Ethnology and climate change : A case study of neighboring areas of the Nasca Pampas on the south coast of Peru

There appears to be no cogent reason why lines and geoglyphs were drawn on the Nasca Pampas, but the most plausible explanation may be that they had been delineated for the sake of praying for a good harvest. The aim of this study is to examine the peasants’ knowledge of meteorological phenomena in the neigh-boring areas around the Nasca Pampas along the south coast of Peru. This research will lay basic groundwork for a forthcoming archaeological study of the Nasca lines. The field investigation has clarified four types of meteorological knowledge shared by peasants near the Nasca Pampas : (1) Agricultural water near the Nasca Pampas is derived from rainfall in the Andes. (2) It rains in the Andes when coast drizzle goes inland and breaks against highland drizzle. (3) It does not rain even during the rainy season when the coast drizzle does not move to the highland. (4) It rains in the Andes when peasants carry sea water in pots from the coast to the highland.