Definición de las Variables Preliminares del Modelo

The year is marked by two seasons: jallu pacha, which lasts from approximately mid-October or November to March, and t”aya pacha. The former is the rainy season, but most of the rains fall in the months of December, January and February. Pasture begins to grow in October, and it is best between December and the end of March. From this time onward, the bofedales begin to wither and lose their green hue. The rains cease, and the windy season begins, characterized by strong winds which blow up in the afternoons. Extremely strong winds are especially associated with the festival of San Santiago (St James) on 25 July. At the begin- ning of August, these winds begin to ease. During this season, the pasture of the bofedales is stunted and yellow. Rivulets running through these areas often remain frozen for a greater part of the day, only thawing out for a couple of hours in the afternoon where they are exposed to the sun. Precipitation occurring in jallu pacha may fall as snow or sleet, but it does not usually settle. On the other hand, snow falls in late June and in July may last longer and cover large expanses of pasture. This is a serious problem, because the camelids, already weakened by the strong winds and low night-time temperatures, are unable to feed as long as the snow cover remains. However, when the heavy cloud cover disperses, the fierce sun causes the snow to disappear rapidly, and the moisture is absorbed by the parched ground.

A shortage in rainfall can have grave consequences. Cloudless skies in February, March and April bring frosty nights to Isluga, and the young quinua and potato plants are badly affected. In addition, reduced rainfall means that there is less pasture, and this in turn results in poor camelid fleece yields. Alpacas and

llamas are shorn in November and early December in Isluga, when night-time temperatures are not so low. If the rains were good in the previous rainy season, the shorn fleeces weigh more. Luis Castro of Enquelga said that his fleece harvest in November 1986 was good because of the previous plentiful rains. In addition, seasonality in the availability of pasture causes problems for the young animals. They are born between December and March, when there is no shortage of pasture but, as lactation continues into the dry season, by the time they are weaned at six or seven months, pasture is much more scarce.

Having indicated some of the limitations in the availability of pasture in Isluga, I will now describe the normal routine of herding llamas and alpacas as practised in Enquelga. A cluster of large corrals constructed of dry-stone dykes surrounds the estancia. More corrals belonging to the village are located 2 km to the east, near the thermal spring, and also at a similar distance to the west, north of the road between Enquelga and Arawilla. These corrals are used every other year to grow crops. One year the villagers grow quinua and potatoes in the corrals immediately surrounding Enquelga. The following year, the outlying corrals are used for crops. During the intervening fallow years, the corrals are used to enclose llamas and alpacas, separately, overnight. The dung voided by the herds fertilizes the ground, which is cultivated once again the following year.

During jallu pacha, when pasture is freely available, herds of llamas and alpacas graze for a greater part of the day on the bofedal below Enquelga. Shortly before sunset, the herds are driven back to a corral for the night. However, they will only spend one night out of two in a corral (and never use the same one consecutively, so as to fertilize all of a household’s corrals). For the intervening nights, the animals are sent to one of the hill slopes of Laram Qawani. Thus a typical sequence for a herd of llamas or of alpacas would be to spend the night on a hill; after dawn they descend gradually to the bofedal, where they stay until light fails, after which they are herded into a corral. The following morning they are driven to the bofedal, and so on. In fact, herds are trained to follow a sequence of spending the night on higher ground and returning to the moist pastures during daytime. A herd will maintain this routine without supervision, and it will start to leave the wet pasturelands of its own accord at the end of the day.

As the rainy season ends, and the bofedal begins to dry up, the llamas spend more and more time on surrounding dry waña pasture. They will perhaps spend two nights on the hill before returning to a corral. Alpacas continue to use the bofedales, but by this time of the year the one below Enquelga tends to be overgrazed. Also, camelids are said to dislike cold and frozen pasture. During t”aya pacha, the alpacas are more likely to be taken to Jalsuri, since the waters of the double spring are not so bitterly cold. Families who have houses in hamlets near Arawilla (Chullpa, Kullku or Kacharpaya) take their herds to the Arawilla bofedal. There are local differences in the types of vegetation in the various wet pasturelands of Isluga. Isabel Castro told me that she takes her llamas to Arawilla because they are used to eating sura, a plant which does not grow in Enquelga. Similarly, one of the common plants in the Enquelga bofedal is called katari, but this does not grow in Parajalla. However, it is said to be highly nutritious and it

is considered to be favoured by llamas. Sheep, on the other hand, are said to favour a shrub called lampaya, which grows on dry land.