20 INDIAN COMMUNITIES OF BOLIVIA 



land tenure still holds its own. In the Province of Yamparaez 

 are some of the strongest communities in, the republic. Tarabuco 

 and Quilaquila, cantones whose farthest borders are not more than 

 thirty miles from Sucre, contain many of these independent 

 settlements. They occupy the high ridges — 10,000 to 12,000 feet 

 above sea level — that separate the many valleys of these prov- 

 inces. The comiinarios here are of Quechua race, as are almost 

 all of the Indians of the southern half of the highlands. On their 

 cold, bleak heights, all that is now left to them of the extensive 

 lands they held under Inca sway, they cultivate the characteristic 

 upland crops and provide the capital of the republic with much 

 of its food supply. A sharp distinction is made, as in other places, 

 between the orighiarios and the various classes of agregados. 

 Here, too, may occasionally be found the ancient designation of 

 aransaya and urinsaya already noted as preserved on the alti- 

 plano. Because of its valley character most of the land in 

 Chuquisaca has long since become the property of white owners, 

 excepting the more elevated districts already referred to, the far 

 eastern plains, and the adjoining lower valleys that are inhabited 

 by uncivilized Indians. ^^ 



DEPARTMENT OF COCHABAMBA 



Cochabamba long ago ceased to be an Indian country. Trav- 

 ersed as is the department by many fertile valleys, some of them 

 of considerable width, it early became the focus of Spanish 

 settlement. These productive regions, from 6,000 to 9,000 feet 

 above sea level, enjoy an almost ideal climate of constant spring, 

 and so rapidly were they filled with Europeans that the aboriginal 

 race in its purity soon disappeared. As a consequence communal 

 holdings are now rare in any except the higher parts of the 

 department. But in the Provinces of Arque and Tapacari that 

 lie in the hill country adjoining the Departments of Oruro and 

 Potosi there are localities where Indians retain their land in 

 common as upon the altiplano. The industrial activity of recent 



18 Diccionario geografico del Departamento de Chuquisaca, Sociedad Geografica 

 Sucre, Sucre, 1903. 



