THE AGRARIAN INDIAN COMMUNITIES OF 

 HIGHLAND BOLIVIA 



The republic of Bolivia consists of three great natural divisions: 

 the eastern lowland; the long valleys reaching westward into, 

 and, in some cases, beyond the eastern range of the Andes; and 

 the highland plateau, or altiplano, and its bordering ranges. 

 Each of these regions is characterized by distinctive soils, climate, 

 vegetation, products, and human distributions. A varying 

 relation to the soil from region to region is manifested in a cor- 

 responding diversity in systems of agriculture and land tenure. 



BOLIVIA AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY 



Highland Bolivia, consisting of the plateau and of the valleys 

 lying above some 6,000 feet, is distinctly an agricultural country. 

 Though Bolivia is renowned principally for its mineral products 

 gold, silver, copper, and tin most of the people are occupied 

 in tilling the soil. According to the last census (1900) 564,009, 

 or 32 per cent, of the inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, 

 whi'e only 399,037 were occupied in "general industries," and 

 but 12,625 in mining. 1 



Since the earliest times the people of this region have been 

 farmers. Mining, stock raising, commerce, fishing have been 

 merely incidental. Tilling the ground, irrigating the fields, 

 planting and harvesting their crops have been the occupations 

 about which grew up laws, government, social customs, and 

 religion. The Inca, some centuries before Columbus, found about 

 Lake Titicaca sedentary tribes of Indians, who already for ages 

 had practiced agriculture. He extended over them his rule, 

 making them a part of his empire, Tahuantinsuyo, itself a 

 politico-agrarian institution. When the Spaniards entered this 



1 Geografia de la Republica de Bolivia, official edit., Oficina Nacional de Inmi- 

 gracion, Estadistica y Propaganda Geografica, La Paz, 1905. 



Censo general de la poblacion de la Republica de Bolivia, Septiembre i de 

 1900, Vol. i: Resultados Generates, ibid., La Paz, 1902. 



