“It is not fair that he is treated as indio particular”: The Indian Elite in the Repartimiento of Macha under Colonial Rule. Viceroyalty of Perú, 1540-1619 (original) (raw)
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Ephemeral Splendor and A Lengthy Tradition: The Peruvian Aristocracy of the Late Colonial Period
Socioeconomic analysis of the group of noble graduates at the end of the colonial period in Peru, in a comparative study with similar groups in Latin America, taking into account their family characteristics, their properties, economic and professional dedications, income levels, strategies for accessing the title. , conservation and transmission of pampering, political behavior, relations with the viceregal administration, etc. Análisis socioeconómico del grupo de nobles titulados a fines del periodo colonial en el Perú, en un estudio comparativo con similares grupos en América Latina, atendiendo a sus características familiares, sus propiedades, dedicaciones económicas y profesionales, niveles de renta, estrategias de acceso al título, conservación y transmisión de los mimos, comportamientos políticos, relaciones con la administración virreinal, etc. ISBN-10: 0-7546-5459-1
History and Anthropology, 2004
In the nineteenth century, after the separation from the Spanish Crown, the invention of the Andean nations required an autochthonous group, the independence of which could be celebrated. At first sight, it might seem that only the American Indians could play this role, but this idea rapidly ran into a fatal contradiction with the contempt for the Indians of the promoters of the new republics. In addition, it was necessary to build a new identity on many disparate elements to set oneself apart from European origins. In this manner, a suitable mythical autochthony has been invented, built on the image of the Imperial Indian, the descendant of the Incas. The indigenista movement of the 1920s has greatly contributed to the making of this national representation of Peru. This article traces the evolution of this tradition and its principal actors, and describes its underlying tenets. It attempts to picture recent neo-Inca re-inventions, especially the emergence of a ritual Inca king in the neo-cult of the Sun, and the enthronement of the President of the Republic by shamans at the sacred site of Machu Picchu. Finally, it points at recent New Age extensions of this tradition. The article tries to show how mythological constructions of the past are instrumentalized to build the historical foundations of a present-day nation, and how at the same time they are being taken over by a worldwide ideology.
Andean Activism and the Reformulation of Mestizo Agency and Identity in Early Colonial Peru
"The article examines the activism that Peruvian mestizos carried out in order to rearticulate their agency and identity in a positive and polemical manner in late sixteenth-century colonial Peru. The research focuses on two related and little-known documents from the 1580s, a 1584 memorial to King Philip II and a 1583 Latin letter to Pope Gregory XIII (English translation included in the Appendix). Part of a larger paper trail, these documents offer an important record of Andean activism before the church and the crown, set within the larger context of post-conquest struggles for the New World. The topic of mestizo agency is framed in terms of how colonial subjects actively engage in variable and adaptable strategies, through which they seek to reformulate their identity, place, and position within the Spanish colonial world."
Colonial Latin American Review, 2017
Prehispanic corporate social units in northern Peru, the pachacas or ayllus and the guarangas, continued to structure social life in Cajamarca throughout the Spanish colonial period. They were restructured by Spanish rule, as they had been by the Inca conquest before. Spanish rule also reshaped indigenous migration and the social categorization of the migrants, which was closely intertwined with the regime of land tenure. This article takes a look at the integration of new and old migrants and their descendants into the local social structure, and examines how they negotiated their belonging in petitions to change or defend their fuero. The petitioners successfully argued on the basis of their ancestry, whether legitimate or not, and activated personal networks on their behalf. In that, they paralleled mestizo and mulatto petitioners who, like migrants, benefited from fiscal prerogatives, which were however challenged in the course of the 18th century, leading to a partial re-categorization. The redistribution of land was an important motive in these late colonial re-categorizations, but also earlier in the colonial period the absence of bonds to the land was an essential characteristic of being categorized as a “migrant”.
Rivalry between Jesuit missionaries and Spanish authorities over control of Native populations constituted a common source of political friction in the province of Sonora. Although this antagonism has been recognized for various periods by scholars of the region (Donohue 1969; Spicer 1980), its effects on Pima Alto communities have been, for the most part, only tangentially addressed (see Garate 1999, for an exception). In this article, I examine the structural tensions present in governance of the Pimería Alta during the mid-eighteenth century, paying particular attention to the political mechanisms underlying the bestowal of indigenous authority. In doing so, I highlight the crucial testimonies given by the leaders of the 1751 Pima Revolt, which can be directly attributed to such tensions.
2021
In my dissertation, I investigate the formation of colonial society through the interactions that took place between the Spaniards and the indigenous peoples, focussing on the period from 1540 to 1615 in the district of Popayán in present day South-Western Colombia. My goal here is to cast new light on the formation of colonial society by studying how it was affected by conflicts and cooperation between the indigenous communities and the Spanish conquerors in a region that thus far has received less attention in scholarship than the central areas of the Spanish colonial empire. I pay special attention to indigenous agency in the process of colonial society formation and the important roles they played in the formation of colonial society. They were by no means passive by-standers or simply objects of the Spaniards’ actions, but were instead independent actors who developed different strategies in the face of the challenges brought by Spanish colonialism. However, their actions also should not be viewed as mere reactions to the actions of the Spaniards. They pursued their own aims and goals. The aim of my study is to explore the complexity of the social dynamics and the power relations between the different actors at the grassroots level, and how this affected the local colonial society. I investigate this process and its peculiarities in a certain defined geographical area while discussing its significance in the larger context of Spanish colonialism. I put the development in Popayán into its context by looking at it as part of the larger empire building process. Therefore, while I am interested in what made Popayán special, I also pay attention in what the example of one particular frontier region can reveal about the complexity of the colonial processes in general. This study is based on Spanish documents that are spread across several archives, namely Archivo General de Indias (AGI) in Seville, Spain, Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) in Bogotá, Colombia, Archivo Nacional de Ecuador (ANE) in Quito, Ecuador and Archivo Central del Cauca (ACC) in Popayán, Colombia. The sources include court records, inspections, demographic materials, petitions, and complaints. In addition to archival sources, I also use chronicles written by Spanish conquerors and learned men, as well as other published sources. The documents were born during the process of the colonial state’s creation and cannot be separated from it. Thus, they are not objective sources of information, but rather an integral component of the state formation process. The state needed to control its subjects, and the emerging structures were upheld through institutions based on written documents. As such, the documents do not merely describe reality, but also played a visible role in creating it. This sets many limitations, but it does not mean that the material is not of use for a critical historian. Post- and decolonial theories offer tools for interpreting colonial documents. With this theoretical framework in mind, I piece together the social history of local dynamics from fragmentary evidence by close reading the documents. Archival material on the indigenous peoples of Spanish America is extremely rich. Their agency is often hidden but treating the documents as kind of ethnographic scenarios and always questioning the categories and classifications embedded in them it can be teased out. Therefore, I engage in a sort of thick description to try and grasp the context in which the actions made sense to the people engaged in them. Popayán was a colonial frontier, characterized by instability, unpredictability, and heterogeneity, and the interethnic relations were conflictive. Violence was a recurrent reality that marked the relationships between the Spaniards and the very diverse indigenous population of the gobernación. The Spanish invasions to the unconquered zones as well as indigenous raids against the Spaniards continued for long after the initial conquest was over. In addition, everyday violence went on throughout the entire colonial period as the Spaniards attempted to harness the indigenous societies to fulfill their insatiable demands. Indigenous resistance, both active and passive, also continued, even though their societies suffered a great deal because of conquest, colonization, and depopulation. The Spanish dominion was fragile. The colonial bureaucracy started to grip the region more strongly since the 1550s, but that process was slow and faced many setbacks. The crown enhanced its position by acting as a mediator in local affairs. It balanced between increasing its control of the region and not shaking up the status quo too much. The indigenous communities quickly to use the legal system for their benefit. However, the institutions remained weak in the region. Spanish willingness to work through the indigenous communities’ traditional leaders created the new institution of the colonial cacique (chief). The caciques became indispensable intermediaries between their communities and the Spaniards. However, they were dependent of their people and could be easily replaced, which curbed their transformation into colonial agents. The indigenous societies of Popayán changed profoundly during the 75 years covered in this study. It was a necessity caused by invasion of outsiders, but the process of cultural transformation was carried out according to the needs of the natives themselves. While they were looking for ways to survive in the new situation, they created new cultural forms and gave new meanings to old ones. The indigenous peoples adapted, collaborated, and resisted in many ways. Their agency played an essential role in the making of the colonial society in Popayán. However, concentrating solely on indigenous agency carries a risk of romanticizing their survival. Many did not survive, and for many, colonialism meant seriously deteriorating living conditions and loss of significant part of their culture. Colonialism is structural violence characterized by unequal power dynamics. Nevertheless, the indigenous peoples of America were not just passive victims; rather, they were independent agents who pursued their interests in a situation in which their freedom was limited. My thesis contributes to the understanding of the fluid, diverse, intersecting, and overlapping reality of the Spanish American colonial societies molded by the agency of the colonized as well as the colonists. The former gobernación of Popayán is today one of the regions in Colombia where the presence of the indigenous peoples remains the strongest. Their communities are marginalized and ridden by continuing conflicts that trouble the country. However, they also have a strong tradition of resistance and survival from which they draw inspiration in today’s struggles.
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2022
nonetheless sprinkled with colourful anecdotes about individual testators or their families, Christensen and Restall deftly avoid this pitfall by drawing on their extensive knowledge of larger Yucatecan society and comparisons with colonial Central Mexico and, to a limited extent, Guatemala. For example, they observe that provisions for posthumous rites or burial treatment in the Ixil wills were much more modest than in surviving testaments from Central Mexico or Perua comparison that could, upon further study, reflect differences in indigenous mortuary traditions or experiences of evangelisation. This comprehensive approach allows the authors to not simply paint a detailed picture of eighteenth-century Ixil society but to contextualise it. They note features that Ixil shared with or set it apart from its contemporaries, for instance, and thus highlight what their local study contributes to a broader understanding of colonial Mesoamerica. By combining detailed ethnohistorical analysis with an invaluable corpus of primary sources, Return to Ixil thus appeals to a broad readership that encompasses not only specialists in Mayan language and culture, but also scholars of colonial-period Mesoamerica and of comparative economic or social history more broadly.