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Camelids are either wild (sallqa) or domesticated (uywa). While uywa are cared for by human owners, wild animals are believed to belong to the spirits of the hills. The mountains Arintika and Pukintika to the north of the Salar de Surire are particularly feared as the demonic owners of vicuñas.20_{Table 3.1 shows how} the camelids are classified in Isluga, and the range of hybrid crosses. Vicuña are rarely seen in some parts of Isluga, but they are found west of Mawk’i, on the slopes of Tata Jachura, and to the north they are abundant round the Salar de Surire. Guanaco do not occur in Isluga, but they are known to exist in the western valleys. Hybrid crosses between vicuña and domesticated camelids are rare, but a half- breed vicuña–alpaca cross was obtained by some families in Enquelga in the past. These animals are prized for their fine fleece, and also for their ‘intelligence’ (one herder spoke of the alpaca as being ‘silly’ in comparison). Such a cross is known merely as wik’uña, a term borrowed from the Quechua for ‘vicuña’.

Table 3.1 The classification of camelids in Isluga.

Camelid species Names of crosses between species

Sallqa (wild) Wanaku (guanaco) Wik’uña (vicuña–alpaca cross) Wari (vicuña)

Uywa (cared for) Allpachu (alpaca) Wayki (alpaca–llama cross) Qawra (llama): Waritu (alpaca–llama cross)

– t’awrani (woolly llama) Wakaya (alpaca–llama cross) – q’ara (bare llama)

In some areas of Peru, particularly in Quechua-speaking parts of southern Peru, two breeds (or, according to some authors, varieties) of alpaca are known: suri, which has long, wavy and lustrous locks of fleece, and wakaya, which is the more widespread form of alpaca found in the Andes. The suri breed is not known in Isluga, where this word has its Aymara meaning of avestruz, a small Andean ostrich which is sometimes to be seen in small groups around Isluga. The Quechua usage of the word suri may be a borrowing from the Aymara, and the long locks of the suri alpaca may be said to resemble the long white feathers of the ostrich. However, Aymara speakers do not use this word to refer to alpacas, and an alpaca herder from the community of Caquena in the far north of Chile who had heard of the suri breed, referred to it as wari (‘vicuña’) in the Aymara language. There is a great deal of linguistic confusion, for among Quechua-speaking herders, the word wari refers to an alpaca–llama hybrid (Flores Ochoa 1978: 1,007). Another ambiguous word is wakayu, which is one of the words for an alpaca–llama hybrid in Isluga, but among Quechua speakers it resembles the word wakaya, which refers to the widespread form of alpaca and which may be written as wakayu, according to Flores Ochoa (1978: 1,007). Unfortunately, many of the biological and veterinary publications have adopted an exclusively Quechua-based nomenclature, without recognizing that such words refer to different breeds or to different animals in Aymara (see, for example, Franklin 1982: 465).

In Isluga, hybrid crosses between alpacas and llamas are called waritu, if the phenotype is that of a llama, and wayki, if the phenotype is that of an alpaca. The word wakayu also may be used for a hybrid cross. These terms are listed in Table 3.1. There are two breeds (or varieties, according to some authors) of llama in Isluga: t’awrani (woolly) and q’ara (bare). The former may be recognized by the greater quantity of fleece round the face and neck, whereas the latter has less fleece, particularly below the throat.

The camelids are further classified according to four named age roles, of which the first three are sex neutral (that is, the same word applies to male and female). Old age in camelids, both llamas and alpacas, is designated by the sex-parallel terms of achachi (‘grandfather’) and apachi (‘grandmother’). These age roles are listed in table 3.2. It should be pointed out that the Quechua term ankuta Table 3.2 The age roles of camelids in Isluga.

Llamas Alpacas

Qachu  Urqu  Qachu  Urqu  Calf Jiska qallu Jiska qallu Jiska qallu Jiska qallu

Qallulla Qallulla Qallulla Qallulla

6 months–2 years Ankuta Ankuta Ankuta Ankuta

Adult Qawra Qawra Allpachu Allpachu

does not correspond to the Aymara usage of the same word. Flores Ochoa (1978: 1,009) lists ankuta in reference to adult llamas, alpacas and alpaca–llama hybrids. However, this age role in Isluga is simply designated by the word qawra which, if used without further qualification, implies an adult llama, and allpachu which, if similarly employed, implies an adult alpaca. The word ankuta in Isluga refers to a young animal as it approaches sexual maturity. Camelids, like human beings, are assigned age roles, and old age in both animals and human beings is designated by the same words, although it should be mentioned that it is more common to use the Spanish words abuelo and abuela to address human grandfathers and grandmothers. At first sight, it might seem that humans and camelids are accorded parallel treatment in linguistic terms. However, Hardman points out that vocab- ulary words are different for human and non-human animals, and as an example she lists the following:

jaqi: ‘people, person’ warmi: ‘woman, wife’ chacha: ‘man, husband’ wawa: ‘child, baby’ imilla: ‘girlchild’ yuqalla: ‘boychild’ and compares them with:

uywa: ‘domesticated animal’ [i.e. ‘cared-for animal’] qachu: ‘female’

urqu: ‘male’

(Hardman 1988: 347–8) She also distinguishes two sets of pronouns, one for humans and another for all else. The non-human pronouns may be used as adjectives, but not as pronouns for human beings. Hardman warns that to do so would be to assign animal status to human beings, which would be an insult in Aymara terms (ibid.: 347). She maintains that the Aymara language makes a clear demarcation between human and non-human animals, even though domesticated animals belong to lineages and are assigned age roles like their human counterparts.

In addition, there is a specialized range in gender-related vocabulary for camelids to account for castrated or sterile animals. These terms are presented in table 3.3. For comparative Quechua terminology, see Flores Ochoa (1978: 1,008). In Isluga, male camelids are castrated at the age of about two years, thus ensuring that the males are docile and can be herded alongside females and their young. Not all families keep separate herds of uncastrated males (tataqullu), because the number of adult members in a family may not be sufficient to supervise the different herds. At certain times of the year, for example, when the quinua is growing in unfenced fields, a family may be stretched to supervise all its animals adequately. At such times, the adults have to get up before dawn to ensure that llamas and alpacas left

out on the hillside do not feed on the growing quinua. Disobedient animals which feed on neighbours’ crops are chased out by their owners, who throw stones at them in punishment. The entry of animals into corrals where potatoes and quinua are growing is a source of great tension between families, and an aggrieved party may demand a financial compensation for lost crops. Since everyone in Enquelga can recognize which animals belong to whom, the culprits for causing such damage are immediately identifiable, even if their owner is not present at the time of what the human beings consider to be the wrongdoing of the animals.