20 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 5 
There is another parish on the other side of the town, 
known as Santa Ana, and administered by Dominican 
friars. 
Every 2 months His Majesty sends by the regular 
courier from Lima 60,000 pesos to pay for the mita * of 
the Indians, for the crews are changed every 2 months, 
so that merely for the Indian mita payment [in my under- 
standing of it] 360,000 pesos are sent from Lima every 
year, not to speak of much besides, which all crosses at 
his risk that cold and desolate mountain country which 
is the puna and has nothing on it but llama ranches. 
Up on the range there are 3,000 or 4,000 Indians work- 
ing in the mine; it is colder up there than in the town, 
since it is higher. The mine where the mercury is lo- 
cated, is a large layer which they keep following down- 
ward. When I was in that town (which was in the year 
1616) I went up on the range and down into the mine, 
which at that time was considerably more than [100] 130 
stades [1 stade equals 1.85 yards] deep. The ore was 
very rich black flint, and the excavation so extensive that 
it held more than 3,000 Indians working away hard with 
picks and hammers, breaking up that flint ore; and when 
they have filled their little sacks, the poor fellows, loaded 
down with ore, climb up those ladders or rigging, some like 
masts and others like cables, and so trying and distressing 
that a man empty-handed can hardly get up them. 
That is the way they work in this mine, with many lights 
and the loud noise of the pounding and great confusion 
.... [Ibid., 1942, pp. 542-543.] 
It is clear, then, that the tradition of mining has 
a respectable antiquity in Huancavelica Depart- 
ment, and although at the present time mining 
continues to be one of the principal economic 
activities, the Department now ranks ninth in the 
Republic in the production of minerals (Pareja 
Paz Soldaén, 1943, p. 377). Owing to a series of 
complicated factors which attended the collapse of 
Colonial Peru, the War of Independence, and the 
abolition of the mita system, the decline in im- 
portance of mining, which began toward the end 
of the 17th century, became accentuated during 
the 18th century, and continued in great part 
into the early 19th century (ibid., p. 376).% 
Modern scientific mechanized mining, which had 
its origin in Peru in the 1880’s, does not in any 
sense stem from Colonial techniques, and has only 
recently begun to affect Huancavelica Depart- 
ment; the demands for minerals created by World 
War II have tended to focus attention once again 
on the mines of Huancavelica, and have enlivened 
commercial activity generally. 
85 The system of mita, or forced labor for which the Indians received nomi- 
nal and often absurdly small payment, is discussed in detail by Valega, 
1939, pp. 185-203. Also see Rowe, 1946, pp. 267-268, and Kubler, 1946, pp. 
371-373. 
36 Since, throughout Colonial times, mercury was utilized primarily in 
connection with the refining of silver, the decline in the price of silver (see 
section on Cerro de Pasco, pp. 49-50) was accompanied by a parallel decline 
in mercury mining (E] Peri en Marcha, 1941, p. 281). 
In the present-day city of Huancavelica, the re- 
mains of Colonial splendor and of Colonial min- 
ing activities are in evidence on every side. The 
red dumps of abandoned mercury mines extend 
to the very outskirts of the city. Everywhere 
there are indications of long-continued isolation 
from the outside world. Shut in on all sides by 
high mountains, the town, which stretches along 
both banks of the river, consists in the main of 
stone buildings with tiled roofs (pl. 3, a,b). Many 
of these, in the vicinity of the principal plaza, are 
two-storied and have carved wooden balconies 
and the elaborately carved stone doorframes of 
the Colonial period (pl. 3, c). The two principal 
churches and several of the lesser ones have 
baroque stone facades, intricately worked. Yet 
everywhere amid these relics of former wealth 
there are signs of dilapidation and decay. Open 
drains or acequias flow down the narrow cobbled 
streets (there is but one paved street in the city), 
and many of the Colonial buildings are now fall- 
ing into ruins. The market is small and undif- 
ferentiated as compared with the markets of 
Huancayo and Ayacucho, and the local shops are 
poorly stocked; many common articles manu- 
factured in Lima are not available. Although 
the city possesses an electric light system, a 
motion picture theater, and several small hotels, 
it remains one of the most backward Department. 
capitals in the Highlands of Peru. 
As indicated by the figures presented earlier 
(see p. 12), Huancavelica Department has a pre- 
dominantly Indian population, and many Indians 
are in evidence on the streets of Huancavelica 
itself, while the parish of San Cristébal across the 
river from the city proper and that of Santa Ana, 
are large Indian towns (pl. 3, d). It is probable 
that even within the city of Huancavelica, the 
Indian population heavily outweighs the Mestizo 
and White segments. Indians from the surround- 
ing punas drive large flocks of llamas laden with 
such Highland products as dried meat, wool, and 
woven woolen textiles into Huancavelica to sell 
or to barter for cheap machine-made textiles, 
manufactured articles, and hardware. With these 
they return to their upland villages, or transport 
them to remote agricultural valleys where they 
are traded for maize, grain, and other vegetable 
products. 
Huancavelica is the center of economic activity 
for a great portion of the Department, since it is 
the terminal of the Huancavelica-Huancayo nar- 
