ABSTRACT
In systems terminology, the Aymara socioeconomic system is experiencing morphogenesis. For centuries, even after Spanish domination, the Aymara campesinos remained monolingual. The barriers that for centuries enclosed the Aymara within a tight little world have been breached from both sides: the Aymara are going out; the mestizo culture and Western technology are coming in. The traditional boundaries that kept the Aymara within their own culture were both internally and externally generated. The rigid boundaries that have so long enclosed the Aymara have crumbled or are in the process of doing so, giving way to boundaries much more flexible and much less restrictive in regard to what is permitted to enter or leave the campo. Circular migration is by far the better alternative, as the Aymara themselves clearly recognize. All present trends suggest that the altiplano is moving toward a new economic plateau that will involve agriculture and circular migration in more or less equal measures.
