| Published monograph of the Production, Storage, and Exchange (PSE) in a Terraced Environment on the Eastern Andean Escarpment |
Chapter 9 - Footnotes
1This data set is identified as "Survey 1986." It is not a random sample (see "Field Work Setting," Chapter 1), but it provides an accurate picture of nuclear families in which the husband is a miner. Only in Table 9.3, dealing with the gold income of household members other than the husband, do I use the total group of 28 domestic groups. Data concerning total gold income was collected at the end of fieldwork, after I knew all the families well. By that time I had weighed their gold production with them on more than one occasion.
2The average income of the 24 men I interviewed in 1986 was 83 grams (here I am combining the Ancoccala and Maldonado samples). They made 59 grams in 1985, 75 grams in 1984 and 68 in 1983 (Survey 1986; see Chapter 1).
3The price of Puno gold usually is slightly higher than that mined in Madre de Dios due to minor differences in quality. The dollar equivalent used throughout the monograph for one gram of gold is $9.11 per gram both for Ancoccala and Madre de Dios gold (this was the price in Cuyo Cuyo on April 12, 1986). An additional reason to use a single rate of exchange is that most Madre de Dios migrants bring part of their gold back to Cuyo Cuyo where they sell it as Puno gold.
4A factor that I cannot evaluate is differences in the gold content of the ore at different points in the Ancoccala mine. Miners say that there are some differences, although a technical report (ORSTOM-INGEMET 1981) described the gold content of Ancoccala as homogeneously distributed. This later opinion, however, may reflect the study's industrial point of view. Generally speaking, I consider differences in productivity originating in the quality of the deposit to be of secondary importance (Chapter 7).
5My source of information on remesas is "Survey 1986" (Chapter 1). These figures were calculated from a group of 12 miners.
6Margaret Graham (personal communication) indicates that in Ura Ayllu there are some women and children who go hungry during the months of February and March. Given these circumstances, the fact that men send only small amounts of gold reveals the firm control that men have over this commodity.
7Unmarried migrants are commonly paid in cash, although I have expressed their income in grams of gold for consistency and comparability with the rest of tables.
8Comuneros with enough resources on occasion may travel to Puerto Maldonado, the capital of the Department, and fly to Cusco in order to avoid the arduous trip by truck. This is rare, however.
9I conducted a simplified version of such an exercise. As part of my "Survey 1986" (Chapter 1) I collected information on total agricultural production for 28 households. I calculated the monetary value of each household's crops by using the "controlled prices" agreed to by the residents of Ura Ayllu on April 21, 1986 in a general assembly. The exchange rate I used for this time of the year was 20 Intis per dollar. In these terms, the average gross monetary value of the foods produced by these households was $370. I did not have sufficient information to calculate the production costs which would be necessary to determine the net value of subsistence production. In contrast, the average net cash value of gold income among those same households was 756 dollars.
10Margaret Graham (Michigan State University, Department of Anthropology) conducted a study of household food consumption in Ura Ayllu. Her work suggests that subsistence crops form the bulk of the diet but that there are many families who have seasonal food gaps that must be covered with commercial foods.
11Quantitative evaluation of household commodity consumption will be possible with a data set collected by the PSE project. It consists of twenty, household economy "diaries" from Ura Ayllu and Puna Ayllu, covering a two-year period. This information will permit a calculation of the percentage of gold spent on food relative to all other categories of consumption.
12Pachamanka is a way of cooking meat and agricultural produce within a mound of earth. It literally means "earth-pot." A Cuyo Cuyeño woman related to the misti families explained me that the Indian sponsors of fiestas were expected to buy specific food items for the mistis, including imported canned fish, special breads and wine.
13Literally "machulas" or "ancestors," those who have completed the cycle of fiesta sponsorships (Chapter 3).
14See sections "Coca," "Coffee," and "Gold" in Chapter 5, and also Chapter 8.
15I have translated the expression "De todo sufriamos" ("we suffered from everything") as "we lacked everything," which is a possible meaning. However the connotation of suffering is a fundamental aspect of migrants' self-image as money earners.
16Native foods do have great prestige among Cuyo Cuyeño. They all would probably agree on the idea that the store foods they must eat while in Maldonado are of a quality inferior to their home crops. Yet, store foods are always included in public meals in the home community as a prominent sign of economic well-being. This metamorphosis in the symbolic value of Cuyo Cuyeño diet and foods may also be related to the political status of men, the providers of non-farm wealth, relative to that of women, who have a greater role in agriculture (see Chapter 4).
17One of the many Quechua terms that describes poverty is wakcha, the same as the word for orphan. Quechua words for poverty are also associated frequently with rag clothing.
18"En esos tiempos ya era un tiempo de achoramiento. . .de miramiento de trabajo." Achorado is difficult to translate. It is used to refer to the social and economic aggressivity of poor people in urban contexts in Peru.
19Lots are difficult to obtain and are relatively expensive by Cuyo Cuyo standards. A typical building lot costs over $100 and few are available in attractive locations. Buyers must court potential sellers for a long time, particularly for lots located along the road.
20It is women who find out about prospective sellers. Land is sold mostly by elderly couples living outside the district who are the descendants of misti families, and by comunero residents of Llaqta Ayllu. Buying land within the community itself is difficult due both to scarcity and to the lengthy social transactions that often accompany its transmission. Inside the community it is often elderly people without descendants who sell land. Younger families must demonstrate cariño (affection) and loyalty to the people who can sell them land, by giving them a small part of their harvest or by bringing them some bread or fruit from Juliaca at the end of the mining season. Although these are often no more than token gifts, they do require part of the household's resources.
21Given enough time these buyers might recreate through commercial transactions the traditional pattern of land dispersion that characterized the Ayllus of Cuyo Cuyo before their division in the 1940s. These miners buy whole "estancias" as they call them. They look for people without descendants or others who want to sell all their properties, and then buy them in a package. These kinds of purchases involve participating in the social life and faenas of the community in which they buy the land. In the section "Pedro's Casa" (Chapter 8) I refer to one of these cases. This particular holding was relatively large (several hectares according to the buyers) and was worth U.S. $2,235.
22The rates appear to be a consequence both of inflation and of the high risk involved lending in a system in which there are no commercial security mechanisms against default.
23These include the purchase of fruit in San Juan del Oro and their sale in Cuyo Cuyo or Juliaca. However, such transactions are usually small and are not a significant source of income (see Table 5.2). Truck owners in Cuyo Cuyo are mostly transporters and not merchants. There are, however, some business opportunities for people who do not own trucks but who have extra gold to invest. For example, I was told by a man from Ura Ayllu, that one can buy a truckload of fruit in San Juan del Oro, rent a truck, and sell the fruit in Juliaca or Arequipa. This can be a risky business however if the fruit does not make it on time and in good condition. Comuneros rarely engage in such enterprises.
24Truck hauling is a risky enterprise. Comuneros repeatedly pointed to the fact that this alternative is possible only if one has substantial income from a gold mine, is willing to spend large periods of time working in Maldonado to raise enough cash, and is a member of a sibling group with good relationships among themselves who want to cooperate in the enterprise. Brothers must be willing to share the down payment for a truck and commit time to running the business. If no accidents occur, then it may be possible to meet the installment payments, the operating costs (including a driver's salary), and to accumulate capital that can be invested in the purchase of other trucks. Ideally each one of the brothers should be able to purchase a truck as the business continues to prosper. I have no reliable estimates of income for truck owners. In one case, the owner of a truck estimated a net income during the peak of the marketing season that was equivalent to U.S. $ 600 per month.
25This is a result both of natural depletion of construction materials and of changes in the social concepts that define an appropriate house. The environmental basis of change is fundamental, however. For example, it is said that finding the appropriate straw to renew or repair the roofs is very difficult and requires excessive time. House construction items include, among other things, galvanized tin sheets for the roof, cement for the stucco of the exterior walls, plaster for the interior walls, wood planks for the second floor and for the doors, timber for the roof structure, nails, and wire.
26I should add that in this specific case, Sabino was sharing the natal house with another recently married brother. Their wives had constant arguments, according to him.
27House construction is also a means to save (invest) money. A house can be easily sold and apparently keeps its real value. It also can be left as inheritance to children. However, an easier way to save money would be to hoard gold, a practice that, as far as I know, is rare among the comuneros of Puna Ayllu and Ura Ayllu.
28Cerveza Arequipeña produced by Cervecera Sur is the only brand sold in the region. According to regional sale figures, Cuyo Cuyo consumes 15% of the total sold on the route from Cuyo Cuyo to San Juan del Oro. These figures are very approximate and should be read only as an indication of a trend in Cuyo Cuyo.
29Cane alcohol is reserved for the ritual parts of fiestas. It is the appropriate drink for the Pachamama (Mother-Earth).
30Although women also gain prestige as a result of their husbands' generosity with beer during household and community fiestas, this only happens in the context of fiestas. Men generally control the use of cash and they surrender money to their wives for the purchase of food. Men even buy the wool that their wives use to weave, although she can then freely dispose of the weaving for her own needs and security. This example, however, represents the "leftovers" of men's income. Women in Ura Ayllu say that they deeply enjoy the time their husbands are away because only then can they dispose of their time and money independently. This observation is based on interviews with Ura Ayllu women by Anne Larme (personal communication).
