian and Exchange Systems) shows how risks can be minimized by distributing agriculture lands in different zones (see also Gade 2016). Goland 1993 studies risk management through statistical analyses and ethnographic insights. Recent cultural geographic studies have documented how Andean landscapes could be modeled as human-ecological processes of “overlapping patchwork” and “landscape mosaics” (Zimmerer 1999 and Young 2009). Masuda, et al. 1985 (cited under General Overviews) is a valuable overview for discussing the socio-environmental aspects of verticality and horizontally disseminated ecological zones. Gade 2016 presents a substantial review on verticality. Varese 2016 (cited under Defining the Andean Region) overviews the relations between peoples and biotas of the Andean eastern foothills with lowland Amazonia, covering preconquest times to modernity. See also Agrarian and Exchange Systems and its subsection Exchanges for more on verticality’s effect on economy and production.

Gade, Daniel W. 2016. Spell of the Urubamba: Anthropogeographical essays on an Andean valley in space and time. New York: Springer.
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Collection of papers on a diverse array of topics, set in the Urubamba Valley and contiguous tropical uplands in the southern Peruvian Andes, presenting cultural ecological analyses, including biogeography of the biota in long-term scales, as well as a synthetic perspective on verticality studies from different perspectives and expertise.
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Goland, Carol. 1993. Field scattering as agricultural risk management: A case study from Cuyo, Department of Puno, Peru. Mountain Research and Development 13.4 (November): 317–338.
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US anthropologist Goland developed a risk minimization model from a case study in peasant Andean agriculture, illustrating how field scattering and diversity buffer households from production losses, in an environment of “temporally and spatially unpredictable microclimatic and agroecological factors” (p. 317).
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Golte, Jürgen. 1987. La racionalidad de la organización andina. Lima, Perú: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
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This short book, by German anthropologist Jürgen Golte, was part of a seminar directed by John V. Murra at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in Lima, and is a canonical work regarding the social organization for the “simultaneous management of agro-herding cycles in different ecological levels” (author’s translation) from the peasant Andean communities. Available in Spanish.
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Guillet, David. 1981. Land tenure, ecological zone, and agricultural regime in the Central Andes. American Ethnologist 8.1: 139–156.
DOI: 10.1525/ae.1981.8.1.02a00090Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
US anthropologist Guillet explores nterrelationships between land tenure, agricultural regime and ecological zones through studies of Andean indigenous communities. Collective control was more associated with grazing and sectorial fallowing, whereas private management was more linked to irrigation, horticulture and long-term fallowing. Argues these arrangements are a byproduct of population and market pressures under vertical ecological constraints (e.g., intensification, location of market crops, sectorial fallowing and communal control), within a larger debate of environmental degradation and Garett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons.”
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Mayer, Enrique. 1985. Production zones. Paper presented at the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Symposium No. 91: “An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Andean Ecological Complementarity,” held in Cedar Cove, Florida, USA, May 18–25, 1983. In Andean ecology and civilization: An interdisciplinary perspective on Andean ecological complementarity. Edited by Shozo Masuda, Izumi Shimada, and Craig Morris, 45–84. Tokyo: Univ. of Tokyo Press.
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Peruvian anthropologist Mayer presents the institutional dimension of vertical management through the contemporary interaction of families and the village or peasant “community level” of productive organization, with a group of households exploiting a common set of resources. Mayer based this study on concepts of Murra’s vertical control of maximum gradients. For an updated version of this paper, see Chapter 8 of Mayer 2002 (cited under General Overviews).
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Mitchell, William P. 1980. Local ecology and the state: Implications of contemporary Quechua land use for the Inca sequence of agricultural work. In Beyond the myths of culture: Essays in cultural materialism. Edited by Eric J. Ross, 139–154. New York: Academic Press.
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US anthropologist Mitchell studies the ecological zonation in the central Andean highlands, presenting how the irrigation system could work as a device that allows the extension of maize cultivation into upper elevations. The research is based on information from a current community, along with further discussions of political macro and state organizations.
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Murra, John V. 1975. El control vertical de un máximo de pisos ecológicos en la economía de las sociedades andinas. In Formaciones económicas y políticas del mundo andino. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
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Murra coined the phrase “vertical control of a maximum of ecological tiers” (author’s translation) in this work’s title (p. 59), based on Spaniard chronicles, in order to describe a precolonial pattern of settlement and organization of “simultaneous control by a single ethnic group of several geographically dispersed tiers” (Murra 1985a, p. 3) (author’s translation). Murra referred the model, as the “vertical archipelago” (see also Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b), with a community holding vertical “islands,” allowing a diverse array of dietary choices while reducing agricultural risks. Available in Spanish. See Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b for English chapters succinctly covering most of the issues in this essay. (Reprinted from Murra, John V. 1972. El “control vertical” de un máximo de pisos ecológicos en la economía de las sociedades andinas. In Visita de la Provincia de León de Huánuco in 1562. Vol. 2. By Iñigo Ortíz Zúñiga and edited by John V. Murra, pp. 427–476. Huánuco, Perú: Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán).
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Murra, John V. 1985a. “‘El Archipiélago Vertical’ Revisited.” In Andean ecology and civilization. An interdisciplinary perspective on Andean ecological complementarity. Edited by Shozo Masuda, Izumi Shimada, and Craig Morris. Papers from Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Symposium no. 91. Tokyo: Univ. of Tokyo Press.
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In the two essays (Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b) Murra wrote for this volumen, the anthropologist explains the pre-Columbian Andean agricultural achievements mainly through the “simultaneous control by a single ethnic group of several geographically dispersed ecological tiers” (p. 3). This chapter include a revision of the sources and evolution of his findings on the “vertical archipelago” model, including the ecological complementary of more contiguous zones.
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Murra, John V. 1985b. “The limits and limitations of the ‘Vertical Archipelago’ in the Andes.” In Andean ecology and civilization. An interdisciplinary perspective on Andean ecological complementarity. Edited by Shozo Masuda, Izumi Shimada, and Craig Morris. Papers from Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Symposium no. 91. Tokyo: Univ. of Tokyo Press.
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Murra presents the spatial and temporal limits of the empirically based conceptual model of the “vertical archipelago.” The chapter compares pre-Columbian civilizations of the Andes and Meso-America, while summarizing the “vertical archipelago” model and discussing the necessity for testing the limits of the pattern.
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Young, Kenneth R. 2009. Andean land use and biodiversity: Humanized landscapes in a time of change. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 96.3: 492–507.
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US geographer Young presents a conceptual model of Andean landscape mosaics based on biophysical elements and historical human-caused modifications to the environment, including effects of climate change upon the mountain region ecologies.
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Zimmerer, Karl S. 1999. Overlapping patchworks of mountain agriculture in Peru and Bolivia: Toward a regional global landscape model. Human Ecology 27.1: 115–165.
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Presents a conceptual regional model characteristic of the Andean mountain landscapes in Peru and Bolivia. Analyzes how the patchiness and overlap of farm units are shaped by diverse factors managed by indigenous peasant farmers, while discussing the roles of landscape flexibility in sustainable development.
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Agrarian and Exchange Systems

The complexity of Andean ecosystems poses a challenge for sustained agricultural production. How large populations achieved relatively stable food production at different moments in history has motivated extensive scholarly work. Murra 1975 (cited under Land Use and Verticality) proposed the “vertical archipelago” macro organization as the central explanatory model. Masuda, et al. 1985 (cited under General Overviews) added complementary patterns and strategies at different spatial scales, including horizontal arrangements. Other scholars focused on socio-technological devices for sustainable agriculture (see Morlon 1996, cited under General Overviews). Studies based on archaeological sites merit special attention, such as research on the magnitude of storage systems as a key feature of Andean highland livelihoods and economies conducted by another student of Murra, Craig Morris (see Morris 1986 and Murra 1985a, cited under Land Use and Verticality). Earls 1986 studies micro-climatic experimentations in the Inca terracing site of Moray for adapting crops at different altitudes and production zones. There are numerous important studies on socio-technological systems, focusing on terraces or andenes, raised field systems or camellones, also referred as waru-waru in Quechua, pond fields or cochas, and irrigated moors, locally known as bofedales. See the section Water for more details on these technologies. During the 1970s and 1980s, multiple human ecology studies focused on rural agrarian livelihoods of smallholders, prioritizing ethnographies of peasant communities, such as Brush 1977 investigation of the economic organization of an indigenous community in the central Andes. See Cultivation and Herding for overviews of subsistence livelihood strategies, including self-sufficiency food production and environmental risk management. A common critique of this societal approach during the aforementioned decades is its emphasis on communal systems, interpreted by some as a portrayal of communities as closed corporate entities (see Lehmann 1982 and Larson, et al. 1995, both cited under General Overviews). This assessment virtually overlooks political economy, dependency, and neo-Marxist approaches present on numerous studies at those times depicting a predatory class system exploiting the work of the Andean farmers, ultimately related to global capitalism (see Brush and Guillet 1985, cited under Cultivation and Herding). More recent studies overcome this criticism with more historical and extra-local inquires, questioning subsistence and self-sufficiency in peasant communities. Gudeman and Rivera 1990 is an empirical understanding of economic knowledge through folk practices of rural households in dialogue with the corporation model, as well as with different socioeconomic schools of thought, moving beyond abstract models. Mayer 2002 (cited under General Overviews) and Mayer 2012 (cited under Exchanges) also empirically explain how rural household livelihoods have intertwined with larger socioeconomic and political structures since pre-Hispanic times, overcoming extreme socio-environmental difficulties for their production. Morlon 1996 is a very informative panoramic effort on agriculture and herding socio-technologies studies, including traditional infrastructure and planting tools, as well as social systems, of rural Andean agriculturalists.

Brush, Stephen B. 1977. Mountain, field, and family: The economy and human ecology of an Andean valley. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
DOI: 10.9783/9781512800982Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This classic volume scrutinizes the economic organization of the Uchumarca peasant community, remotely located in the northern Peruvian highlands. Integrates economic and socio-ecological approaches, including debates of exchange and production, as well as the detailed empirical information on economic activities, which made it a model for studies of non-Western agricultural livelihoods.
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Earls, John. 1986. Planificación agrícola andina: Bases para un manejo cibernético de sistemas de andenes. Lima, Perú: Ediciones COFIDE.
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Australian anthropologist and physicist John Earls examined the relative stable food production for the pre-Columbian population in the Andes—one of the most world complex geographies—based on research on the Moray archaeological site in the Southern Peruvian Andes. Argues that this site simulated diverse micro-climatic effects and their impact on different crops, as the basis for the knowledge required for agricultural planning during Inca times. Available in Spanish.
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Gudeman, Stephen, and Alberto Rivera. 1990. Conversations in Colombia: The domestic economy in life and text. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511558009Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Anthropologists Gudeman (US) and Rivera (Colombian) present a conversational analysis of the “house model” from the rural folk practices in Colombia, as a contrast to the corporation scheme. Makes a case for empirical understanding of economic knowledge through folk practices, beyond proposals that emerge from insulated scientific communities.
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Morris, Craig. 1986. Storage, supply, and redistribution in the economy of the Inka state. In Anthropological history of Andean polities. Edited by John V. Murra, Nathan Wachtel, and Jacques Revel, 59–68. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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US archaeologist Morris, another student of John Murra, studied the regional administrative center of Huánuco Pampa, part of a warehousing system located in the Peruvian central highlands and the best preserved Inca archaeological site. Based on empirical research such as archaeological findings and colonial administrative reports, Morris discusses the vast storage system, including the concept of “redistribution” as formulated by economist Karl Polanyi in the 1940s.
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Cultivation and Herding

Most studies of cultivation and herding privilege the Central Andes, emphasizing the organization and importance of agriculture, as well as herding in social collective units, such as peasant communities. These studies feature analysis of the transformation of traditional agricultural practices and knowledge after the Spanish conquest. The different vertical and complementary arrangements of production zones and environments reflect the domestication of plants and animals. Browman 1974 is a long-term perspective on change in productive activities, from pastoralism to agricultural work. Baied and Wheeler 1993 presents paleoecological and archaeological records encompassing two major processes in the evolution of high Andean puna ecosystems: the phase prior to the earliest human occupation, and the conversion from a “food-gathering to a food-producing economy” (p. 146). Crops were limited by altitude, rainfall, frost frequency, and evaporation. Maize and potato are outstanding examples of broad genetic diversity, with a rich assortment of species with intercropped varieties, later complemented by European crops, such as barley and wheat (Brush and Guillet 1985, Zimmerer 1991, Zimmerer 1996). Harvests are subject to variations in yields due to different environmental risk factors, such as diseases, pests, soil quality, frosts, and droughts, among other aspects. Pastoralism’s hazards include predation, disease, and exposure, especially for European sheep, which were poorly adapted to the altitude stresses (Brush and Guillet 1985). Murra 1960 shows maize’s important role in the organization of Inca society (see also Mitchell 1980, cited under Land Use and Verticality). The agroecology of native potato agriculture includes field and seed rotations as well as long fallows (Brush and Guillet 1985). Orlove and Godoy 1986 analyzes the “sectorial fallowing systems” practice in highland peasant communities, where an important proportion of communal lands is left fallow, contributing to soil quality conservation and a decline of pathogen effects. Zimmerer 1991 and Zimmerer 1996 analyze the organization and selection of “polycultivar” fields of potato and maize, presenting lessons for in situ conservation policies. Zimmerer discussed the complexities of current agricultural farming systems by showing how economic, ecological, and cultural factors led conservation and uneven genetic erosion in Peruvian Andean potato varieties. Mayer and Glave 1999 explains definitions of “profit” for small-scale farmers in the Peruvian Andes. During the 1980s, studies focused more on the interactions between grazing and farming and debates about the commons, including the role of animals in the household economy (Guillet 1981, cited under Land Use and Verticality; Brush and Guillet 1985; Mayer 2002, cited under General Overviews). Browman 1987 studies environmental factors posing risks to agropastoralist production in Andean arid land systems, debating strategies from development programs and local subsistence management. Brush and Guillet 1985 provides a worthwhile overview of the smallholder subsistence livelihood strategies in the Central Andes, through self-sufficiency food production and the reduction of environmental risks. Morlon 1996 (cited under General Overviews) provides a constructive panorama of agricultural and pastoral socio-technological systems in the Central Andes. More recent approaches, such as Postigo, et al. 2008, concentrate on changes in pastoral systems. Postigo, et al. 2008 offers current perspectives on Andean subsistence herdsmen facing climatic and socioeconomic changes, dependent on institutions to manage pasturelands.

Baied, Carlos A., and Jane C. Wheeler. 1993. Evolution of high Andean Puna ecosystems: Environment, climate, and culture change over the last 12,000 years in the Central Andes. Mountain Research and Development 13.2: 145–156.
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The article presents pollen analysis from late-Pleistocene/early Holocene Laguna Seca at northern Chile highlands. The paleoecological and archaeological record encompasses two major processes in the evolution of high Andean puna ecosystems: the phase prior to the earliest human occupation, and the conversion from a “food-gathering to a food-producing economy (p. 146).” The results illustrate how these studies contribute to the control and conservation of fragile mountain ecosystems.
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Browman, David L. 1974. Pastoral nomadism in the Andes. Current Anthropology 15.2: 188–196.
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Describes a seven-thousand-year-old Andean pastoral system. Through archaeological and ethnographic evidence, Browman presents earlier (up to about CE 500) and contemporary patterns. In the former, pastoralism provided 50 percent or more of subsistence. Current peasant communities rely more on agriculture for subsistence, with herding at the center of insurance roles, trading networks, and reciprocity systems, as well as meat provision for food.
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Browman, David L., ed. 1987. Arid land use strategies and risk management in the Andes: A regional anthropological perspective. Boulder, CO, and London: Westview.
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This edited collection develops a historical perspective of the environmental factors presenting risks to agricultural production in Andean arid land systems while debating strategies from development programs and local management strategies. The volume illustrates the material basis of Andean agropastoralist subsistence and risk management.
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Brush, Stephen B., and David W. Guillet. 1985. Small-scale agro-pastoral production in the Central Andes. Mountain Research and Development 5.1: 19–30.
DOI: 10.2307/3673220Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based on ethnographic research, the article focuses on household production and supra-household management, their collaborations, and tensions over land and labor claims. A useful overview of the subsistence livelihood strategies through self-sufficiency food production and the reduction of environmental risks, including simultaneous control of diverse array of more contiguous ecological zones with especial crops and pasture types.
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Mayer, Enrique, and Manuel Glave. 1999. “Alguito para ganar” (A little something to earn): Profits and losses in peasant economies. American Ethnologist 26.2: 344–369.
DOI: 10.1525/ae.1999.26.2.344Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Anthropologist Mayer and economist Glave, both Peruvians, examined everyday definitions of “profit” from small-scale potato farmers in the Peruvian Andes. The research describes how peasants subsidize the local potato crop production, not counting expenses such as their labor force, allowing them to participate in the market. Found that in spite of the unprofitability of native potato varieties, they continue to be cultivated, although at a small scale.
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Murra, John V. 1960. Rite and crop in the Inca state. In Culture in history. Edited by Stanley Diamond, 393–407. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
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Part of an edited book honoring the work of US anthropologist Paul Radin, shows how maize had a central role in the organization of societies in pre-Columbian times. For the Inca society, different agricultural systems corresponded to different scales of measurement for tubers and maize.
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Orlove, Ben, and Ricardo Godoy. 1986. Sectoral fallowing systems in the Central Andes. Journal of Ethnobiology 6.1: 169–204.
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Based on ethnographic and statistical analysis from fifty-one communities in highland Peru and Bolivia, the article analyzes the “sectorial fallowing systems,” a complex pattern of crop and pasture management practiced by peasant communities. Under this system, an important proportion of communal lands is left fallow, which presumably contributes to soil quality conservation and a decline of pathogen effects.
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Postigo, Julio C., Kenneth R. Young, and Kelley A. Crews. 2008. Change and continuity in a pastoralist community in the high Peruvian Andes. Human Ecology 36.4: 535–551.
DOI: 10.1007/s10745-008-9186-1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the land use of Andean subsistence herdsmen facing climatic and socioeconomic alterations in central Peru. The extent of the land cover change was measured using satellite imagery. Finds that responses to these modifications depend on institutions to manage pasturelands (e.g., rules of access to pastures) and extra household resources, as well as perceptions of biophysical variations.
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Zimmerer, Karl S. 1991. Managing diversity in potato and maize fields of the Peruvian Andes. Journal of Ethnobiology 11.1: 23–49.
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US geographer Zimmerer examines the management of “mixed-cultivar fields” of diversified maize and potato varieties in the Paucartambo region at the southern Peruvian Andes. The “landscape perspective” shows the organization of the fields and the production of the maize was selected individually, mostly based on consumption and production. Potato diversity was based mostly on the selection of cultivars that were morphologically distinctive, leading to high and even diversity in each crop unit. The variety contributed to the reproduction of identity symbols.
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Zimmerer, Karl S. 1996. Changing fortunes: Biodiversity and peasant livelihood in the Peruvian Andes. California Studies in Critical Human Geography 1. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Based in geographic approaches including ethnographic accounts at the Peruvian Paucartambo Andes, empirically and historically unveils a myth of selection among potato farmers in Peru. Discusses lessons for policies and sustainable development, considering in situ conservation by allowing resources for commerce and provisions for the farmers, challenging the simple dichotomy of the “ecologically noble savage (p. 270),” showing multiple factors that affect farmers’ choices. The book empirically discusses advanced concepts such as agrobiodiversity, land-use niche, and household selection behavior in smallholder agriculture.
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Exchanges

Lehmann 1982 (cited under General Overviews) addresses questions of the cultural and environmentally shaped impact of capitalism on peasant societies, while discussing the limits of the verticality system proposed in Murra 1995 (see also Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b, all cited under Land Use and Verticality; Murra, et al. 1986, cited under General Overviews). Larson, et al. 1995 (cited under General Overviews) discusses the development of markets in the Andes, debating market- and nonmarket-based economies. Following the inquiries in Murra 1995 of applying Western labels to the pre-Hispanic Andes, Mayer 2002 (cited under General Overviews) studies trade in Inca society, finding evidence for pro- and antimarket arguments, while discussing more contemporary rural Andean households and their markets in neoliberal contexts. Gudeman and Rivera 1990 (cited under Agrarian and Exchange Systems) is an empirical understanding of economic knowledge through folk practices of rural households in dialogue with the corporation model, including different socioeconomic schools of thought, lightening the analysis beyond abstract models. Escobal 2001 explains the factors involved in considerable growth of household employment outside of farming in rural Peru during the 1990s. Escobal and Ponce 2002 examines the impact of roads on welfare, such as income or consumption, by comparing households situated close to rehabilitated roads to relevant controls. Mayer 2012 further develops the connection of rural households with markets in neoliberal times through a comparative analysis of Paul Bohannan’s “spheres of exchange.” Fonseca 2015 illustrates how reciprocity and caravan routes for traditional exchange systems (e.g., barter), including modern market relationships in Andean communities, all work as part of the social organization for agricultural economy of vertical control.

Escobal, Javier. 2001. The determinants of nonfarm income diversification in rural Peru. World Development 29.3: 497–508.
DOI: 10.1016/S0305-750X(00)00104-2Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Peruvian economist Escobal explains the considerable growth of household employment external to farming in rural Peru during the 1990s. Discusses factors affecting income diversification in households as well as consequences of the increased access to public or private assets, such as roads or education.
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Escobal, Javier, and Carmen Ponce. 2002. The benefits of rural roads: Enhancing income opportunities for the rural poor. Working Paper 40. Lima, Peru: GRADE.
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Peruvian economists Escobal and Ponce assess the impact of roads on welfare, such as income or consumption. Compares households situated close to rehabilitated roads to relevant controls. Shows income resources could be related to road rehabilitation.
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Fonseca, César. 2015. Sistemas económicos en las comunidades campesinas del Perú. In Kausana munay: Queriendo la vida. Sistemas económicos en las comunidades campesinas del Perú. Edited by César Fonseca and Enrique Mayer, 29–196. Lima, Perú: Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Perú.
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Peruvian anthropologist Fonseca, a student of John Murra, had his doctoral dissertation posthumously published as a tribute to his work on the economy of indigenous Andean communities. Based on detailed ethnographic fieldwork, explains the social organization for the agricultural economy of vertical control by producing multiple ecological tiers through reciprocity systems as well as traditional exchange schemes, such as barter, while participating in modern market relationships. Available in Spanish.
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Mayer, Enrique. 2012. Households and their markets in the Andes. In A handbook of economic anthropology. Edited by James G. Carrier, 405–422. Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
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Discusses the three “spheres of exchange” developed by US anthropologist Paul Bohannan in the 1960s: rural Andean households, national markets, and the “space in between,” considering the peripheries of markets and social relationships. A high point is a comparison of ethnographic examples from the Andean region (Peru and Colombia), as well as empirical work from economists in the southern Peruvian Andes. The themes and findings apply broadly to discussions of the Andean region.
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Murra, John V. 1995. Did tribute and markets prevail in the Andes before the European invasion? In Ethnicity, markets, and migration in the Andes: At the crossroads of history and anthropology. Edited by Brooke Larson, Olivia Harris, and Enrique Tandeter, 57–72. Durham, NC, and London: Duke Univ. Press.
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Anthropologist Murra revisits his verticality model of ethnic group self-sufficiency (see Murra 1975, Murra 1985a and Murra 1985b, all cited under Land Use and Verticality). Although he recognized pre-Hispanic exchanges, especially maritime and precious goods, he advised against automatically applying Western labels such as trade, tribute, or markets to pre-Columbian Andean contexts.
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Sustainable Development and Socio-environmental Risks

Challenges to sustainable development, present in the Andean region since it was first settled by humans, reflect struggles to access resources due to biophysical challenges, later complicated by the political-economy of colonialism and the formation of current republics with large marginalized populations (see General Overviews, Defining the Andean Region, Water, and Land Use and Verticality for more on these challenges). The political-economic priorities and territorial management of centralized governments have stimulated vulnerability for Andean populations, especially among the most marginalized sectors. After the European diseases, the colonial exploitative conditions for controlling the indigenous peoples were the main cause of the Andean demographic collapse. As explained in Oliver-Smith 1999, increasingly since post-Conquest times, socio-environmental risks have aggravated due to the subversion of specific and systemic adaptive strategies, especially regarding the expanded human frontier over riskier lands by larger and vulnerable populations exposed to damages from natural phenomenas, besides hazardous infrastructure. The regrouping of families living in scattered hamlets through the colonial reducciones often implied placing new towns at the confluence of rivers, making them vulnerable to floods and mudslides (see Oliver-Smith 1999 and the section Land Use and Verticality for more on these transformations). Modifications in building techniques, such as the introduction of two-story houses and ceramic tile roofs, increased exposure to seismic hazards. The qollqas or storage houses (see Morris 1986 cited under Agrarian and Exchange Systems), available during Inca times as a safety nets for crop losses, were abandoned in the Colonial period. Accessing basic resources such as water, land, or compensation for negative impacts of infrastructure or natural extreme events are steadily more complicated, given political-economic inequalities (see Gil Ramón 2009, cited under Mining and Mayer and Glave 1999, cited under Cultivation and Herding). Contemporary socio-environmental challenges are increasingly connected to human enterprises, especially private or state infrastructure investments, such as extractive industries, along with natural phenomena related disasters. Modern claims for dangers from infrastructure are considerably related to mining projects triggering conflicts based on health hazard claims or unfulfilled expectations of development from marginalized residents close to extractive projects (see Bebbington and Bury 2009; Bebbington and Bury 2013; Gil Ramón 2009 and van Geen, et al. 2012, Sawyer 2004, all cited under Mining). Reflecting increasing risks caused by global warming, menaces of disasters provoked by extreme climate related events have escalated, especially in the context of insufficient prevention or social resilient frameworks, such as glacial flood outbursts from lakes (see Carey 2010; Vergara, et al. 2007; and Young and Lipton 2006, all cited under Climate Change). Current climate change along with agricultural as well as population feeding challenges, both have increasingly called for sustainable development models for informed public policies. The prevention and mitigation of biophysical and social risks is critical in the Andes, due to its complex topography, high social diversity, and its vulnerable populations. Erickson and Chandler 1989 (cited under Water) compares agricultural techniques requiring heavy capital with traditional native technologies, seeking for more ecologically sounded options (see also Morlon 1996, cited under General Overviews). Sources under Cultivation and Herding and Land Use and Verticality study “polycultivar” fields of potato and maize and their lessons for conservation. Zimmerer 1999 (cited under Land Use and Verticality) elaborated a conceptual regional model characteristic of the Andean mountain landscapes in Peru and Bolivia, discussing the role of landscape flexibility for sustainable development in indigenous peasant farming. Young 2011 (cited under General Overviews) reviews the factors controlling the distribution of species and ecosystems beside the feedbacks of human impacts on these coupled natural-human systems. Orlove 2002 demonstrates the importance of permanent dialogue with the purported beneficiaries of development projects, especially considering a diverse array of cultural assumptions in the high Andean plateau, such as the local perception and management of time. Rhoades 2001 examines field methodologies, including socioenvironmental historical accounts, and land-use change in rural communities linked with regional political processes for a dialogue toward sustainable development. See sources cited under Climate Change for the discussion of climate change risks and research on impacts, mitigation and adaption for informed public policies.

Oliver-Smith, Anthony. 1999. Peru’s Five Hundred-Year Earthquake: Vulnerability in Historical Context. In The angry earth: Disaster in anthropological perspective, edited by S. M. Hoffman and A. Oliver-Smith. New York: Routledge.
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US anthropologist Oliver-Smith presents a history of vulnerability of coastal and Andean Peru, discussing the patterns of pre-Columbian populations for adapting to Andean environmental risks affecting agriculture and how settlers coped with seismic conditions. Oliver-Smith also debates how sustainable conditions were mostly lost during to the colonial project and later independent republic political-economic priorities, producing hazardous conditions and vulnerable populations.
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Orlove, Ben. 2002. Lines in the water: Nature and culture at Lake Titicaca. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press.
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Weaves the historical paths of shore populations along Lake Titicaca. Reviews these Andean livelihoods spaces of sustenance and memory, of changes and permanencies of environmental “living history.” Revealing the intricate internal coherence of alternate or marginal logics and behaviors, contributes to better inductive behavioral models while making an empirical anti-ethnocentric claim. Those interested in international policy could benefit from the empirical demonstration of the importance of constant dialogue with the purported beneficiaries of a development project. The novelistic tone makes the volume particularly accessible for a large audience.
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Rhoades, Robert E., ed. 2001. Bridging human and ecological landscapes: Participatory research and sustainable development in an Andean agricultural frontier. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.
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A large project connecting rural communities, field investigation, and sustainable development, with the support of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) in northwestern Ecuador. Compiles lessons on methodologies for socio-environmental history, including land-use change linked with regional political processes.
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Mining

A diverse array of researchers, mostly anthropologists, geographers, and economists, all have empirically explored mining conflicts in the Andean region, particularly for the last mining boom that started in the 1990s, which stimulated unfulfilled expectations of development along with claims for hazardous socio-environmental health impacts (see Gil Ramón 2009). Muradian, et al. 2003 studies the “conflicting value systems” of environmental risks and livelihood, decision-making mechanisms, and institutions for just distribution of benefits of a mining project. Sawyer 2004 ethnographically reported on Ecuador’s state and oil multinational strategies for exploiting this resource in indigenous territories, discussing the uneven development of neoliberal globalization. Gil Ramón 2009 developed the first interdisciplinary political ecology ethnography on Andean mining conflicts during the last mining boom, assembling an empirical critique of development under neoliberal globalization schemes. Based on the Peruvian case, Bebbington and Bury 2009 examines mining activities as well as social and political conditions that could promote sustainable development. Van Geen, et al. 2012 presents the first map analysis of human exposure to lead contamination of soil in the Andes at a subnational comparative level. Bebbington and Bury 2013 examines extractive industries and their dynamics, seeking to explain the socio-environmental causes of conflicts.

Bebbington, Anthony J., and Jeffrey T. Bury. 2009. Institutional challenges for mining and sustainability in Peru. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.41: 17296–17301.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0906057106Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
US geographers Bebbington and Bury debate institutional arrangements among mining, livelihood, and development, as well as the social and political conditions promoting these arrangements. The Peruvian case is taken as exemplar due to the effects of the 1990s mining boom. Describes the “resource base growth” (p. 2) that “precedes institutional innovation (p. 6),” prompting conflicts. The journal is open access.
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Bebbington, Anthony J., and Jeffrey T. Bury. 2013. Subterranean struggles: New dynamics of mining, oil, and gas in Latin America. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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Evaluates extractive industries in Latin America with emphasis on the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Presents a novel boundary for political ecology, the underground sphere, for tracing the dynamics of social and environmental conflict on the surface level.
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Gil Ramón, Vladimir R. 2009. Aterrizaje Minero: Cultura, conflicto, negociaciones y lecciones para el desarrollo desde la minería en Áncash, Perú. Lima, Perú: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
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Preface by Enrique Mayer. Probably the first ethnography on multi-actoral strategies as well as socioeconomic, cultural, and political causes of mining conflicts in the Andean extractive boom that started in the 1990s. The political ecology analysis is unique in its combination of interdisciplinary sources to unveil the social strategies of different social actors to gain benefits and escape from mining costs, including environmental hazards, such as pollution. Provides a multifaceted sociological critique of development, essential to readers interested in cultural change, sovereignty, extractivism, and sustainable development under economic globalization. Available in Spanish.
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Muradian, Roldán, Joan Martínez-Alier, and Humberto Correa. 2003. International capital versus local population: The environmental conflict of the Tambogrande mining project, Peru. Society and Natural Resources 16.9: 775–792.
DOI: 10.1080/08941920309166Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A case study in the northern coast of Peru analyzes environmental risks and livelihood, self-determination, decision-making mechanisms, common distrust, and institutions for justice distribution. Particularly useful for its methodological approach to analyze conflict cases and present “conflicting value systems” in a discussion of legitimization of more direct democracy frameworks.
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Sawyer, Suzana. 2004. Crude chronicles: Indigenous politics, multinational oil, and neoliberalism in Ecuador. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822385752Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Ethnographically reports events and relations among indigenous Quechua people of Amazonian Ecuador and their struggles for the control and use of oil, while discussing uneven local developments of neoliberal globalization.
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van Geen, Alexander, Carolina Bravo, Vladimir R. Gil Ramón, Shaky Sherpa, and Darby Jack. 2012. Lead exposure from soil in Peruvian mining towns: A national assessment supported by two contrasting examples. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 90.12: 878–886.
DOI: 10.2471/BLT.12.106419Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Estimates the human population of Peru living within five kilometers of active and former mining operations who could be exposed to lead from contaminated soil. A map with geographic coordinates was assembled using census data, including a comparison of a colonial mining town and a recent mine. Shows that lead contamination is probably extensive in Peruvian mining towns, although far from uniform. Calls for the isolation of contaminated areas as well as ecological restoration.
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Climate Change

Environmental changes produced by global warming, especially temperature and humidity, have altered the Andean “humanized landscapes” and biodiversity (see Young 2009, cited under Land Use and Verticality). Based on models of future change, a diverse array of environmental, economic, institutional, and cultural assessments have been produced. Nevertheless, there is still an urgent need for more research on the effect and risks of climate change on coupled natural-human systems, considering the social and geographic complexities of the Andean region (Bradley, et al. 2006). Burger 2003 and Billman and Huckleberry 2008 cover the second millennium BCE, presenting archaeology research on disaster prevention and adaptive management for El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Broad and Orlove 2007 analyzes early-21st-century public debates about an ENSO event in Peru, emphasizing the agency of social actors rather than uncontested globalization. Based on global climate models, higher altitudes will probably continue to experience faster heating (Bradley, et al. 2006), impacting glaciers and producing water shortages in productive areas and urban conglomerates directly dependent from these sources. Vergara, et al. 2007 assesses water shortage costs in populated urban centers. Young and Lipton 2006 examines institutional recommendations for facing rapid climate change and its impact on land-use systems in the tropical, rural Andean highlands. Young 2009 (cited under Land Use and Verticality) analyzes why land-use systems and conservation efforts must respond to climate change both locally and regionally. Based on local reactions, Carey 2010 addresses the hazards and opportunities of retreating glaciers within national and international groups. Eakin, et al. 2014 presents recent studies on adaptive mechanisms for climate change risks, conceptualizing current information and communication technologies (ICTs) for climate change adaptation, and introduces an innovative framework for comparing and assessing ICTs, including examples from the Andean region.

Billman, Brian R., and Gary Huckleberry. 2008. Deciphering the politics of prehistoric El Niño events on the north coast of Peru. In El Niño, catastrophism, and culture change in ancient America. Edited by Daniel H. Sandweiss and Jeffrey Quilter, 101–128. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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Presents evidence of extensive political permanence during the second millennium BCE on the current Peruvian northern coast, even though environmental impacts related to ENSO events occurred frequently. Argues for complex analysis of causal connections between ENSO events and political transformations.
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Bradley, Raymond S., Mathias Vuille, Henry F. Díaz, and Walter Vergara. 2006. Threats to water supplies in the tropical Andes. Science 312.5781: 1755–1756.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1128087Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the impact of climate change on water supplies in the tropical Andes. The scientists and the World Bank engineer present the scenario predicted by global climate models in which greenhouse warming causes faster heating at higher altitudes, impacting glaciers, water supplies for agriculture and hydroenergy, as well as urban centers dependent on glaciers, especially during the dry season. Shows the urgency for more detailed simulations of climate change, such as high-resolution regional climate models and tropical glacier-mass balance models in these topographically complex spaces (p. 1756).
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Broad, Kenneth, and Ben Orlove. 2007. Channeling globality: The 1997–98 El Niño climate event in Peru. American Ethnologist 34.2: 285–302.
DOI: 10.1525/ae.2007.34.2.285Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Analyzed public debates of the 1997–1998 El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in Peru. The results demonstrate agency of social actors in Peru through “channeled globality,” which entails selecting or seeking out particular global connections in their own terms while rejecting other contacts. Diverged from earlier conceptual models of uncontested globalization.
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Burger, Richard L. 2003. El Niño, early Peruvian civilization, and human agency: Some thoughts from the Lurín Valley. In El Niño in Peru: Biology and culture over 10,000 years: Papers from the VIII annual A. Watson Armour Spring Symposium, May 28–29, 1999, Chicago. Edited by Jonathan Hass and Michael O. Dillon, 90–107. Fieldiana: Botany 43. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History.
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US archaeologist Burger investigates coastal societies in Peru self-organizing to cope and prevent landslides and debris flows caused by El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO), developing adaptive technologies including a dam and labor mobilization. These adaptive responses illustrate human agency in the absence of a large or complex state shaping the evolution of societies during the second millennium BC.
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Carey, Mark. 2010. In the shadow of melting glaciers: Climate change and Andean society. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A vast collection of examples of the behavior of residents in high altitudes of north-central Peru, interacting with national and international social actors, facing environmental changes due to retreating glaciers. Analyzes social impact, including policies and local resistance acts of “contested science” (p. 136), opposing or negotiating technical solutions to mitigate hazards such as avalanches and glacial lake floods. Studies how societies might act facing hazards as well as possible opportunities caused by glacial retreat.
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Eakin, Hallie, Pedro M. Wightman, David Hsu, et al. 2014. Information and communication technologies and climate change adaptation in Latin America and the Caribbean: A framework for action. Climate and Development 7.3: 208–222.
DOI: 10.1080/17565529.2014.951021Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An interdisciplinary team of scholars based in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the US presents an analytical model for adapting information and communication technologies (ICTs) to climate change, and a framework for evaluating ICTs success. The analytical model is applied to case studies using ICTs for early warning systems and managing extreme events in Latin America and the Caribbean. Argues that ICTs can support adaptation by allowing access to crucial information for decision-making, coordinating actors and constructing social capital. ICTs also allow interested groups to communicate and spread their experience, enhancing prospects for cooperative learning and adaptation processes.
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Vergara, Walter, Alejandro M. Deeb, Adriana M. Valencia, et al. 2007. Economic impacts of rapid glacier retreat in the Andes. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 88.25 (19 June): 261–268.
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Prepared by World Bank staff in collaboration with scientists, the report is based on field observations and historical records of glacier retreat in the tropical Andes. Examines scenarios in the most populated urban centers dependent on glacier runoffs (e.g., La Paz in Bolivia and Quito in Ecuador), as well as the possible solutions to national shortfalls in water supply, such as potable water or hydropower.
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Young, Kenneth R., and Jennifer K. Lipton. 2006. Adaptive governance and climate change in the tropical highlands of western South America. Climatic Change 78.1: 63–102.
DOI: 10.1007/s10584-006-9091-9Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
US geographers Young and Lipton examine general institutional recommendations for facing rapid climate change, such as glacier retreat, in land-use systems of rural highlands of the tropical Andean mountains, including conservation and utilization issues. Reviews adaptive capacities in the region, particularly a case study at the Huascarán National Park in north-central Peru.