The word jerky comes from the Andes, via Quechua ch'arki
Beef jerky owes its name to ch'arki, a dried meat the Quechua peoples of the Andes traditionally made from llama, cured by fierce mountain sun by day and freezing cold by night. The same peoples domesticated the potato and bred thousands of varieties. In their own language they call themselves runa: simply, the people.
The Quechua are Indigenous South Americans united by the Quechuan languages, which began in Peru. Estimates put speakers at about 5.1 million in Peru, 2.5 million in Ecuador and 1.8 million in Bolivia, with smaller numbers in Chile and Argentina. They share only a loose sense of common identity, and some dialects differ so much that speakers cannot understand one another. The language predates and outlived the Inca: the Huanca of Junín spoke it before the Incas did, and even longtime enemies of the empire used it. Peru made Quechua its second official language in 1969.
Village life traditionally revolves around the ayllu, a community that owns land together and either farms it jointly or reallocates plots each year. Because Andean communities stretch across several altitudes, they grow crops lower down and herd animals on the high grasslands called puna. Two customs of shared labour stand out. Mink'a brings everyone together to build something for the whole community, while ayni is a rotating favour system: neighbours help one family raise a house, and that family repays the effort later.
Colonial rule and later independent states let large landowners seize most of the land and bind Indigenous farmers to it, prompting repeated revolts; the biggest, in 1780 and 1781, was led by Túpac Amaru II. Land reforms in Bolivia in 1952 and Peru in 1968 broke up big estates, though private titles also eroded communal ownership. Ayllus survive in remote places like the Q'ero community.
Weaving with alpaca, llama and vicuña wool and natural dyes descends from Inca times or earlier, and homes are built of adobe with roofs of straw or ichu grass. Food includes quinoa, guinea pigs raised for meat and pachamanca, a feast of meats and tubers cooked in an earth pit. Though nominally Catholic since colonial times, many Quechua blend Christianity with reverence for Pachamama, Mother Earth, and for mountain spirits called apu, offering her burnt gifts and libations.
Source: Quechua people
