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Person wrapped in a blanket resting against a rock outcrop in tussock grass above the lake

Amantani Island Of Lake Titicaca

Amantaní Island, Lake Titicaca

July 2004

Amantaní is an island on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Puno. The island covers about 3.6 square miles (9.3 square kilometers) and is divided among ten communities whose inhabitants primarily speak Quechua.

Agricultural terraces extend across much of the island’s steep terrain. Families cultivate potatoes, quinoa, wheat and other Andean crops, traditionally relying heavily on manual labor. Sheep and other livestock are also raised on the slopes.

Amantaní is dominated by two hills known as Pachamama and Pachatata. Their summits contain ceremonial structures associated with the island’s religious traditions. Annual ceremonies reinforce relationships among the communities, the agricultural cycle and these sacred places.

The photographs from 2004 document cultivated terraces, livestock, domestic life, community gatherings and the high-altitude landscape of Lake Titicaca.

Woman in a dark shawl and a man in a felt hat on a dirt path between dry-stone walls
Child in a striped knitted cap standing on a terrace edge above blue-painted lakeshore steps
Sun breaking through heavy cloud over distant ridges, gold light on the water below
Golden sunset sky above dark mountain ranges and the still lake
Lamb dipping its head into a red basin of small pink Andean tubers
Woman crouched among washtubs in a sunlit yard as a lamb leans into a red basin
Two women smiling beside a cooking fire in a dark adobe kitchen lit by a shaft of sunlight
Two women in black head cloths and brightly embroidered white blouses at an outdoor gathering
Young woman in a black head cloth, smiling against a cloudless sky
Woman carrying a small child wrapped in an embroidered shawl through a crowd
Women in bright skirts greeting one another on a rocky slope, a boy in a knitted chullo alongside
Man in a red knitted cap working with his hands beside a curtained window
Fitted stone blocks of a cylindrical tower rising against a clear sky
Man in a felt hat and llama-patterned sweater looking through papers in the sun
Sunset burning through a gap in dark rock, lake water glowing below
Bands of cloud lit orange above long ridgelines and the darkening lake
Flat-topped island rising from deep blue water beneath drifting cloud
Person wrapped in a blanket resting against a rock outcrop in tussock grass above the lake

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