Indigenous Slavery in South America, 1492–1820

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This chapter examines the forms of servitude and slaving practiced by indigenous peoples in South America. The principal focus of the chapter is the contrast between indigenous conceptions of captivity and obligatory service on the one hand, and the intrusion of European forms of slavery and servitude on the other. The evidence from the archaeological record, as well as from the history of European conquest in South America, points to indigenous systems of captivity and obligatory service as being quite prominent in many native social orders. The eminence of chiefs and kings, the ritual and political necessity for human sacrifice, and the obligatory nature of exchange relationships were reinforced by and used to justify the presence of human captives. Culturally, the figure of the captive, or sometimes “pet,” was, and still is, important not just at the level of political representation, but also cosmologically, because the key relationship between humanity and divinity is one of predation for many native peoples. Animal pets are socially liminal and arise from the killing of the pet's kin, usually in a hunting expedition. This killing implies an obligation to take on the roles of the dead's kin in feeding and housing the pet, and it is this set of relationships that are also used to picture the status of the human captive.