Abstract

This article analyzes the cultural interactions and demographic changes of indigenous populations in the Arica and Tacna Highlands. In doing so, it examines the vegetative composition, cultural identities and tax burdens of native Indians and outsiders in the study territory. The result of such inquiries reveals the supremacy of local populations in oases and inter-Andean valleys, a situation that can be seen in revisits and tax rates. Likewise, there is evidence of a taxonomy of natives/forestry with cultural and political tensions, which led the indigenous migrants to develop a cultural ascription and naturalization through kinship relations and ritual affiliations with communities and coastal chiefdoms in the XVI and XVIII centuries (1540-1600 and 1680-1793).