HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 47 
tion of the community have long attracted atten- 
tion.8s Nor is this attention unjustified; through 
its own efforts—and entirely unaided by outside 
agencies—Muquiyauyo has become one of the 
most economically sound and one of the most 
literate and best-educated towns in the Highlands 
of Peru. Our brief survey can claim to have done 
little more than merely to have established the 
existence of the advanced institutions reported 
earlier by Castro Pozo; the wide-scale social plan- 
ning, the interest in education, the extensive co- 
operation in agriculture, the municipal loan sys- 
tem, and the factors which have given rise to these 
phenomena deserve intensive and detailed study. 
In Muquiyauyo the formal District political 
organization is subordinated to a sociopolitical 
administrative system which is based on the divi- 
sion of the entire community into four Jnstitu- 
ciones (Institutions), known collectively as the 
Comunidad Indigena de Industriales Regentes (In- 
digenous Community of Governing Industrial- 
ists).°° Formerly, the community was divided 
into four geographically delimited cuwarteles with 
which, at the present time, the Institutions are 
synonymous. The component Institutions are 
named Sociedad de Obreros (Society of Workmen), 
Associacién de Obreros (Association of Workmen), 
Porvenir Obreros (Workman’s Future), and the 
Union Progresista (Progressive Union). Each has 
its president, vice president, secretary, vice secre- 
tary, treasurer, and members-at-large, all of whom 
are elected annually.°°. The most important 
individual in Muquiyauyo, however, is the Presi- 
dente Comunal (Communal President), who heads 
the Comunidad Indigena, or the federation of the 
four Institutions, and in this role has considerably 
more influence than the gobernador or alcalde. 
The gobernador represents National authority and 
is the intermediary between the town and the 
National Government; the alcalde is the adminis- 
trator of municipal affairs. But the Presidente 
Comunal, as the spokesman of the component 
Institutions, represents public opinion in Muqui- 
yauyo as a whole. It is said, nevertheless, that 
these three leading officials cooperate effectively, 
and that it is necessary for them to reach agree- 
ment on all important matters. It is required 
8§ See Castro Pozo, 1924, pp. 63-68. This writer stated (p. 67) that nowhere 
in the Jauja Valley was there so progressive a community as Muquiyauyo. 
89 Muquiyauyo has the customary District organizetion described earlier 
for Sicaya; in addition, each annex has a Teniente Gobernador and an Agente 
Municipal. 
% Recently the nearhy town of Paca has begun to imitate the ‘‘Institu- 
tional” organization of Muquiyauyo. 
that all public officials, whether they are repre- 
sentatives of the municipal or National Govern- 
ments, be members of one of the Institutions. 
Such officials are selected for their capabilities 
and experience without regard for their economic 
and social statuses within the community, or for 
their political influence and contacts outside the 
town. When local authorities are named or 
appointed through the agency of interested per- 
sons, the community protests, and there is a very 
strong feeling that a public official should not act 
contrary to the wishes of the community even if 
such actions should prove to be constructive and 
beneficial. 
The functions of the Institutions might be 
classified under three principal headings as admin- 
istrative, protective, and cooperative. The sys- 
tem of public works, or faenas, of the community 
is organized by Institutions, and the president of 
each keeps track of the attendance of its mem- 
bers.*! Large-scale projects, such as the con- 
struction of the Mantaro dam for the electric 
power plant and the building of the Rural Normal 
School, require the cooperative efforts of the en- 
tire community, including the women and children 
as wellas the men. Ordinarily but one member of 
each family is required to participate in the faenas. 
The members of each Institution are summoned 
by ringing a bell or by beating a drum, and lists 
are kept of those who have attended; all absen- 
tees—even if they are away from Muquiyauyo on 
business or for prolonged trips—are fined. Al- 
though substitutions are allowed, so that the head 
of a household may send his son or hire someone 
to take his place, continued absence is thought to 
reflect a lack of the proper community spirit, and 
is disapproved. 
The Institutions also function as labor unions 
in order to protect the best interests of their 
members. In this capacity they engage in private 
enterprises in Jauja, La Oroya, and elsewhere as 
well as in local public works, and it is possible for 
parties seeking laborers to contract with an Insti- 
tution for masons, artisans, miners, farm laborers, 
and the like. Such contracts are arranged through 
the president of the Institution rather than di- 
rectly with its members. This system is said to 
have done away with the enganchadores, or labor 
recruiters, and to have eliminated hacienda peon- 
age of impoverished townspeople. 
% The Institutions have suppressed the use of alcohol and coca during the 
faenas. 
