8 INDIAN COMMUNITIES OF BOLIVIA 



many of the communities to disappear and brought about certain 

 changes in those that remained, though the Crown decreed 

 numerous measures for the protection of the Indians and their 

 lands. ^ During the colonial times the ayllu was supplanted in 

 some respects by a secondary unit which reveals its origin in its 

 Spanish name. This is the estancia, introduced as a subdivision 

 of the ayllu. Originally signifying merely the common pasture 

 allotted to the flocks of a small group of families, the term came 

 to be applied to this smaller group itself and to the parcels of 

 agricultural land held by the families composing it. With the 

 loss of the political significance of the ayllu and the partial 

 replacing of the community head by representatives of the 

 colonial government, this smaller unit assumed some of the 

 attributes of the ayllu, such as the obligation of keeping up 

 irrigation ditches, preserving and defending the ancient land- 

 marks, as well as the oversight of the common pasture. 



Modifications Introduced by the Bolivian Republic 



Since colonial days far-reaching changes have been decreed 

 at various times but without greatly affecting the agrarian 

 features of the communities, though their political character has 

 been modified. The office of cacique, or chief of the Indian 

 communities, was entirely abolished in 1825 by decree of Sim6n 

 Bolivar, the "Libertador" of Bolivia. The alcalde, who took his 

 place as the head of each communal unit, receives his appoint- 

 ment from the correjidor (local representative of the Bolivian 

 Government), but probably often in accordance with suggestions 

 of the Indians themselves. His duties are the maintenance of 

 order; he is virtually the sheriff of the community. Under him, 

 but in a different capacity, is the ilacata, appointed in the same 

 way, upon whom rests the responsibility of collecting the tax 

 paid by the community Indians to the Bolivian authorities (Fig. 2). 

 For either of these positions the correjidor would scarcely select 

 a person whom he did not feel sure to be persona grata with the 



8 Recopilacion de leyes de los Reinos de las Indias, 5th edit., 4 vols., Madrid, 

 1841; reference in Vol. 2, pp. 217-309. 



