INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PL'BIJCATION NO. 



tain of the haciendas gradually grew into large, 

 tightly organized, and impersonal enterprises. Only 

 a short time previous to 1944, one of the haciendas 

 of the Moche \'alle>', a subsidiary of the largest sugar 

 estate in Peru, succeeded through legal action in 

 establishing claim tfi a fairly large piece of land, 

 formerly considered to be the communal lands of 

 the municipality. 



With respect to landed property, then, the 

 Mocheros are divided within and beset from with- 

 out. If this is an actuality for only a portion of 

 the Mocheros at present, it is a potentiality for all. 

 Under existing conditions of sugar production for 

 export on the world market, an hacienda must at- 

 tempt to control as much arable land and as large 

 a labor force as possible, if it is to continue to carry 

 on a profitable business. Especially in the case of 

 those enterprises controlled by foreign or absentee 

 capital, the hacienda's approach to the problem of 

 land and labor tends to become impersonal and 

 grimly efficient. It is this type of hacienda in the 

 Trujillo region which exhibits tlie strongest expan- 

 sionist tendencies. 



The student of cultural change must recognize 

 that the modern capitalistic hacienda system is a 

 mighty mechanism for alteration of the cultural and 

 social system represented by a small, independent 

 community such as Moche. The hacienda system of 

 the coast is incompatible with individual ownership 

 of small plots of ground independently managed, 

 with the production of crops on a small scale for 

 the internal or regional market, with "inefficient" 

 methods of cultivation which do not involve the use 

 of machinery, with undisciplined hours of labor, 

 with time-consuming bargaining by small producers 

 over the disposal of their product, and with freedom 

 of the laborer to change his occupation at will. The 

 hacienda requires the people under its sway to ac- 

 cept a different set of cultural patterns : the worker 

 and his family are to live in a block of dwellings 

 all exactly alike; he is to labor a definite period of 

 hours each day, set by the clock, under the super- 

 vision of bosses ; he has nothing to say about the 

 disposal of the product, but is paid a small money 

 wage; he is bound to the job for a definite period 

 by contract ; he receives gratis part of his rations 

 and buys the remainder in commissaries and markets 

 under the control of the hacienda; he or his family 

 is not allowed to leave the hacienda without per- 

 mission. Under the leadership of the Hacienda 

 Chiclin (which has not shown expansionist ten- 



dencies) and now under pressure of the Government, 

 manv haciendas have instituted "welfare features." 

 These features include free hospitals and medical 

 services, supervised housing conditions that result 

 in more hygienic dwellings, free or nominally priced 

 movies and other entertainments, encouragement of 

 athletics and sports, food furnished through the 

 commissaries at prices much below those of the gen- 

 eral markets and supervision of the quality and 

 healthfulness of the food, regular hours of labor and 

 discipline that cut down the consumption of alcohol 

 thereby improving health and morals, and others. 



The development of the hacienda systems has 

 created a new set of conditions to which the culture 

 of the "independent" community such as Moche 

 must adapt if it is to survive as a free community 

 with an integral culture. Up to the present moment 

 Moche has developed no effective new cultural pat- 

 terns for adaptation to this alteration of outside con- 

 ditions, and, as already pointed out, certain existent 

 internal patterns (documentation of land claims and 

 illiteracy) are seriously inconsistent. 



Thus, Moche is faced with "a world it never 

 made." and unless a speedy and successful cultural 

 adaptation takes place, the prospects are good for 

 the destruction of the integrity of the culture and 

 the dispersal of the society itself. At present, there 

 is seemingly no general sense of community responsi- 

 bility on the part of the people. This attitude extends 

 beyond property matters ( although it may be derived 

 from them) to practically all aspects of community 

 life. Other features of the matter will be discussed in 

 a subsequent section. During 1944, however, there 

 appeared two organizations, organized by the younger 

 elements, the stated purposes of which are to stimu- 

 late and develop community responsibility and pride 

 and to take practical measures for utilizing such 

 sentiments for the public welfare. 



FINANCE AND BUSINESS DEALINGS 



Very few Mocheros have bank accounts or in- 

 surance policies. Formerly everyone buried his 

 saved money in the ground. Nowadays most of the 

 younger adults keep their money in cash in trunks 

 or boxes in the house. No complaints have been 

 heard by me regarding thievery. One of the richest 

 Moche families apparently owes much of its present 

 affluence to an insurance policy. The head of the 

 house, now dead, was persuaded by his wife to take 

 out and maintain a 20,000 sol life insurance policy 

 payable to his wife. When he died a few }'ears 



