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HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 51 
and the boys’ school, beside which an area of the 
pampa has been cleared of ichu grass and stones 
to serve as a sports field. Here the houses are 
small, poor thatched huts constructed of champa, 
or blocks of sod, peat, and grass roots cut from 
the pampa; this material also serves the towns- 
people as fuel both for cooking and for the firing 
of pottery. The principal street leads into the 
Plaza de Armas, a barreu, treeless square located 
to the west of the town’s center. Here there are 
cement sidewalks and a pavilion or bandstand 
roofed with galvanized iron and _ furnished 
with rough wooden benches. The square and 
the main street are lighted by electricity supplied 
to the municipality by the Huarén mines in part 
payment for the use of the lands which the com- 
pany occupies. Flanking the sides of the plaza 
are the church, the girls’ school, a combined 
postal and telegraph office, and a new two-story 
structure with balconies and a galvanized-iron 
roof which houses the municipality and the police 
station. Also facing on the plaza are two small 
restaurants, dark and dingy, and several poorly 
stocked stores; since most of the townspeople 
make their purchases at cost in the mining com- 
pany’s stores in San José and Huarén, the few 
shops of Huayllay carry, in addition to beer, 
aguardiente, and coca, only such articles of prime 
necessity as bread, flour, sugar, rice, aji peppers, 
and the like. Where the main street enters the 
plaza, there is a third restaurant as well as two 
small and very poor inns. 
Along the main street there are several two- 
story houses, roofed with galvanized iron, which 
contain several rooms and which have windows 
and balconies on the upper floor. The typical 
house of Huayllay, however, is a rectangular, 
gable-ended, one-story building of adobe brick 
or field stones which is roofed with thatch and 
which lacks windows; each room is a separate 
structure (pl. 16, @). Since many houses are con- 
structed on sloping ground, the doorways of these 
are reached by short flights of stone steps. Some 
houses have chimneys of stone, adobe, or gal- 
vanized iron, or have a smoke hole left open in 
the roof; such chimneys are probably due to the 
influence of the nearby mines. Behind the houses 
are corrals of dry stone masonry, or champa, 
and separate thatched huts, which serve as 
kitchens. 
The population of the District of Huayllay, 
which pertains to the Province of Cerro de Pasco, 
is given in the census as 6,932. This figure, 
however, includes the annexes of Huarén and 
Huaychao as well as the numerous Indians of the 
outlying estancias. Although it is extremely 
difficult to estimate the population of the town 
proper with any degree of accuracy, since many 
of the townspeople are away most of the time 
herding their flocks or working in the mines, it 
is highly doubtful whether the number of inhabi- 
tants exceeds 400. 
To the outsider the population of present- 
day Huayllay exhibits a general social-cultural 
uniformity which, though striking, may be more 
apparent than real; for while an intensive study 
of the community would, in all probability, reveal 
the existence of classes reflected by behaviors 
and by expressed attitudes toward particular 
croups, families, and individuals, these phenomena 
escape the casual visitor. On the other hand, 
such differences in house types, dress, and in the 
paraphernalia of daily living as may be observed 
readily do not necessarily in this instance reflect 
differences in class; in present-day Huayllay the 
means of procuring the comforts and minor 
luxuries of life are available to all. A rich and 
industrious “Indian” may live in a fine two-story 
house whilea “‘ Mestizo,”’ prejudiced against manual 
labor, may be condemned to a life of genteel 
poverty in a thatched hovel. Since all may pur- 
chase cheap machine-made clothing and shoes in 
the company stores, dress styles vary largely in 
accordance with individual taste and personal 
enterprise. Women and girls either dress de 
centro (pl. 12, a)—occasionally employing such 
Indian-type garments as native-woven shawls 
and carrying cloths, hide slipper-sandals, home- 
spuns, and hand-made felt hats—or wear Euro- 
pean-type dress. Men and boys have generally 
adopted the standard outfit worn by miners, 
which consists of overalls, blue denim jacket, 
shirt, felt hat, woolen stockings and shoes (pl. 
16, c); but ponchos, hide sandals, and bayeta 
trousers may also be used. 
Steady or temporary employment in the sur- 
rounding mines has tended to upset the established 
social equilibrium. Opportunities for economic 
advancement are available to all, and Indians and 
Mestizos alike are in demand as laborers and 
employees; the fine distinctions of class are largely 
% Within the District there are said to be 1,932 Indians while 1,888 indi- 
viduals are listed as Mestizos or Whites (Extracto Estadistico del Pert, 
1940, p. 34). 
