Skip to main content

Central Andean Views of Nature and the Environment

  • Chapter
  • 2334 Accesses

Part of the book series: Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science ((SACH,volume 4))

Abstract

The geographic region under discussion here is the central part of the Andes, the area of the former Inca Empire. Here the political reorganization and settlement policies of the Inca, along with an already presumed mutual cultural base, led to a wide region which shared a number of concepts about the natural ways of the world. The particular focus of this paper is the high plateau area of the central Andes, the puna and altiplano, which includes the Titicaca Basin, the world’s largest high elevation lake, at just over 3,800 meters or about 12,500 feet. This region was not only the original homeland of the Incas but also the homeland of the preceding sister states from which the Inca evolved, the Quechua-speaking Wari conquest state of most of Peru, and the Aymara-speaking Tiwanaku federation of Bolivia and adjacent portions of Chile and extreme southern Peru.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Abercrombie, Thomas A. Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History among an Andean People. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayala Loayza, Juan Luis. Insurgencia de los Yatiris: manifestaciones culturales del hombre andina. Puno: CONCYTEC,1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bastien, Joseph W. and John M. Donahue, eds. Health in the Andes. Washington DC: American Anthropological Association, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolin, Inge. Rituals of Respect: The Secret of Survival in the High Peruvian Andes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browman, David L. ‘Andean arid land pastoralism and development.’ Mountain Research and Development 3 (3): 241 - 252, 1983.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Browman, David L. ‘Agro-pastoral risk management in the Central Andes.’ Research in Economic Anthropology 8: 171 - 200, 1987a.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browman, David L., ed. Arid Land Use Strategies and Risk Management in the Andes: A Regional Anthropological Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987b.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browman, David L. ‘Climatic influences in the Titicaca Basin cultural sequence.’ Paper presented at the 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Mexico City, August 4, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browman, David L. ‘Environment and nature: South America– The Andes.’ In Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Helaine Selin, ed. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997, pp. 307 - 309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browman, David L. and James N. Gundersen. ‘Altiplano comestible earths: prehistoric and historic geophagy of highland Peru and Bolivia.’ Geoarchaeology 8 (5): 413 - 425, 1993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Claverias H., Ricardo, and Jorge Manrique M., eds. La Sequia en Puno: Alternativas Institucionales, Tecnológicas y Populares. Puno: Universidad Nacional Tecnica del Altiplano,1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dejoux, Claude and Andre Iltis, eds. Lake Titicaca: A Synthesis of Limnological Knowledge. Monographiae Biologicae, Vol. 68. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enriquez, Porfirio. ‘Indicadores andinos que anucian heladas.’ Boletin del Instituto Estudios Aymaras (2nd series) 2 (26): 4 - 15, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, Clark L. An Archaeological Investigation of Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. Ph.D. dissertation. Urbana: University of Illinois,1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, Clark L. ‘Methodological considerations in the study of ancient Andean field systems.’ In The Archaeology of Garden and Field, Naomi F. Miller and Kathryn L. Gleason, eds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, pp. 111152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granadino, Cecilia and Cronwell Jara Jimenez. Las Ranas, Embajadoras de la Lluvia y otros relatos. Lima: MINKA, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns, Timothy A. With Bitter Herbs They Shall Eat It: Chemical Ecology and the Origins of Human Diet and Medicine. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunzel, F. and A. Kessler. ‘Investigation of level changes in Lake Titicaca by maximum entropy spectral analysis.’ Archives for Meteorology, Geophysics, and Bioclimatology, Series B: Theoretical and Applied Climatology 36: 219 - 227, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaBarre, Weston. The Aymara Indians of the Lake Titicaca Plateau, Bolivia. Memoir 48. Menasha, Wisconsin: American Anthropological Association,1948.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levieil, Dominique Philippe. Territorial Use-Rights in Fishing (TURFs) and the Management of Small-Scale Fisheries: The Case of Lake Titicaca (Peru). Ph.D. dissertation. Vancouver: University of British Columbia,1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levieil, Dominique P., Q.C. Cutipa, C.G. Goyzueta, and F.P. Paz. ‘The socio-economic importance of macrophyte extraction in Puno Bay.’ In Pollution in Lake Titicaca, Peru: Training, Research and Management, T.G. Northcote, et al., eds. Vancouver: Wastewater Research Centre, University of British Columbia,1989, pp. 155-175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levieil, Dominique P. and Benjamin Orlove. ‘Local control of aquatic resources: community and ecology in Lake Titicaca, Peru.’ American Anthropologist 92 (2): 362 - 382, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, Louis, et al. ‘Enregistrements de conditions de type El Nino, en Amérique du Sud, au cours des 7,000 dernières années.’ Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris. Série II: Mécanique, Physique Chimie 315 (1): 97 - 192, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morlon, Pierre, ed. Comprender la agricultura campesina en los Andes Centrales, Peru-Bolivia. Lima: Institut Français d’Études Andines, and Cuzco: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos Bartolome de Las Casas, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlove, Benjamin S. Lines in the Water: Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlove, Benjamin S., John C.H. Chiang, and Mark A. Cane. ‘Forecasting Andean rainfall and crop yield from the influence of El Nin˜o on Pleiades visibility.’ Nature 403: 68 - 71, 2000.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Philander, S. George. El Ninïo, La Ninïa and the Southern Oscillation. San Diego: Academic Press,1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasmusson, Eugene M. ‘El Nin˜o and variations in climate.’ American Scientist 73 (2):168177,1985. Tschopik, Harry, Jr. The Aymara of Chucuito, Peru. Part 1. Magic. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 44, part 2, 1951, pp. 135 - 320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tschopik, Harry, J. ‘The Aymara.’ In Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 2, Julian H. Steward,ed. Washington DC: Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143(2), 1946, pp. 501 - 574.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urton, Gary. At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van den Berg, Hans. La tierra no da asi no mas: los ritos agricolas en las religion de los Aymara-Cristianos. Amsterdam: Centro de Estudios y Documentacion Latinoamericanos, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vellard, Jehan A. El Hombre y Los Andes. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Culturales Argentinas, Ministeriode Cultura y Educacion, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yampara Huarachi, Simon. ‘Economia comunitaria andina.’ In La Cosmovision Aymara, Hans van den Berg and Norbert Schiffers, eds. La Paz: Hisbol, Biblioteca Andina No. 14, 1993, pp. 143 - 186

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Browman, D.L. (2003). Central Andean Views of Nature and the Environment. In: Selin, H. (eds) Nature Across Cultures. Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0149-5_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0149-5_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6271-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-0149-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics