Puneños and the nursing of their Cultivations. AgriCultural praCtiCes at JuJuy puna during the xxth Century

Abstract

Since the colonial period, the Jujuy Puna, an Andean region at northwest Argentina, has been considered as a place of livestock raising. The domestic economies of the Puna are conceived as herders' ones, while the altitude agriculture that is and has been developed since prehispanic times, is not taken into account in their characterization. At locations in the central eastern area (Chochinoca department) agriculture for domestic consumption is practiced, that in rare occasions, even produced surplus and was established in relation with animal rearing. This article gives an overview of these domestic units agricultural practices, which are based on techniques, calendars and on their own conception of relation with plants and of the associations between them.