354 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1957 



frontiers. For many kilometers into the Colombian Guajira all prices 

 are quoted in Venezuelan currency, which is the only medium of 

 exchange. Even a poor herdsman with his goat or sheep to sell, or 

 the housewife with her chickens and eggs, quotes prices in bolivars. 

 Against this type of subtle, intangible economic penetration govern- 

 ments are virtually powerless to act. Boundary lines automatically 

 broaden into frontier zones. It would be a fascinating study to trace 

 along the various routes from Venezuela into Colombia the depth of 

 the area under the influence of the bolivar. The storekeeper not in- 

 frequently makes a huge profit on goods that he buys in Colombian 

 pesos and sells for the same number of bolivars, although the bolivar 

 is worth twice as much as the peso. His percentage of profit under 

 such favorable circumstances is at least 100 percent. Sometimes he 

 charges even more. There seems to be a kind of Guajira wireless 

 system that enables the m«st distant storekeeper to know the rate of 

 exchange, for the bolivar rate for the peso closely follows the rate 

 of the dollar against the peso in the free market, as quoted in Bogota. 



Since the Spaniards found no gold in the Guajira Peninsula and 

 no large body of industrious agricultural Indians to subject, they 

 largely bypassed it and paid scant attention to its people. Their 

 example has been rather generally followed by the national govern- 

 ments, with the result that a high degree of cultural and political 

 autonomy has been preserved. The Spaniards were responsible, 

 however, for introducing horned cattle and donkeys, sheep, goats, 

 chickens, and hogs. When one realizes that practically everything 

 that today represents wealth for the Guajiro was introduced in the 

 Colonial period, one cannot but wonder what the basis of the pre- 

 Colombian economy was. The Guajiros must have lived on deer and 

 rabbits and shellfish (and the presence of kitchen middens of large 

 extent would support this view) along with primitive agriculture on 

 small plots. Perhaps they carried on a certain amount of trade along 

 the north coast of Colombia and into the Lake Maracaibo Basin. 

 But the carrying capacity of the land of the peninsula without 

 the domestic animals that were introduced from the Old World must 

 have been much less than it is at the present time; in other words, 

 the Guajiros must have been many fewer in number than they are 

 today. To be sure, the Dutch Boers in South Africa originally 

 settled as intensive agriculturalists around Capetown and became 

 nomadic herdsmen as they migrated inland, but they had vast acre- 

 ages of good land available and a large native population to exploit. 



Even now, in spite of recent increases, the Guajiros are few in 

 number. (No systematic census has been taken. Estimates vary 

 widely from 80,000 to 130,000, including both sides of the Peninsula.) 

 The Guajiros wrest their living from a harsh and hostile environ- 



