ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a particular example taken from one of South American’s largest Indian groups. A clear-cut distinction between the two usages, however, is impossible, the universe of time and space somehow merging into a single conceptual unit. The world of the Matapuqenians is confined by the boundaries of the valley. These boundaries are not only of a geographical nature but are closely associated with what Andeanists have called ‘the vertical zonation of the Andean ecology’. The traditional view of pacha is contained in the interrelationships of the vertical zones of the valley slopes. In the Pincos Valley a single family can, and indeed must, have plots of land in the various crop-zones: the lower-lying wheat and barley fields, the most favoured maize fields, and, at the top range, the numerous plots for the cultivation of tubers. The division of labour between the sexes underlines the principles inherent in the bilateral kinship system.
