DEPARTMENT OF LA PAZ 13 



combine the geographical factors already referred to, of isolation, 

 poverty or scantiness of soil, and severe climate. 



Provinces of Omasuyos and Munecas 



Omasuyos and Munecas lie along the northeastern border of 

 Lake Titicaca. This has been from Incati'mes the stronghold of 

 the Aymaras, and here their ancient customs are best prpsprvpH. 

 In these districts weaving is done on the primitive loom (Fig. 3). 

 Plowing and harvesting follow the time-honored ancestral 

 methods. Quechua and Spanish, the tongues of the conquerors, 

 are rarely known, while, as about the southern end of the lake, 

 the Aymara language is preserved in great purity. Religion is 

 here nearer to paganism than to Christianity. Education is 

 rare. The native blood of Collasuyo, as the Incas termed this 

 Titicaca region, is freer from admixture than elsewhere. Char- 

 acter is cruder, rougher, but more moral, with typical Aymara 

 traits, utterly unlike the mild-natured Quechua of Cuzco or of 

 southern Bolivia. This is distinctly a region of Aymara survivals. 

 Its primitive communal land tenure is in keeping with this 

 heritage from the remote past. 12 



Isolation and an extremely hard environment account for 

 much of the backwardness of this region. Routes of travel, in 

 ancient as in modern times, have left these provinces far to one 

 side. The movement of armies and of trade has followed the 

 southwestern shore or has crossed the lake from northwest to 

 southeast, but seldom has passed along the northeastern side. 

 The southwestern route is more level, the shore line more 

 regular. Along the northeastern side of the lake the land 

 surface is broken by spurs of the Andes and by numerous rapid 

 streams, while a series of peninsulas juts far out into the water, 

 and numerous corresponding bays make both land and water 

 travel along this shore circuitous. Thus these provinces have 

 lain completely out of the current of important events and 

 constitute one of the most secluded sections of the country. 



12 Rigoberto Paredes: La Altiplanicie: Description de la Provincia de Omasuyu, 

 Rol. Direcc. Gen. de Estadist. y Estudios Ceogr., Vol. 10, 1914, pp. 51-123. La Paz. 



