Central Andean Views of Nature and the Environment

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.