INSTITUTO "DR. E.RAVIGNANI"   24160
INSTITUTO DE HISTORIA ARGENTINA Y AMERICANA "DR. EMILIO RAVIGNANI"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Forced and free migration during the 17th Century in the colonial Andes. Their impact on indigenous social and communal organization
Autor/es:
GIL MONTERO, RAQUEL
Lugar:
Colonia
Reunión:
Congreso; The Global South on the Move: Transforming Capitalism, Knowledge and Ecologies; 2017
Institución organizadora:
Global South Studies Center (GSSC), University of Cologne, Germany
Resumen:
During the 17th century, a massive migration process of indigenous population occurred in the Andes. They migrated because they were forced to obtain money to pay their tributes (and/or other obligations), or alternatively because they reacted by running away from their ethnic authorities or from colonial obligations. This migration posed difficulties on the payment of tributes, as well as on the observance of the mita mining system. In order to know where those migrants were (and to force them to pay or to go to Potosí to fulfil the mita) viceroy La Palata ordered a General Inspection (a kind of census) that was conducted between 1683 and 1685. The General Inspection is the principal source of my contribution.During the late 17th century, indigenous communal organizations were in process of change, profoundly modified by colonial impositions, but also influenced by their own views. In this panel, I propose to present different situations regarding those migrants, focusing on their sense of belonging. Some of these situations were:a) Indigenous people that were forced to migrate during the Inca?s time, but remained in their ?new? locations after the conquest. They were called mitmas. Some of them migrated during colonial times to other places and they claim to belong both, to their pre-Hispanic communities, and to the places to where the Inca had moved them.b) Some people migrated soon after the mita organization, during the late 16th century, and their children were born outside of their communities. They still remembered the name of their native governors and of their ayllus during the General Inspection. They were called forasteros, and claimed to belong to their communities of origin, although many of them did not want to return.c) Some other people ran away, forgot their ayllus and were living as yanaconas. This category, inherited from the Inca?s organization, had different meanings during the colonial period. Those yanaconas had two characteristics in common: none of them recognized a native authority, nor did they have ethnic boundaries.d) The ancestors of other people had migrated a century or less before the General Inspection and their descendants remembered their origins but were not attached to their authorities.There are other -few- situations I want to describe and situate in the territory. After describing the cases, the presentation aims to answer two questions. Was the impact of colonial organization more visible in some specific communities, activities or geographies? Can we show the different ways (some patterns) of the re-organization of indigenous communities?