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Quechua women who trade complementary vegetal food products farmed or
gathered at different altitudinal zones of the Peruvian Andean slopes (Box 8.4 ).
Box 8.4. Today's Challenges for Stewardship Habits by Quechua
Women in Andean Habitats
The central Andes are one of the eight centers of the origin of agriculture, with
the domestication of plants in this region dating back at least 8,000 years
(NRC 1989 ). Today, however, indigenous Quechua communities are con-
fronted with the expropriation of land and the resulting territorial displace-
ment motivated mostly by the development of mining projects or of new
agricultural practices that include the extensive use of commercial genetically
modifi ed varieties of potato. Quechua communities have repeatedly denounced
the resulting marginalization of women who traditionally were responsible
for the selection, storing, sowing, and harvesting of seeds and tubers of pota-
toes and other plants. The combined effects of exclusion from native habitats
and the marginalization of women threaten the food security of peasant and
indigenous communities whose health depends upon the exchange of edible
vegetables from different agroecological zones. 9
The biocultural ethic affi rms that the links of specifi c life Habits with
specifi c Habitats and communities of co-in-Habitants ought to be respected.
Its “3Hs” descriptive and normative framework helps to better understand and
value the delicate interrelationships among the Quechua alimentary habits ,
the mosaic of Andean habitats , and the human and other-than-human com-
munities of co-in-habitants . Along the altitudinal gradient of the Andean
Cordillera, each of the three primary altitudinal zones provides complemen-
tary plant foods for the human diet (Fig. 8.6 ):
1. In the high Andean habitats , or Puna , Quechua agricultural habits are
rooted in the practice of growing tubers such as oca, isano, and hundreds of
varieties of potatoes that are rich in carbohydrates and are co-inhabitants in
rituals and everyday life (Mamani-Bernabé 2015 , in this volume [Chap. 6 ] ).
2. In the intermediate-altitude habitats , or Andenes in the sub-Andean ter-
race cultivation system, Quechua agricultural habits are based on quinoa
and corn that provide grains rich in essential amino acids (Krogel 2006 ).
3. In the low-land habitats , including the Yungas and Amazonian rain forests,
Quechua habits are grounded on planting and harvesting plenty of fruits
that are rich in vitamins and coca leaves, which provides for chewing coca,
an essential element of Quichua cultural identity (Allen 1981 ) .
9 Baseline information for this example is found in NCR ( 1989 ), Zimmerer ( 2003 ),
Argumedo and Pimbert ( 2006 ), Primack et al. ( 2006 ), and Rolph and Obregón ( 2012 ).
(continued)
 
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