Shifting landscapes. Heterogeneous conceptions of land use and tenure in the Lima valley

This essay argues that Andean and Spanish agents both brought a spectrum of understandings of land tenure and land use to their colonial interactions. After a critical survey of what is known about practices in the Andes and Iberia prior to conquest, it turns to specific cases of property conflict and entangled definitions in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in the Rimac Valley, Peru. There heterogeneous definitions of both use and tenure often coexisted, either as forms that communities and individuals could shift between depending upon venue or listener, or as multiple hybrid varieties that eventually produced a common language of property. Finally, the case of urban property, new to the indigenous Rimac Valley, is discussed with an eye to the learning curve wherein indigenous homeowners came to an understanding of the meaning of their lots. These cases, taken together, demonstrate that, rather than supplanting or conflicting, indigenous and Spanish agents often constructed an entangled landscape of property relations, at least until Spanish control of the valley became more hegemonic.     

Goldsmithing traditions and innovations in colonial Colombia: an analytical study of crucibles from Santa Cruz de Mompox

SUMMARY: The 16th-century Spanish conquest of Colombia brought new technologies that altered and interacted with native metalworking traditions. In the colonial village of Santa Cruz de Mompox, renowned because of its goldsmithing tradition, indigenous groups and Spaniards experienced momentous encounters of individuals, metallurgical technologies and knowledge. However, little is known concerning colonial metallurgy, its continuities and changes with regards to the pre-Columbian period. Here we present the analytical characterization of five crucibles recovered in Mompox, together with discussion of relevant archival evidence. We find evidence for the local manufacture of crucibles as well as for the melting of unrefined gold dust, tumbaga (gold-copper-silver alloys) and silver. These metallurgical practices illustrate some likely illegal activities, continuities with pre-Columbian traditions in the use of tumbagas, and the Spanish-led introduction of silver in northern Colombia. It is argued that metallurgical remains can be informative of wider social and economic negotiations that engaged indigenous peoples, mestizos and Spaniards, which are critical to understand the configuration of the colonial reality.     

Contact and Missionization at Tayasal,Petén,Guatemala

Abstract

Until their conquest by the Spanish in 1697, many Itza Maya occupied a large village at Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala. After the conquest, two missions were built there. The village and missions are located within 2 km of modern Flores, which was once Nojpetén, the Itza capital, and later the Spanish presidio (fortified administrative center). Our excavations uncovered the San Bernabé mission on the Tayasal peninsula and defined the Late Postclassic-period (a.d. 1400–1525) occupation of the site. San Bernabé was established in the early 18th century as part of Spanish efforts to control indigenous populations in Petén. Our research demonstrates that the Late Postclassic settlement was larger than indicated by previous research and supported a relatively large ceremonial architectural group. Evidence of indigenous practices was recovered from deposits within the mission, though many elements of Itza religion found in the Late Postclassic group were absent from the mission settlement. These data provide additional evidence of religious syncretism in colonial situations.     

Indigenous migrants negotiating belonging: Peticiones de cambio de fuero in Cajamarca,Peru, 17th–18th centuries

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 during the course of the 18^th 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.’     

Order (and Disorder) in Early Colonial Moquegua,Peru

In the viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish authorities imposed several mechanisms to try to establish Christian social order among the colonists and dwindling indigenous populations, two of which were encomienda and reducción. The implementation of these and other policies and practices is examined using a case study in Moquegua, a colonial periphery in far southern Peru: the encomienda of Cochuna and the reduction site of Torata Alta. Incomplete knowledge of local conditions left the area vulnerable to social and religious disorder: overlapping boundaries, contested jurisdictions, and competing interests. Further historical archaeological consideration of such disorder can illuminate local impacts of colonialism.     

Conquest,pestilence and demographic collapse in the early Spanish Philippines

Documentary evidence for the demographic impact of Spanish conquest and colonial rule in the Philippines suggests that the pre-Spanish population was about 1.5 million. This is higher than previous estimates and implies that the decline in the early colonial period was greater than often supposed. However, the decline was lower than that associated with Spanish conquest in the Americas. The more moderate impact of Old World diseases in the Philippines cannot be attributed to immunity that Filipinos had acquired through contacts with Asia in pre-Spanish times, but to the low population density and difficult communications between and within the islands that impeded their spread. Despite new colonial policies aimed at the more peaceful acquisition of new territories, conquest in the Philippines was accompanied by considerable bloodshed. However, in the longer term the impact of colonial rule was moderated by the limited Spanish presence that resulted from the remoteness of the islands from Spain and the limited opportunities there for wealth creation, notably in the form of precious minerals.     

The Domestic Camelids (Cetartiodactyla: Camelidae) from the Middle Formative Cemetery of Topater 1 (Atacama Desert,Northern Chile): Osteometric and Palaeopathological Evidence of Cargo Animals

The Middle Formative Cemetery of Topater 1 (ca. 500 bc –100 ad ), located in the oasis of Calama, Northern Chile, presents an unusually diverse array and quantity of funerary offerings, distributed among the graves of more than 200 individuals. Among the offerings are the remains of several mummified camelids and camelid skeletal elements, primarily distal extremities and artefacts made from the bones of these animals. Taking only the first skeletonised anterior and posterior phalanges of Topater 1 camelids, we conducted univariate and multivariate osteometric analyses in order to assign the sample to the appropriate taxonomic groups. At the same time, we described all osteopathologies registered for the extremities in the collection. Of the 45 phalanges measured, 30 were of similar or greater size than contemporary reference llamas. Fourteen of the 164 samples of bone extremities presented pathologies, most of them first phalanges. These abnormalities included different degrees of exostosis and, less commonly, eburnation and lipping. Considering both lines of evidence, we conclude that the llamas sacrificed at the Topater 1 cemetery correspond to, at least, two very large and robust cargo llama morphotypes. When living, these animals would have transported goods as part of the intense exchange activity that was taking place during this period in the region extending from the Pacific coast to Northwest Argentina and perhaps even beyond. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Missions on the Frontiers of Spanish America

This article examines missions as a colonial institution on the fringes of Spanish America. The Spanish Crown employed the mission as a cost-effective form of converting to Catholicism native peoples living on the frontiers of Spanish America, and incorporating them into the new colonial social and economic order. The article compares missions in northern Mexico, the Río de la Plata region, and eastern Bolivia.     

Presentation is Everything: Foodways, Tablewares, and Colonial Identity at Presidio Los Adaes

Ceramics and zooarchaeological remains are commonly used as indicators of status and wealth at colonial-period sites, yet colonial expectations with regard to cuisine were often difficult to meet within the rigors of frontier life. In this paper, we juxtapose faunal and ceramic assemblages from Presidio Los Adaes and, informed by ethnohistorical and visual data, investigate how social expectations with regard to foodways were negotiated on the Spanish colonial frontier. While ceramic evidence suggests that tableware varied among households, the zooarchaeological assemblage indicates that Los Adaes residents shared the same basic diet.     

Geographies of Indigenous Identity: Spatial Imaginaries and Racialised Power Struggles in Bolivia

This article examines racial power struggles in Bolivia through a spatial lens. It analyses the process of resistance to the oligarchic elites mounted by indigenous‐popular sectors in Bolivia in the first decade of the 21^st century as well as the subsequent eruption of conflicts between different indigenous sectors, and argues that political conflicts in Bolivia in the 21^st century are, among other things, also conflicts over spatial imaginaries and the different territorialising and (re)territorialising projects corresponding to them. Social movements against racial neoliberalism challenged the colonial spatial imaginary. The partial success of those struggles brought into relief two distinct indigenous spatial imaginaries, one rooted in the defence of ancestral territory and indigenous autonomy, and the other based on a redefinition of territoriality as centrality within the state and society at large. The article reads contemporary inter‐indigenous conflicts as manifestations of the differences between these two spatial imaginaries.     

Gender,Risk and Micro‐financial Subjectivities

Abstract: This article analyses the gendered contradictions of microfinance's celebrated “double bottom line” of social and financial impact. The example of microfinance is used to illustrate the gendered and colonial constructions of “risk” and “responsibility” that underpin neoliberalism and its gendered paradoxes. After revisiting the discursive critique of these terms, I draw on how indigenous women participating in a microfinance institution in Bolivia describe their experience to suggest how gendered ideas of risk and responsibility are framing their negotiation of and resistance to the market. While the gendered and colonial construction of risk creates dynamics that perpetuate indigenous women's exclusion from the market, the terms of the resistance and use of the intervention also challenge feminist critiques of neoliberal governmentality developed mostly with reference to advanced modernity and welfare regimes.     

The Use of Strontium Isotope Analysis to Investigate Tiwanaku Migration and Mortuary Ritual in Bolivia and Peru

Strontium isotope analysis is applied in South America for the first time in order to investigate residential mobility and mortuary ritual from ad 500 to 1000. While Tiwanaku‐style artefacts are spread throughout Bolivia, southern Peru and northern Chile during this time, the nature of Tiwanaku influence in the region is much debated. Human skeletal remains from the site of Tiwanaku and the proposed Tiwanaku colony of Chen Chen have been analysed to test the hypothesis that Tiwanaku colonies, populated with inhabitants from Tiwanaku, existed in Peru. Strontium isotope analysis supports this hypothesis by demonstrating that non‐local individuals are present at both sites.     

Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica

This essay outlines recent archaeological research on post-Columbian (c. A.D. 1500–1925) indigenous sites in Mexico and Central America. Historical archaeology is a growing field in Mesoamerica, and over the last 20 years investigations of native culture change have increased, especially in rural areas. Contemporary research contributes new insights on indigenous responses to Spanish colonization over a long period. This work also is reassessing chronologies and examining the diversity of indigenous behavior from late preconquest to historic times. Indigenous adaptations to culture contact and social change are characterized by three general stages: conquest, colonization, and independence. Although I do draw on other regions, the focus of the article is the Maya area and Central America, where more investigations have taken place.     

International Norms and Latin American States' Policies on Indigenous Peoples

Abstract. International pressure upon Latin American governments to protect the rights of indigenous peoples has increased since the late 1960s. The reports submitted under the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela are reviewed. They tend to emphasise policies for national integration and the preservation of indigenous cultures, and to neglect the effects of urbanisation. Political elites are coming slowly to appreciate the nature of the claims advanced by indigenous peoples.     

Two Vanished African Maritime Traditions and a Parallel from South America

Maritime traditions that extend along coastlines are more vulnerable to disruption and disappearance than areal trading networks. The paper describes two cases from Africa, the likely early movement of Bantu speakers down the coast of West Africa and the Swahili trading diaspora that reached southern Mozambique by at least the seventh century. Both of these have disappeared from the ethnographic and historical record but can be recovered through archaeology and linguistics. A parallel is made with the trade route that linked the coastal region of Peru and Ecuador with Western Mexico and may have been active from as early as 4,000 bp until the Spanish conquest. The hypothesis is that areal networks, such as those in island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, which are driven by colonisation and bidirectional exchange, are more likely to persist because they are more resilient due to the number of broken ‘links’ they can withstand. Linear expansions may be driven by a quest for trade and resources but are usually not necessary to survival.     

Using chaîne opératoire and communities of practice to identify interaction in the Contact and Mission periods in southern Georgia,AD 1540–1715

ABSTRACT

In this article, the pottery production of indigenous groups living inside and outside of colonial spaces in southern Georgia is compared by identifying portions of the chaîne opératoire of pottery production. Diachronic and geographic changes to production demonstrate that groups living in the interior of Georgia were in continual interaction with coastal groups in the mission system. This interaction likely contributed to the emergence of the Altamaha pottery tradition, which spread from southern South Carolina to northern Florida during Spanish colonization of the region. This research shows that Native American groups navigating colonialism drew on a wide network of communities to alter traditions in the face of unprecedented social change.     

Continuity Amidst Change: Village Organization and Fishing Subsistence at the Dionisio Point Locality in Coastal Southern British Columbia

Shifts over time in faunal representation in Northwest Coast archaeological sites have been viewed as reflecting changes in economic organization and social complexity. We use fish faunal data from the Parry Lagoon Midden (site DgRv-006) in the Salish Sea region of coastal southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to evaluate the relationship between change in subsistence strategies and community organization. We describe and compare fish assemblages recovered from a shell midden generated by habitation at two sequentially occupied village sites. The lower midden layers include faunal remains derived from the Marpole Period plankhouse village occupation at site DgRv-003 (1500 to 1300 cal BP), while the upper layers were generated during the occupation of a Late Period plankhouse within site DgRv-006 (1000 to 600 cal BP). We compare the two faunal records to ascertain if subsistence re-organization accompanied the social change associated with abandonment and later re-establishment of a village in the Dionisio Point Locality. Results indicate continuity of a diverse fishing economy for the two occupations, and therefore across the Marpole to Late Period transition. This study adds to the recent trend in Northwest Coast archaeology to reconsider the long-standing view that social and subsistence change necessarily occurred in tandem.     

Unsettling Time: Persistence and Memory in Spanish Colonial Peru

In this paper, I explore the politics of memory during the Toledan reforms—a series of ambitious administrative changes legislated in colonial Peru between 1569 and 1581, by viceroy Francisco de Toledo. At the center of Toledo’s project was an initiative to resettle the entire native population of the audiencias of Lima and Charcas into a series of planned towns called reducciones. This movement—reducción—sought to transform Andean indigenous peoples into subjects of the Catholic Church and the Spanish crown through a series of explicitly spatial operations, including regional population nucleation and settlement planning. But the terms of these changes were also temporal: as reducción shaped landscapes and built environments, it also sought to transform indigenous historicity, bringing native peoples into the Era of Christ and carefully regulating the social institutions and practices by which they accounted for their pasts. The Toledan reforms therefore present a clear example of one empire’s attempts to subjugate conquered peoples through mnemonic practices. Yet archaeological research in one corner of the viceroyalty—Peru’s Zaña valley—suggests that the story of how indigenous memories were actually shaped during the course of resettlement and its aftermath was far from straightforward. To understand these transformations, I argue that we must explore not only the short-term dialectic of Spanish designs and their indigenous responses, but also the “afterlives” of reduccion in the 17th and 18th centuries. Over the longer term, reducción achieved staying power through a series of unanticipated pathways, in which landscape change, demography, and indigenous agency all played essential roles. I argue that these developments ultimately resulted in much more complex forms of remembering than those implicit in reducción legislation and that they underscore the importance for archaeological studies of memory of attending both to the materiality of imperial landscapes and long-term processes of subject formation.     

Latin America: trade and culture at a crossroads

ABSTRACT

Trade liberalization took the cultural community in Latin America by surprise, forcing a defensive reaction that took years to generate adequate public policy responses. However, cultural policy has changed unevenly in the region. Two issues became the center of culture and trade debates after the 1990s: cultural industry production and traditional indigenous knowledge. Mexico, by far the largest producer of audiovisual content on the continent, has been reluctant to adopt defensive approaches or red lines during trade negotiations. In fact, Chile is the only country that negotiated a ‘cultural reserve’ in its FTA with the United States. Regarding traditional knowledge, only states with large indigenous populations like Guatemala, Panama but especially Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador in the Andean Region dedicated significant efforts to fight for intellectual property protection for traditional knowledge, including benefit-sharing for the commercial use of genetic resources, derived through indigenous collective knowledge.     

Archaeology in the Lettered City

The ‘lettered creole’ Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora is widely seen as an antiquarian who collected textual materials associated with the indigenous past. But Sigüenza's historical interest exceeded both the textual and the indigenous. Following a popular insurrection in 1692, which left the viceroy's palace in ruins, Sigüenza was asked to present a proposal for segregating Mexico City into distinct Spanish and Indian zones. He framed his project not as an attempt to trace a new line but as the recuperation of an old one, ‘excavating’ the original plan laid out by Hernán Cortés. Drawing on recent work in the field of archaeology and proposing a revisionist history of Mexican archaeology, this essay reads Sigüenza's interventions in the wake of the uprising as articulating an ‘archaeology of the colonial present’ whose modalities include both digging and ‘walking in the city.’ This operation renders the Spanish city a colonial ruin to be curated by a creole administrative apparatus. For the first time, the Spanish present has become the colonial past.