The Flocks of the Wamani: A Study of Llama Herders on the Punas of Ayacucho, Peru

In this volume, the authors present an original ethnographic study of five llama-herding communities in Ayacucho, Peru. Data on herd dynamics are subjected to computer modeling in an effort to evaluate the roles of biology, symbolic and ritual behavior, ecological adaptation, and practical reason. The book contains the most detailed study of the waytakuy llama-marking ceremony yet available. The role of this ceremony in preventing herds from becoming extinct is evaluated against anthropological and sociobiological theory.
This is an interdisciplinary book which will appeal to professional archaeologists, prehistorians, cultural anthropologists, Andeanists, theoretical biologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists interested in animal domestication.

Audience: Graduate and professional archaeologists; ethnographers interested in the Andes; zoologists interested in animal domestication; theoretical biologists interested in sociobiology.