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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 3 



supposedly 88 years of age, who, suffering from 

 paralysis or weakness of the legs, spends most of her 

 time on a mat on the floor of her house, but gets about 

 Ijy crawling on all fours. Eleven of these old people 

 arc women and 5 are men. With the exception noted, 

 all are vigorous enough to take care of their houses, 

 go about normal Imsiness (other than heavy field 

 work), and drink heavily in company with younger 

 friends and relatives. 



Conclusive data are also lacking with respect to 

 fertility. Perhaps the best available is obtained from 

 the genealogical material, whicli sliows an average of 

 6.7Z children for each woman over SO years of age. 

 However, since in the case of several women whom 

 I knew better than the average I discovered that 

 it was not unusual for them to suppress or forget an 

 illegitimate or deceased child or two when giving the 

 genealogv'. the average may well be higher. The 

 most fecund woman is aged 48, a JMochera, and the 

 mother of 21 children, including 2 pairs of twins. 

 The mother of 1 of my informants, a jorastcra. had 

 18 children by single births and died at the age of 72. 



LAND HOLDINGS 



According to the records of the Administration 

 of Irrigation in Trujillo, the irrigated land of the 

 District of Moche amounts to 1,203.9569 hectares 

 (2,974.98885 acres or 4.63 sq. miles), of which the 

 Haciendita, an old Spanish land grant which obtrudes 

 into the camfina. comprises 113.1380 hectares. This 

 leaves approximately 976 hectares as lands of 803 

 small proprietors, who pay water rents. This gives an 

 average holding of 1.3580 hectares. The smallest hold- 

 ing is 880 sq. m. and the largest 21.8781 hectares. The 

 smallest and largest lots happen to be the sole landed 

 property of their respective owners, but it is probable 

 that the average holding per individual owner would 

 be larger than that shown above, inasmuch as several 

 men appear on the lists as holders of two or more 

 lots. At the moment of this writing a new catastro, 

 based for the first time on accurate surveys and ex- 

 amination of titles, is in the process of composition, 

 and until this is complete the above figures and esti- 

 mates must suffice. My own guess is that there are 

 slightly over 700 farmers in the Moche District, and 

 that the average amount of land managed by one man 

 is about 1.6 hectares (3.9536 acres). 



Whatever the exact figures may prove to be, it is 

 clear that Moche is a community of small landholders 

 and land workers. 



HISTORICAL DATA 



Historical data concerning Moche itself are very 

 scarce, at least in the experience of the present writer. 

 It is hoped that the present account of modem life 

 in Moche may arouse sufficient interest on the part of 

 Peruvian historians so that they will do the neces- 

 sary research and make available an adequate histori- 

 cal account of this community, if such is possible. The 

 records of the local church were either destroyed or 

 removed to parts unknown in the flood of 1925. At 

 least, neither the local priest, nor the Archbishop, nor 

 the librarian of the Archdiocese of Trujillo was able 

 to provide me with information concerning them, and 

 no authority consulted has been able to give historical 

 proof of the precise date of the founding of Moche 

 during historical times. From all this ignorance 

 seems to emerge, at least, the fact that Moche has 

 been considered of little importance since the time of 

 the Conquest ; however, it would be interesting to 

 have some picture of the condition of the people in 

 the period of the first Spanish settlement. 



If one accepts 1535 as the date of the founding of 

 Trujillo, ^^ it would be difficult to believe that Spanish 

 control was not established in Moche almost immedi- 

 ately if a community of Indians in fact existed there 

 at that time. 



The earliest reference to Moche which it has been 

 my fortune to encounter is that which figures in the 

 list of parroquias visited in 1593 by Santo Toribio 

 (Archbishop Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo) : 

 "Moche, que servia el P. Fray Alonzo Diaz de las 

 Mercedes."" In 1613, in the Auto establishing the 

 new diocese of Trujillo, "Mochi" figures as 1 of 22 

 curas of the "Corregimiento de Chiclaio" ; one friar 

 of the Order de la Merced is assigned to this church 

 (Monografia de la Diocesis, 1930-31, vol. 1, p. 148). 

 The church of Moche is mentioned specifically as hav- 

 ing suffered serious damage in the earthquake of 

 September 2, 1759, although nothing is said in the 

 official church history regarding the fate of the parish- 

 ioners in this disaster (ibid., vol. 2, p. 144). 



The most extensive account of Moche published 

 during colonial times seems to be that of Feijoo, 

 which is herewith translated and quoted in full : 



'^ See the wordy and sometimes acrimonious debate on the exact 

 date as published in Apuntes y cstudios hist6ricos sobrc la fecha dc 

 la Fundacion de la ciudad de Trujillo (1935). 



>' Monoprafia de la Diocesis, 1930-31, vol. 1, p. 119. The original 

 seems to be "Libro de Visitas de Santo Toribio," in the Archive 

 Capitular de Luna. During my hurried visit to this source, the 

 librarian was unable to find this document or any others pertaining to 

 Moche. 



