ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the trajectory of social transformations experienced by the ethnic Yampara community of Tarabuco with a focus on the strategies it cultivated in dealing with external polities. To this end, the authors consider the Jumbate and its insertion into the Pujllay celebration as a case study to uncover the relationships that link local identity with an imagined past. It explores their ability to employ the past as an act of resistance to validate colonial government and cosmologies. The colonial economy centered in the nearby mining districts of Potosi and Chayanta also proved devastating for the corporate communities in the southern Andes, and the Yamparas were not immune from its influence. The Indian tribute served as a sort of "head tax" that sustained the administrative expenses of colonial government. The alternate Pujllay represents yet another negotiated frontier that separates local from external contingencies. These are not mere examples of passive acquiescence to a subaltern status.
