[citation needed] Some were born into the category of yanakuna (like many other professions, it was a hereditary one), some chose to leave ayllus to work, and some were selected by nobles.
[8] They were to care for the herds of the nobles, do fishing, and were dedicated to other work, like the making of pottery, construction, and domestic service.
[clarification needed] After the conquest, as craftworkers and laborers, the yanakuna played a significant role in a variety of both rural and urban production sectors in Peru's colonial economy.
While the indios de encomienda fulfilled the most menial jobs in the Potosi silver mines, for example, yanakuna served as skilled artisans.
[19] As Spanish settlers brought European agriculture to Peru, yanakuna labor supplemented that of mita draftees on farms.
[20] As an alternative to mita draftees, Spaniards preferred yanakuna were to African slaves, as the former were familiar with both indigenous and European methods, and did not need to be purchased.
The historian Steve J. Stern has written that Spanish colonials in the Huamanga region of Peru increasingly depended on contracted yanakuna labor as the mita labor draft became less reliable, especially for less politically influential settlers (in part due to resistance and evasion from within ayllus, as well as indigenous population decline).
And, due to labor demand, Spaniard's sometimes sought to convince Indians to voluntarily enter yanakuna contracts on farms with attractive wage offers.
The need for coercion to secure labor indeed decreased, as the monetization of tribute, the associated integration of a commercial economy, and the burdens of the mita made ayllus less self-sufficient, and induced Indian members to seek subsistence beyond.
Some scholars argue that this integration into urban colonial society by yanakuna actually represented an extension into a new context of older Andean practices of migration meant to fulfill different ecological niches.
[27] Héctor Llaitul, leader of the militant organization Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco, has declared that those Mapuche who work for forestry companies are "yanaconas".