The historical and social

scene of the
Jujuy Province

Material didáctico sistematizado,

Cátedra: Formación Profesional,
Facultad de Ingeniería de la
Universidad Nacional de Jujuy,
Jujuy, 2022
Lecturer: PhD Enrique N. Cruz
Lecturer & translator:
PhD Grit K. Koeltzsch
 The historical scene of the
Jujuy Province

Aim of the lecture:

“… a clear sociological idea of the

past, in order not to form a distorted
image of the social relationships of
the present. ”
(Norbert Elias, sociologist, Los Alemanes, 2009: 58)
Social and geographical summary of
the Jujuy Province

1. Puna Region of Jujuy

 Located in the macro-region: Argentine, Bolivian
and Chilean Puna
 Altitude: 2,700/3,000 masl. – 5,500/6,000 masl.
 Puna Region

 The region consists of 5 departments:

Cochinoca, Yavi, Rinconada, Santa Catalina and
Susques

 It is composed of mountains and steep

slopes with little rainfall (100-400 mm), and
by valleys with heavy rainfall (75-500 mm)
 Puna Region

 Arid desert climate and cold high-mountain climate.

Rainfall is concentrated in summer, winds are
intense, and there is a wide daily temperature range
with frosts almost throughout the year.

 It has a typical vegetation of bushes and hard herbs,

important mineral resources, and extensive salt
flats.
 Puna Region

 The landscape is composed of valleys, mountains

and lakes. Irrigated by an extensive water system:

Río Grande de San Juan River, the Basin of Pozuelos,

La Quiaca, Miraflores Guayatayoc/Salinas, Pastos
Chicos River, Rosario inferior Olaroz-Cauchari River,
Vilama Lagoon, Coranzulí and Cátua River.
 Puna Region

 Before the Spanish conquest, the predominant

activities were camelid breeding (llama and
alpaca), the production of textiles, and the
collection of gold in the rivers, salt and animal
species.

 Products were traded with the Incas and other

neighboring indigenous peoples.
 Puna Region

 In the colonial period (16th to 19th century),

this non-surplus productive structure was
changed, incorporating cattle breeding and
European agriculture, mining, and new
forms of control and exploitation of the
native indigenous labor.
 Puna Region

 In the 20th century, the region lost the

productive and commercial dynamics of the
colonial period, and it is constituted as a
provider of labor for mining and agro-
industrial development for other regions of
the province and for the Argentine nation.
 Humahuaca Valley

 2. Humahuaca Valley:
It is a narrow and rough opening between
mountains formed by the main course of the
Rio Grande River. It is a landform that ends
suddenly in the temperate and warm oriental
valleys.

 The region consists of 4 departments:

Humahuaca, Tilcara, western Valle Grande and
eastern Tumbaya.
 Humahuaca Valley

 The height of the ravines and valleys varies

from 2,000 to 3,200 masl., with a relief of
mountains, slopes and sediments cut by
erosion.
 Humahuaca Valley

 Arid mountain climate; cool in summer, rigorous

winters and rainfall concentrated in the
summer.
 High percentage of frost (especially between
May and September), with hot and dry winds in
winter and spring.

 The region of the Quebrada de Humahuaca is

very well communicated transversally with the
mountains or the jungle of Jujuy.
 Humahuaca Valley

 Corn production was developed

autonomously which allowed the
development of a significant native
population.
Humahuaca Valley
 Humahuaca Valley

 In a similar way to the Puna region in Jujuy, the

economic structure of the Quebrada de
Humahuaca was not changed structurally in the
colonial period, but changes occurred in the
exploitation of indigenous labour and the
commercialization of the economy.
Bellow for iron work

Chifle: containers to keep Hispanic

beverages: wine, brandy and chicha.

Appliance for transporting ceramic

containers on the back of a mule.
 Humahuaca Valley

 In the 19th century, the economy of the region kept

the colonial structure of cattle breeding and
agriculture.

 In the 20th century, the population was reduced to

be labour for the modern ago-industrial
exploitation in the valley region.
The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

3. Valleys and jungles:

 The city of Jujuy, and the most important
modern urban centres are located in the
valleys and forests. A space that comprises
the temperate valleys of intermediate
altitudes between the Sub-Andean sierras
and the jungle.
The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

 The valleys of Jujuy have extensive alluvial

slopes, with a subtropical mild climate and a
dry season. Summers are moderately warm,
winters are cool with rarely occurrence of
frost. Rainfall is concentrated in summer.
 The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

 Neighbours to the valleys of Jujuy and los

Pericos are the wet jungle valleys of the rivers
Lavayen, San Francisco, and Bermejo, located in
the international Chaco region.
 The region consists of 8 departments:
General Manuel Belgrano, Palpalá, San Antonio, El
Carmen, San Pedro, Santa Bárbara, Ledesma and Valle
Grande.
The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

 The region has important watercourses of

the rivers Río Negro, Ledesma, San Lorenzo,
Lavayen and San Francisco; which provide
fertile plains with heights between 500-300
masl., with a warm tropical climate
throughout the year, tempered by cloud
cover.
The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

 The space of the valleys

and jungles of Jujuy were
first exploited
economically in the
colonial period.
 The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

 In the 17th century, the city of San Salvador de

Jujuy and the of Indigenous population, together
with the farms allowed the development of a local
production participating in regional trade (linking
Alto Peru with the port of Buenos Aires).

 At the end of the colonial period, the part of the

jungles of Jujuy began to burst through the farms
and estates of European cattle.
 Fortress

Haciendas (farms)
 The valleys and jungles of Jujuy

 In the 19th and 20th century, the Chaco

population of Jujuy and the fertile
environment allowed the development of
the modern and capitalists agro-industry of
tobacco and sugar.
 Timeline of Argentine History

Name of Indigenous Colonial Creole Immigration Populist

the period Argentina Argentina Argentina Argentina Argentina

Chronology 10.000 B.C.- 1535- 1810 1810- 1860 1860- 1929 1929- 1973
1535 A.D.

Society Indigenous Hispanic Creole society Immigration Modern

society society (mestizo) society (of mestizo
southern society
Europe) (European
and mestizo)
 Timeline of the History of Jujuy
Name of the Indigenous Conquest and Colonial Crisis of Capitalist Capitalist and
Spanish independence modernity populist growth
period
colonization

800 – 1535 1535- 1692 1692- 1810 1810- 1853 1853- 1929 1929- 1983
Chronology
Economy Subsistence Modification of Mercantile Economic crisis Formation of Conformation of
economy: the native economy and the national the sugar and
agriculture subsistence orientated dismantling of market. tobacco industry.
and economy. to the regional trade. Reorientation Conformation of
gathering. regional of the mining industry
market (Alto provincial
Peru, economy
Bolivia). towards
Buenos Aires.
Society Diverse Dismantling of Restructurin Social crisis Formation of Creation of a
indigenous the indigenous g of the due to the civil a Creole modern society
society. society. indigenous war. society with an extractive
Economic society, as a without capitalist
and social mestizo and immigration. economy.
relations mercantile
between the society.
different
regions of