HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK i} 
in July or August, pottery, wool, textiles, and some 
hides and pelts are transported on llama back to 
the upper reaches of the Coastal valleys and to the 
favored quebradas, or lower valleys, of Hudnuco 
Department to be traded for maize, wheat, pota- 
toes, and other agricultural products. Today, 
although small fortnightly markets are held in 
Huayllay, most staples are purchased in San José, 
Huarén, or in Cerro de Pasco. 
Owing, presumably, in part to the energetic 
activities of Protestant missionaries, religious 
fiestas of the town are said to have lost much of 
their former color, and the processes leading to 
the secularization of feast days appear to be 
advanced, Although the bulk of the townspeople 
adhere to the Roman Catholic faith, there is no 
resident priest in Huayllay. There is, however, 
an Evangelical minister, while a Seventh Day 
Adventist missionary from Cerro de Pasco makes 
frequent visits. Local informants estimate that 
there are at least 40 Protestant converts in the 
town at the present time. 
HUAYCHAO 
The village of Huaychao, situated in the high 
upland pasture region and surrounded by lichen- 
covered knolls and rocky rises, lies approximately 
8 miles to the northwest of Huayllay. To the 
west, above the barren hills, rise the lofty snow- 
capped peaks of the Cordillera Occidental, while 
to the east, in the distance, weathered pillars and 
columns of basalt stand out against the sky. The 
straggling little cluster of buildmgs comprising 
the community center of Huaychao is connected 
with Huayllay by a dirt road while other roads— 
mere trails which wind across the pampa—lead to 
the mines of Huarén, to Cerro de Pasco, and to 
various small towns and villages situated in the 
headwaters of the Chancay River valley. Most 
of these roads are all but impassable to automobiles 
during the rainy season, and traffic over them is 
infrequent. 
The houses and buildings which compose the 
village are scattered in so haphazard a fashion 
that true streets cannot be said to exist. The 
plaza is merely a roughly rectangular tract of 
grass-grown pampa around which several public 
structures have been erected by the community. 
These include a building which serves as the munic- 
ipality and public assembly hall, a small church, a 
school, the priest’s house—now vacant—and a 
one-room jail. All of these structures have gal- 
vanized-iron roofs. The village’s single store is 
operated by the local agent of a wool buyer from 
Cerro de Paseo. Distributed irregularly around 
the community center are no more than 20 houses. 
Three, which belong to leading citizens, are also 
roofed with galvanized iron, while the remaining 
houses are thatched. When one considers the 
size of the village, the range in types of construc- 
tion materials is surprising; these include puddled 
adobe, adobe brick, field stones set in adobe, and 
champa. The techniques employed in roofing are 
also variable. Some houses have hip-roofs of ichu 
grass thatch, others have gabled ended, double 
pitched roofs, while still others—including most 
of the houses of the surrounding estancias—have 
conical or pyramidal thatched roofs (pl. 16, 6). 
Kitchens are generally small separate huts, and 
most houses have corrals nearby which are irregu- 
larly shaped enclosures of dry stone masonry. 
Huaychao lacks telephone, telegraph, and elec- 
tricity, and must depend for its water supply 
upon springs and seepages which are marked by 
green marshy patches on the slopes of the sur- 
rounding hillsides. 
Dotting the pampa around the community 
center as far as the eye can see are clusters of 
three or four low, round, conical-roofed houses 
with adjoining corrals and kitchen huts. Dry 
masonry and champa walls, winding over the 
hills and across the rolling pastures, divide the 
grazing lands of one estancia from those of 
neighboring families. On small hills and rises 
are pottery kilns, and piles of champa blocks lie 
stacked nearby. Large flocks of lamas and sheep 
graze everywhere, wandering at will down the 
“streets” of the village to crop the grassy stretches 
between the houses. 
The inhabitants of Huaychao annex, which 
pertains to the District of Huayllay, are in great 
part Indian shepherds, most of whom live in the 
scattered estancias. While it is impossible to 
estimate the size of this population—since it is 
not known whether these outlying house clusters 
represent extended or merely biological families— 
local residents agree that there are approximately 
120 jefes de familia, or heads of families, living 
outside the limits of the village proper. Within 
the village there are some 12 Mestizo families and 
a few Indians. The school teacher estimates that 
everyone within the annex speaks Quechua, while 
between 30 percent and 40 percent speak no 
Spanish. Because they must spend much of their 
