Colonial Ecuador Research Articles

The Virgin and the land surveyor: Andean pueblo boundary making in the Highlands of late colonial Ecuador

The Virgin and the land surveyor: Andean pueblo boundary making in the Highlands of late colonial Ecuador

Strange Seeds: Ethnohistorical Testimonies of the Clandestine Culture of Sacred Plants in Colonial Ecuador

AbstractThe “plant turn” in anthropology, while controversial, has led to a renewed focus on how humans relate to different species of plants. In this article, I aim to contribute to our knowledge of human‐plant relationships by analyzing how historical actors used sacred plants in past ritual settings. I study criminal and civil cases involving shamans in late colonial Ecuador, with a focus on plant use. Legal records from 1782, 1793, 1800, and 1802 reveal information about the use of fragrant plants believed to have transformative properties, the use of entheogens for non‐visionary purposes, and even the incorporation of the sacred wanduc (Brugmansia sp) into the punishment of one shaman. This plant‐focused approach to the reading of ethnohistorical documents provides a history of particular plants as they were used by individual actors in specific geographic and historical contexts, and sheds light on people’s understanding of human‐plant‐spirit relationships.

Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Economy

Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Economy

Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Industry by Rachel Corr

Reviewed by: Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Industry by Rachel Corr Roger P. Davis Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Industry. Rachel Corr. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018. Pp. x+219, illustrations, maps, appendices, glossary, notes, index. $55.00, hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8165-3773-0. In this well-written and engaging ethnohistory, Rachel Corr, professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, offers readers a primer on the colonial Andean textile economy, details on the nature of labor within that economy, and a catalog of indigenous strategies of survival. Most significantly she also engages the dynamics of ethnogenesis as the essential context for insight into the long-term consequences for these Andean lives. The principle focus of this study is the labor patterns on the obraje of San Ildefonso, one of the largest and longest-lasting textile production centers in the Ecuadorian highlands, located in the community of Pelileo in the central sierra region of Ambato. Corr presents an effective synopsis of the fundamentals of the foundation, rise, and fall of the colonial textile industry through acknowledgment of the classic scholarship on the topic presented by John Leddy Phelan, Robson Brines Tyrer, Javier Ortiz de la Tabla, Nicolas Cushner, and Kenneth Andrien. She notes that while this historical compendium has ample mention of the corruptions and problems attending the administration of the obrajes, the history of the indigenous experience is full of "silences." In an effort to provide voice to the lived experience of the indigenous, Corr has analyzed an impressive array of wills, legal suites, notarial archives, land transactions, and administrative and church resources to bring into focus the indigenous labor experience and their creation of a variety of survival strategies. She begins her analysis with a review of the human landscape. Within the geographical confines of the region, Corr identifies a diversity of indigenous communities. In the era of the Inca, local communities of place and purpose were known as ayllu and identified by location. This category included the Pilalata, Chumaqui, and Guambalo. Added to these were communities of mitamaes, camayos, and foresteros. The mitamaes were groups relocated by the Inca administration. Camayos were members of other ayllus from different regions, directed by their leaders to relocate to acquire an agricultural asset to benefit their homeland. Foresteros emerged as a consequence of colonial rule. These indigenous [End Page 144] people were those who departed from their original ayllu to avoid tribute and other obligations. This untethered community is given formal standing in Hispanic law as a workforce administered by colonial offi-cials. Consequently, some indigenous are anchored in place while others have more fluid ties. These communities make up the labor pool for the obraje of San Ildefonso. With the arrival of the Hispanic, the local economies shift from coca production to sugar, sheep, and the manufacture of textiles. Grants of encomienda obligate the Pilata, Chumaqui, and Guambalo to provide labor for San Ildefonso. Colonial administration of the foresteros similarly ties this group to the obraje. Leaving family and routine agricultural duties, these indigenous people performed tasks of shearing, carding, spinning, weaving, and dyeing wool. Labor obligations fell on men, women, and children alike. Failure to meet production quotas often meant lashes with twisted-hide whips, withholding food, imprisonment, and the extension of the responsibility to meet quotas to other family members. Workers also incurred debts for food, clothing, and unmet quotas, and soon found themselves and their families enmeshed in debt servitude. Corr also highlights a distinct regional dynamic as obraje masters incorporated African slaves as overseers and enforcers undermining potential empathy or support from either group. Through the array of colonial documentation, Corr gives voice to the indigenous by noting their formal complaints to authority and variety of actions, both subtle and dramatic. Wives provided food and clothing to support family members in their tasks, and often stepped in to ensure quotas were met. Despite reprisals, men and women traveled to Quito to formally present complaints to colonial authorities. Foresteros, free of kinship ties, fled the obraje. Resistance ultimately peaks with the brief but bloody indigenous rebellion of 1768. Corr ultimately builds a case for indigenous strategies of survival through...

Costume and history in highland Ecuador

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 1. Ecuador before the Incas The Geography of Ecuador Karen Olsen Bruhns An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ecuador Karen Olsen Bruhns Costume in Ecuador before the Incas Karen Olsen Bruhns Evidence for Pre-Inca Textiles Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 2. Ecuador under the Inca Empire The Incas in Quito John Howland Rowe Costume under the Inca Empire Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 3. Ecuador under the Spanish Empire An Introduction to the History of Colonial Ecuador Suzanne Austin Colonial Costume Lynn A. Meisch Chapter 4. Historical Developments in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Ecuador Margaret Young-Sanchez Chapter 5. Carchi Province (Ecuador) and the Department of Narino (Colombia) Joanne Rappaport Chapter 6. Costume in Imbabura Province Otavalo Lynn A. Meisch Natabuela Ann Pollard Rowe Eastern Imbabura and Northeastern Pichincha Provinces Lynn A. Meisch and Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 7. Costume in Southern Pichincha Province Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 8. Costume in Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, and Bolivar Provinces Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 9. Costume in Chimborazo and Canar Provinces Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 10. Azuay Province The Cholos of Azuay: Historical Introduction Margaret Young-Sanchez Historic Costume in Azuay Lynn A. Meisch and Ann Pollard Rowe Chapter 11. Saraguro Costume in Loja Province Lynn A. Meisch Conclusions Ann Pollard Rowe Notes Glossary Ann Pollard Rowe References Cited Contributors Index

The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race and Sexuality in Colonial San Francisco

Barbara L. Voss’s study of colonial settlers in San Francisco, California, during its years as a presidio (1776 – 1821) is a welcome addition to the growing field of North American historical archaeology. What sets her work apart from more conventional studies is her decision to analyze identity within the theoretical framework of ethnogenesis, or “the birthing of new cultural identities” (p. 1), and to focus on the colonists rather than the colonized (Native Americans). Simply stated, Voss highlights how a diverse group of families of mixed race origins recruited by the Spanish Crown to settle a military outpost came to reject their classification in the sistema de castas and forge a new group identity as Californios.Voss’s study of ethnogenesis on the frontier of the Spanish Empire is organized around four main themes: colonization, material practice, overdetermination, and sexuality. Colonization produced the cultural ruptures that drove innovations to create new identities. Material practice, or what people do, receives ample attention in her study as she posits that “social subjects are entangled in the materiality of the world” (p. 4) and that the material practices of daily life play an active role in reshaping and maintaining social identity. Overdetermination challenges the static approach employed by archaeologists to view identities as secure categories rather than “ongoing social processes” (p. 5). One of the study’s strengths is the author’s analysis of the myriad webs of discourse and material practices that shaped Californio identity. Sexuality and gender round out her organizing concepts. Voss is especially interested in “relations of differential masculinity that were materially produced through labor practices and architecture” (p. 6) and how they combined with race and local conditions to consolidate a unique cultural identity.Employing ample historical and archaeological sources, Voss found that second- and third-generation mixed-race colonists defined themselves as gente de razón or hjios del país to differentiate themselves from Native Californians. Their identification first as people of honor and second as tied to the region or land gave way to their self-identification as Californios. Self-conscious choices in dress, foodways, dishware, and the organization and manipulation of space all contributed to a tangible Californio identity that was in direct opposition to that of their Native American neighbors. While Ross Jamieson in his work on colonial Ecuador found that castas combined colonial and indigenous material culture to negotiate their mixed-race status, colonists at El Presidio de San Francisco deployed “material practices that created internal homogeneity within the colonial population and established rigid distinctions between themselves and local Native Californians” (p. 300). Voss’s findings depart from other studies of colonists and the colonized that emphasize creolization or syncretism as a result of their cultural contact. In fact, Voss suggests that Californios had more in common with Dutch settlers in the Hudson River Valley than with their counterparts elsewhere in the Spanish Empire. Californios and Protestant Dutch mercantilists, while living under disparate colonial projects, pursued similar material strategies that separated them from local indigenous populations.Historians will find much to like about this book. It is clearly organized and each chapter begins with a historiographical discussion that firmly situates the research in the literature. Voss’s study also emphasizes the fruitful collaboration that could occur between historians and archeologists. Moving beyond a simple analysis of material culture, Voss mines historical documents (what people say) and analyzes them in combination with the archaeological record (what people do). Theory underpins much of her analysis, with Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, Judith Butler, and Pierre Bourdieu providing the framework to understand structures of control, the use of space, gender identities, and the development of taste among the Californios. Voss navigates the different theorists and theories with expertise and avoids unnecessary jargon.

Words and wounds: gender relations, violence, and the state in late colonial and early Republican Ecuador

Studying both the violation of rules and the punishments meted out to violators can help us gain insight into normal behavior and values in a particular epoch. Current modes of thinking on the part...

Patters of Indian Depopulation in Early Colonial Ecuador

This paper examines regional variations in Indian population decline Ecuador in the sixteenth century. It examines the impact of Old World diseases and the economic enterprises the Spanish established in the region. Although the population declined by 85 percent, this figure masks considerable variations. There was no marked variation in levels of depopulation between the highlands and lowlands, but variations within those broad regions.

Domestic Architecture and Power: The Historical Archaeology of Colonial Ecuador. Ross W. Jamieson

<i>Domestic Architecture and Power: The Historical Archaeology of Colonial Ecuador</i>. Ross W. Jamieson

Domestic Architecture and Power: The Historical Archaeology of Colonial Ecuador

The field of historical archaeology is still young in South America, and can honestly be said to be in its infancy in Ecuador. Thus Ross Jamieson’s study of the city of Cuenca is a welcome addition to the literature, especially because his overall goal is “to use Cuenca as an example in order to examine the role of domestic architecture and domestic material culture in the Spanish colonial world” (p. xi). He begins by making the laudable statement that his work is “not an attempt to outline the patterned regularity of a monolithic Spanish colonial culture” but rather an effort to explore “how the negotiation of power in colonial Cuenca was carried out by the people who lived there” (p. ix). Specifically, he rejects the more traditional notion of material culture as a “text” whose exact meaning can be decoded by a knowledgeable expert, and argues instead that objects have infinitely mutable meanings depending on their context and the perspective of the viewer (pp. 12–13).The book’s careful research stands upon three legs: the architecture of a variety of domestic houses; the excavations of archaeological test pits carried out by the author in 1993–94; and an archival study of notarial documents giving detailed inventories of household goods. One of the most complete inventories, by good fortune, belonged to one of the standing houses Jamieson was able to survey.The book’s merits, however, depend upon the separable elements of its theoretical agenda and its research, rather than upon their marriage. That is, the details provided in the chapters do not always lead the reader to the conclusions promised by the author at the outset: they do not seem to provide evidence of cultural contest, but rather of Spanish victory. The house layouts, whether urban or rural, upper or lower class, are all based upon the Spanish architectural model, despite the fact that we know native laborers were responsible for building some of them. Jamieson even does a Foucauldian analysis of who gets to observe whom from which vantage point, and we are not surprised to learn that it is the elites who are able to monitor others while they themselves can withdraw easily to inner recesses (pp. 125–26). Sometimes the data seems to cry out for alternative interpretations, but the author resists offering them. For example, the one-room houses of the poor on the outskirts of the city all had streetside porches, which Jamieson assumes the elites wanted to see built so that they might keep track of the activities of the poor. How are we to know, however, that the poor did not prefer to carry out their daily activities on the streetside, rather than in the small yards behind their houses, specifically because they liked to observe the public affairs of the city? Side commentary in court cases I have read in Ecuadorian archives lends more weight to the latter interpretation than to the former.Only in his conclusion does Jamieson provide concrete examples of the “negotiation of domestic relationships through material culture,” specifically through dining rituals. Here, however, it turns out that he is not thinking of the perspectives of different groups or individuals within the household, as much as the elites’ ability to seize resources newly available to them as residents of the New World in defining themselves as wealthy and powerful in front of their visitors and servants. Given their proximity to mines, they used silver tablewares they could never have owned in Spain, and encased Andean coconuts and gourds in Spanish-style silver filigree to serve American products like cocoa and Paraguayan tea (pp. 204–5). But whether Jamieson’s material proves what he wants it to or not, it makes for fascinating reading and will certainly help provoke scholarly discussion of the issues he raises.

Domestic architecture and power: the historical archaeology of colonial Ecuador

Preface. Acknowledgments. Table of contents. I. Power, Colonialism and Domestic Life. II. The History of Cuenca. III. The Domestic Architecture of Colonial Cuenca. IV. The Rural Architecture Surrounding Cuenca. V. Excavations. VI. The Domestic Material Culture of Colonial Cuenca. VII. Conclusions. References.

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador.

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador.

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador.

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador. LINDA A. NEWSON

<i>Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador</i>. LINDA A. NEWSON

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador

Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador

Life and death in early colonial Ecuador

Life and death in early colonial Ecuador

Nature, Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador

Nature, Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador