HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 5) 
CONCLUDING REMARKS 
It is hoped that the data presented in the 
foregoing pages, general though they are, will 
serve in some measure to correct the widespread 
misconception that the entire Sierra of Peru is 
“Indian” and that its peoples are uniformly 
primitive, backward, and nonprogressive. In- 
deed, our survey can claim to have revealed a 
diversity of patterns and an essential lack of cul- 
tural unity in the Central Peruvian Highlands. 
Marked differences from one community to the 
next have been described with reference to eco- 
nomic adaptations, trade and marketing, social 
and political organization, religious practices, and 
material culture. 
In some regions—principally those remote from 
the more modern cities and the important com- 
munication routes—the contemporary communi- 
ties appear to exhibit a high degree of cultural 
stability, which we may assume has persisted over 
long periods of time; in those areas in close con- 
tact with modern world culture, change generally 
has been rapid and marked. In some communities, 
basic patterns which were established in pre- 
Hispanic or early in Colonial times tend to persist 
virtually without modification; in other towns, 
recent contact with general Western European 
culture has largely obliterated both the Indian 
and Spanish heritages as coherent entities. With- 
out any intention of postulating a unilinear evolu- 
tion of Central Sierra culture through a fixed 
series of stages, therange of adaptations represented 
by the contemporary Highland communities does, 
in a very general way, seem to mirror the post- 
Conquest development of Highland Peru. 
Observing the situation from another point of 
view, we may speak quite literally—in a geo- 
graphical, environmental sense—of a “‘stratifica- 
tion” of culture in Peru. Very generally speaking, 
the Coast today is most strongly influenced by 
Western European culture, the favored Highland 
valleys are Mestizo, while the high punas are 
Indian. This situation reflects post-Conquest 
settlement patterns; the Spaniards selected the 
temperate valleys for their towns and left the 
dreary uplands—except where they contained 
rich mineral deposits—to the Indian shepherds. 
In post-Colonial times, the great bulk of Euro- 
pean settlers have been attracted by the milder 
climate of the Coast, as well as by the better 
economic opportunities available in the Coastal 
cities. 
Although an adequate analysis and explanation 
of the contemporary situation in Central Highland 
Peru would necessarily involve long and pains- 
taking research, several sets of factors—some of 
which have not been discussed and others of which 
have been touched upon but briefly and obliquely 
in the present paper—appear to merit special 
attention. The more obvious of these factors, 
in part environmental and in part historical, 
may be grouped in summary fashion as follows: 
(1) The extreme variations of the geographical 
environments here considered; (2) basic regional 
differences in the pre-Hispanic cultures of the 
Central Sierra at the time of the Conquest; 
(3) local differences in acculturation (including 
the period of contact, the types of contact, the 
processes of acculturation, etc.); and (4) local 
historical events which have influenced the de- 
velopment of particular areas (the discovery of 
mines, the construction of railways, etc.). The 
object of the present paper, however, has been 
merely one of definition and description, as stated 
in the Introduction. Any attempt to deal sys- 
tematically with the numerous and interesting 
social and cultural problems which exist in the 
Highlands of Central Peru must await future 
intensive investigation. 
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