4 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 5 
complete and definitive; many other regions of 
considerable interest and importance in these 
Departments were not included for reasons stated 
below. In terms of economic adaptation and 
geographical environment, these communities dif- 
fer widely in their way of life. They range from 
small, primitive villages, such as Choclococha 
and Huaychao, located on the high bleak punas, 
where the altitude and cold make agriculture 
impossible and where stock breeding is the basis 
of economy, to the intensively agricultural towns 
of the productive Jauja Valley and the farming 
centers of Ayacucho. In terms of the social 
situation, the conservative Quechua Indian com- 
munities such as Quinoa and Santa Barbara 
contrast sharply with the progressive and indus- 
trious Mestizo towns of Chupaca and Muquiyauyo 
in the Department of Junin. 
As stated above, our primary objective was to 
discover a suitable town for further detailed 
study, and the original purpose of the survey was 
simply to familiarize ourselves with the region. 
A preliminary perusal of the existing literature on 
the Highlands of Central Peru revealed all too 
clearly that the descriptive material relating to 
this area was meager in the extreme, and that 
nowhere was it possible for the prospective field 
worker to obtain a clear-cut idea of the types of 
communities to be expected or encountered. 
For this reason, and because regional surveys are 
uncommon in the field of social anthropology, it 
was felt that our findings, general though they 
are, might be helpful to future students in depict- 
ing certain aspects of the contemporary situation 
and in suggesting some problems for future 
research. 
It should be clear, when one considers the size 
of the area traveled and the shortness of the time 
devoted to the survey, that our data must of 
necessity be very general in character. Owing to 
problems of transportation and to the general lack 
of accommodations in the smaller towns and 
villages, the length of our stay in particular com- 
munities varied considerably; some, such as 
Chupaca, Muquiyauyo, and Huayllay, were visited 
for several days, while in others, including Quinoa 
and Santa Barbara, our time was limited to but a 
few hours.2 We employed whatever means of 
transportation were available, including train, 
automobile, bus, truck, and foot travel. How- 
? After the survey was completed, additional materials from Chupaca were 
obtained during the course of the intensive investigations made at Sicaya. 
ever, because of tire shortages and difficulty in 
obtaining spare automobile parts due to wartime 
conditions, it was frequently impossible to per- 
suade automobile owners to risk their precious 
vehicles by venturing out over bad roads and to 
out-of-the-way places. Hence, although our sur- 
vey at the outset had been carefully planned, it 
resulted that the final selection of a town to be 
visited depended in fact more upon its accessibil- 
ity and the humor of the local automobile owner 
than upon any systematic plan. Our selection of 
informants was even more arbitrary. Whenever 
possible we interviewed the local officials, school 
teachers, or storekeepers. In less fortunate in- 
stances we were limited to a choice of the more 
friendly citizens; for in such isolated towns as 
Huaylacucho, the local inhabitants were often 
reluctant to talk to strangers either because of 
shyness or for fear that we were tax collectors. A 
low ebb was reached in Choclococha, where most 
of the population of the village happened to be 
away in the hills with the flocks and herds. Our 
first informant turned out to be a half-wit and the 
second to be a stranger who was simply passing 
through the town en route to Huancavelica. 
Eventually several solid citizens turned up and 
the day was saved. 
In order to obtain material which would give 
general pictures of the towns visited during the 
course of the survey, a brief questionnaire was 
prepared covering such categories of features as 
could be observed and questioned most readily. 
These categories included, among other considera- 
tions, general observations (climate, geographical 
setting, communication facilities, description ot 
the town and its surroundings); population (dis- 
tribution of population in towns, barrios, and 
isolated farms, estimated proportion of Indians, 
Mestizos, and Whites, classes represented) ; politi- 
cal organization (local authorities, estimated pro- 
portion of public offices held by Indians and Mes- 
tizos, political units within the community such 
as ayllus, barrios, ete.); and questions relating to 
education and acculturation (number and types of 
schools, religious denominations, languages spoken, 
extent of travel). Economic considerations in- 
cluded agriculture (crops grown, where these are 
marketed, prevalence of haciendas, small farms, 
share cropping); livestock (animals kept, on what 
scale, how utilized); industrial activities (part or 
full-time employment in mines, mills, and on 
plantations); and material culture and trade 
