New World, First Nations: Native Peoples of Mesoamerica and the Andes under Colonial Rule

Abstract

Derived from a conference held at the University of New South Wales in October 2002, New World, First Nations is an anthology that examines the complex experience of indigenous peoples under Spanish colonial rule. Besides a short introductory essay by David Cahill and Blanca Tovías, the book contains ten articles that reassess in a variety of ways the social and ethnic changes that occurred in the Andes and Mesoamerica with the Spanish Conquest, the imposition of the colonial order, and the coming of independence.The anthology’s first section examines the modification and survival of indigenous social and cultural practices during the conquest. Susan Schroeder considers the ways that despite the Aztecs’ defeat, Nahua record keeping was perpetuated by colonial amoxoaque (keepers of the book) such as Chimalpahin and Tezozomoc. By preserving and adding to the chronicle of their altepetl (ethnic state), they sought to preserve its memory and status. Susan E. Ramírez adds to her important works on the curacas (Andean ethnic lords) in the early colonial period. She shows that whereas curacas had traditionally had filled both material and spiritual roles, the demographic collapse caused by European diseases, plus Spanish economic demands and religious proscriptions made it difficult for the chiefs to fulfill their legitimating religious functions. Kerstin Nowack offers fresh insights into the neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, established by Manco Inca following his failed siege of Cuzco in the mid-1530s. She argues that rulers such as Manco Inca and Tupac Amaru could not accept attractive offers of peace from the viceregal government because the Spaniards failed to provide satisfactory rewards to the powerful Incan nobles who effectively controlled Vilcabamba. Elsa Malvido examines how, in New Spain and especially the Mayan Yucatán, Spanish clergy used the tremendous mortality resulting from epidemics to teach Catholic concepts of Good Death and Bad Death. (Her claim that the plague carried off 90 percent of the European population is suspect, although it underscores why Spaniards would be obsessed with death.)The middle section of the anthology, which deals with colonial social and economic change, is the least focused part of the anthology. Historical anthropologist Janine Gasco confirms the complexity of ethnic identity for colonial Chiapas and notes there is little difference in surviving material remains between rural households from pre-Columbian to modern times regardless of ethnic identity. Kevin Gosner challenges Jeremy Baskes and Arij Ouweneel’s view of an uncoercive repartimiento de mercancías. Based on his research in Chiapas, Gosner contends that the repartimiento varied regionally and changed over time, and that, given the paucity of indigenous documents related to the repartimiento, it is very difficult to prove its voluntary nature. In a perceptive historiographical essay on Andean gender relations, Nancy E. van Deusen traces the shifting paradigms of gender studies, emphasizing their growing complexity. She calls for more studies about the sixteenth century, when the crucial collision between cultures and ethnicities established the foundation on which colonial gender relations were built.The final section turns to independence, with articles by David Cahill, Luis Miguel Glave, and Eric Van Young. Cahill focuses on the late colonial Inca nobility of Cuzco and its relationship with the city’s creole elite. He shows why the Great Andean Rebellion and the independence period are unintelligible without an understanding of the kinship links and other ties between the two groups. A chief exemplar of those ties was Mateo García Pumacahua, the indigenous military leader who helped royalist forces put down the Tupac Amaru Rebellion and who became president of the Cuzco audiencia (royal high court) yet supported the nationalist rebellion of 1814. Pumacahua was a chief actor in the 1814 Cuzco rebellion, which Glave discusses. He explains why that promising nationalist movement failed and is mistakenly considered by most Peruvian historians as only a precursor to independence. Like Glave for Peru, Van Young finds Mexican independence a far more complicated and contradictory process than portrayed in traditional historiography. He rejects Benedict Anderson’s assertion in Imagined Communities that Mexico had developed a full-fledged nationalism, finding instead that nationalism barely touched the rural masses and others who made up the vast majority of the population.Thus, the unifying message of these essays is the need for flexibility in considering the historical complexities of indigenous peoples under Spanish colonialism and the dangers of overgeneralization. Most of the articles are filled with qualifiers, referring vaguely to “many” people, asserting that something “may” have been the case. Several articles are so dense that a nonspecialist in the subfield will find them difficult going. That is true, I suspect, of Glave’s article, yet as an Andeanist, I found it provocative and insightful (it would benefit, however, from a less literal translation). Selective reading will reward most Andeanists and Mexicanists.