Environment and disease in the land use and settlement of Apurimac Department, Peru

Narrow intermontane valleys of the Apurímac River system in south central Peru have a macrothermal climate that sharply contrasts with that of the adjacent uplands. The Spaniards, with their feudally-organized hacienda system, recognized the agronomic possibilities of these ribbons of warmth for sugar cane cultivation and of the market for sugar products above the canyon rims. Inadvertently they also introduced malaria and enhanced its endemicity by creating more breeding sites for mosquitoes through irrigation of the valley floors. Malaria had a devastating effect on the Indian population and certain human adjustments were made to cope with the insalubrity of the bottomlands: establishment of independent villages above and outside the malaria zone; seasonal migration of Indian laborers to reduce exposure; abandonment of the cane-growing areas that had the most serious occurrence of malignant malaria, and replacement of Indians by Negroes. Disease eradication has now blurred these adjustments concomitant with fundamental changes in the economic and social structure of the warm valleys.