Resumen

SPEDDING PALLET, Alison. Normative versions versus practical reality: The Thaki on the andean communal politics. Textos Antropológicos [online]. 2016, vol.17, n.1, pp. 179-198. ISSN 1025-3181.

Almost all studies of local authority systems in the rural Andes repeat that community leadership posts form a thaki, or ‘path' in Aymara, which all male community members must follow; this ^‘path' is represented in the form ofa series of ascending steps which one should climb, complying with each post in hierarchical order. Howe-ver, a close reading ofthe referred publications reveals that this is infact a normative version, and even an ideal reconstruction, without a precise date, on the part ofthe researcher. This article replies with the presentation and analysis ofthe real careers ofvarious community members in a community in the Yungas, demonstrating that in practice posts are assumed in a much more erratic order and not everyone complies with all, or even the greater part, ofthe posts, and ends encouraging others to collect similar empirical data so as to arrive at a less idealized comprehension ofthese political systems.

Palabras llave : Thaki; authorities' system; Yungas.