In this stimulating book the author presents us with a structural analysis of the failure of the phenomenon of colonialism, as exemplified by the Spanish conquest of the New World. Nathan Wachtel’s objective is to examine what—borrowing from Miguel León Portilla’s book—he has called the vision of the vanquished. His is a view from the inside, one of categories and relations, out of which emerges the inner logic of the cultural system called the Inca empire, or the logical meaning coded in folkloric materials and indigenous movements of rebellion.
It is, however, with regard to its methodology that this work is of special interest to historians, for the author combines historical and ethnological research techniques. He, like C. Lévi-Strauss, sees no contradiction in applying structural analysis to historical materials and dismisses the supposed opposition between the synchronicity of the former and the diachronicity of the latter.
The book consists of three parts organized around the dialectical concepts: structuration/destructuration/restructuration. The first and third parts analyze the efforts of the indigenous populations, subsequent to the Conquest, to restructure their cultural systems at the imaginary level (folklore) and at the concrete or “real” level (rebellions and wars) at various points in time and space. The second deals with the structures and destructuration of a specific group at a specific time (Inca empire, 1530-1570).
The first section examines folkloric representations of the Conquest surviving today, in terms of the binary categories syntagm/paradigm used by C. Lévi-Strauss and R. Barthes in their respective analyses of myth, and of literature and fashion.
The second section analyzes “the conscious and rationalized model of organization” (p. 104) imposed by the Incas on pre-Inca ethnic groups. This unifying system was characterized by an internal dichotomy between the centripetal force of centralism, exercised by the Incas, and the centrifugal one of particularism, exercised by the Ayllus. The resolution of this binary opposition is explained by the author in terms of the analytic categories developed by Karl Polanyi for the study of traditional societies (and skillfully applied to the Inca system by John V. Murra): reciprocity and redistribution. Wachtel shows how these two principles operated at, and between, different hierarchical levels (Ayllu, Curaca, Inca) to bring about a harmonious, coherent system.
The section ends with an account of the effect of the Conquest on the Inca system. With the substitution of the Incas by the Spaniards, the integrative principles of redistribution and reciprocity were replaced by “naked violence” (p. 305). Colonization, in the author’s view, did not provide viable integrative principles for the Spanish-Indian relations. The two systems, consequently, are viewed as polar: the Inca was essentially conjunctive, the colonial was disjunctive.
The last section analyzes the phenomenon of Indian revolt during the colonial period as a restructuring praxis. Wachtel views these movements as the indigenous refusal of the colonial situation, evidence of the ultimate failure of acculturation in the Hispanic colonial world.
The sheer intellectual satisfaction elicited by Wachtel’s masterful analysis of Inca culture and indigenous folklore is perhaps analogous to that felt upon the resolution of a mathematical problem. Everything fits, no loose ends. Herein lies my first reservation. For, in order to bring out the logical coherence of the Inca system, the author glosses over the elements of dissent within the Empire. At times, when Wachtel crosses the thin line separating an ideal analytical model from an idealized one, his nostalgic admiration for the Incas is reminiscent of that of his compatriot, Marmontel, in Les Incas.
I have two other reservations: one of method, one of content. Wachtel’s approach to destructuration (Spanish Conquest and colonization) is analytical, with regards to the Inca system (characterized by its coherence), but is merely descriptive regarding that of the Spanish (characterized by its violence). This dual perspective weakens our understanding of the dynamics of destructuration itself. A structural approach to both systems would have given more depth to Wachtel’s analysis.
Secondly, the author’s contention that the Indians of Peru rejected the money economy imposed by the Spaniards is not borne out by the facts. There is ample evidence that during this period silver refining in Potosí was in the hands of the Indians, who had the only viable technology, and who acted as entrepreneurs, organizing the labor force, and contracting with the Spaniards. This is not a trivial point, since it bears on the problems of acculturation and restructuration.
These reservations are not meant to detract from the value of this work. It is a well-organized, innovative, and beautifully written book. It is also worth reading as an example of a fruitful marriage between ethnology and history.
