Documento mecanografiado.

Contenido: Critique of pastoral studies -- The "Chains" of social structure -- Usefulness and limitations of an ethnic Bourdary approach -- The archaeological evidence for the domestication of the camelids in the Central Andes -- Animal distribution -- The archaeological evidence -- Advanced hunters -- The historical dimension of pastoralism in the Central Andes -- Andean pastoralism: the ethnographic dimension -- Ecology : general description -- Ecology: indigenous classification -- herding communities: local ecology and transhumance -- Herding practices and related activities -- Life cycle -- Access to resources: a variety of strategies -- Exchange -- Spheres of exchange and exchange values -- The tenor of exchange relationships -- Conclusion.

The study of pastoral groups demostrates that pastoralism is an extremely flexible adaptation. Migration patterns, systems of resourse allocation, and the degree of interaction between agriculturalists and pastoralists are constantly changing in response to external political condition, environmental changes and internal fisioning and alliances. There is reason to believe that the history of andean herders reflects this same type of fluid adaptation.