Kallawaya

Kallawaya country lies in the valleys north of La Paz, where routes connect the Titicaca highlands with the eastern Andean slopes. Inca expansion incorporated these valleys during the fifteenth century. Early colonial chronicles remembered Kallawaya bearers carrying Tupac Yupanqui's litter, a trusted service that placed local people close to the imperial court. Charazani-based leaders also administered the province within this political network.

Spanish rule changed the institutions through which local leaders and households dealt with outside power. Colonial grants and tribute arrangements encompassed a population that included migrants of several origins. Over time, traders and specialists in plant remedies developed within this changing society, drawing on Andean knowledge and exchanges with the colonial world. Their later reputation as travelling healers should not erase the region's earlier history of political service, migration and landholding. The valleys were both a meeting place of different elevations and a society repeatedly reshaped by Inca and Spanish demands.