HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 43 
kitchen is situated in a second patio, behind the 
first. Behind the patios of virtually all houses 
are corrals for the livestock; here there are pigpens, 
chicken houses, and single-pitched sheds on top of 
which are often piled high stacks of dry corn- 
stalks or barley straw for fodder. Most houses 
have an attic half-story, reached from the patio 
by means of a ladder; the altillo, as this upper floor 
is called, usually serves as a storeroom and 
granary. 
The town proper suffers constantly from an 
acute shortage of water. In former times, irriga- 
tion ditches carried water through the streets, but 
today these have been abandoned in favor of an 
inadequate system which pipes water from a 
remote spring to the west of the town to two 
public faucets. On the infrequent occasions when 
these are in operation, the townspeople are 
obliged to stand in line for hours while jugs, 
barrels, and buckets are laboriously filled. Nor 
is Sicaya supplied with electricity. Although the 
town is connected with Huancayo by telephone 
(the single instrument is located in the post office 
and is used for the sole purpose of sending tele- 
grams), there is no proper telegraph system. 
Three busses and one truck, owned by local resi- 
dents, carry passengers and produce daily between 
Sicaya and Huancayo. The road, however, is 
poor and at times impassable. Foot trails 
across the pampa connect Sicaya with Chupaca, 
with Huayao and Huachac to the west, and with 
Mito and Orcotuna to the north. An automobile 
road, at present under construction, skirts the 
bajios and will eventually link all of the towns 
situated on the right bank of the Mantaro River. 
At the time when the 1940 census was made, 
three annexes, Huayao, Huachac, and Cachi, 
pertained to the District of Sicaya.’* For this 
reason, the population of the District in that 
year is given as 3,725 (Extracto Estadistico del 
Pert, 1940, p. 84). We estimate, however, that 
the present population of the town proper, 
including the barrio of La Libertad, does not 
exceed 2,000 inhabitants. Since what has been 
said above in regard to the nature of the popula- 
tion and the identity of classes in Chupaca is 
equally applicable to the situation in Sicaya, 
this matter requires no further discussion here.” 
78 Cachi, in the punas to the west of Sicaya, now pertains to San Juan de 
Jarpa, while Huayao and Huachac, together with other small settlements, 
comprise a separate District. 
79 Like Chupaca, Sicaya has a number of outsiders engaged in trades within 
the town as well as a large number of peons. 
Similarly, in Sicaya as in Chupaca, Quechua is a 
dying language, much mixed with Spanish and 
poorly spoken by many of the younger people of 
the town. In every respect, racially, linguisti- 
cally, and culturally, Sicaya appears to be the 
classic Mestizo community of Highland Peru. 
Church records state that in the 17th century 
the population of Sicaya was distributed in ayllus; 
in addition, until very recently, the town was di- 
vided into dual barrios, or moieties, called umapa 
(upper) and ulapa (lower). Although all traces 
of ayllu organization have long since disappeared, 
the moieties continue to some extent to influence 
the thought and behavior of the townspeople. 
On certain feast days intermoiety games are 
played, and each celebrates the fiesta of its own 
patron saint. A formal division of the town into 
five cuarteles has, however, recently replaced the 
dual barrio organization. 
As a District, Sicaya has the formal political 
organization appropriate to this administrative 
division. Although details vary locally and 
although the formal District system may be super- 
imposed upon and combined with moiety, barrio, 
cuartel, or ayllu organization, and with a variety 
of archaic Spanish and native Indian offices, the 
institution of District is essentially standardized 
throughout Peru. The gobernador, or governor, 
appointed by the Sub-Prefecture of Huancayo, is 
the local representative of the Federal Govern- 
ment and, as such, is in theory the highest political 
officer. Since, however, this individual often 
receives his appointment because of his friends 
and political influence, both he and the tenzente 
gobernador, or lieutenant governor, whom he in 
turn appoints, are apt to be of less actual im- 
portance than officials elected by local popular 
vote. With the exception of the juez de paz 
(justice of the peace), of whom there are two, 
both appointed from Huancayo, all other officials 
are elected locally.*! In Sicaya the alcalde (mayor) 
is usually the most influential officer of the ad- 
ministrative hierarchy. He heads the concejo 
municipal (municipal council), which is composed 
of five members including, in addition to the 
alcalde, the teniente alcalde (deputy mayor), the 
sindico de rentas (who acts as treasurer and col- 
lects all municipal taxes), the sindico de gastos 
80 It seems significant that most school children in Sicaya, when playing 
or working among themselves, speak Spanish in preference to Quechua, and 
that Spanish is the language regularly spoken in many homes. 
8 This is a recent development; formerly the alcalde was also appointed 
from Huancayo. 
