Studies on the colonial Peruvian Indian, particularly in the period after Viceroy Francisco de Toledo’s administration, were for some time quite rare, a neglect due partly to the belief that records were unavailable. During the last several decades, however, a few scholars, most notably John V. Murra, not only have demonstrated that a skillful reading of well-known sources (the Spanish chronicles and relaciones geográficas) can provide abundant information, but also have brought to light other documents such as visitas. Collaguas I builds on their efforts. Almost half of the book consists of a formerly unpublished visita, dated 1591, which was found in the Museo Nacional de Historia (Lima). The document is incomplete, but does contain extensive material on the parcialidad of Urinsaya of the pueblo of Yanque which was located in the province of the Collaguas (modern southwestern Peru, inland from the city of Arequipa). A fragment on the parcialidad of Hanansaya was uncovered subsequently in Yanque and also is reproduced. The visita is especially rich in demographic data as well as on Indian agriculture and rural land tenure. As the editor makes clear, its value is enhanced considerably by the fact that a great deal of other documentation exists for this area. Mention is made of the relación by the corregidor Juan de Ulloa Mogollón (1586), various legal proceedings, papers on the Collaguas that form a part of Licenciado Alonso Fernández de Bonilla’s visita general (published in this volume along with observations by Juan Carlos Crespo), and local records (an index to the Libros de Registro for several towns, housed in the Archivo Parroquial de Yanque, is appended). One might add published materials such as N. David Cook’s Tasa de la visita general de Francisco de Toledo (1975) and P. Fr. Víctor M. Barriga’s multivolume documentary compilations on Arequipa. I have run across various documents in Spanish and Peruvian archives which provide information on tributes for the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Archivo General de la Nación (Peru) also contains a fascinating account dealing with the effects that various visitas carried out during the 1640s and 1650s had on landholding patterns of the Collaguas in the Arequipa valley.
The extensive documentation led to the formation of a team in 1974, composed mainly of faculty and students from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima) and the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (Arequipa), and some of their findings are included in this volume. Two articles are concerned with colonial demography. N. David Cook employs parish records of Yanahuara, a pueblo in the Arequipa valley, to establish population growth from 1738 to 1747 despite some reversals, migration from the province of the Collaguas, and, interestingly, that marriage often followed the conception of a couple’s first child. José Luis Rénique C. and Efraín Trelles A. examine the 1591 visita and suggest that it must be used with extreme caution for they have spotted a tendency by Spanish officials to reckon rather arbitrarily and in their interests the ages of Indians. Their analysis of the population, using ten-year cohorts, reveals the marked, yet selective, impact of diseases during the sixteenth century. John V. Murra’s work, particularly his “vertical control” model, influences the approaches of Franklin Pease G. Y. and Juan José Cuadros. The latter’s research establishes the contemporary Indian’s continued desire to control resources in different zones in spite of his limited success. Pease’s essay is the strongest in the book. He draws on the 1591 visita, other documents, and oral testimony collected in the southwest during the mid-1970s and argues that although much of it supports Murra’s approach, modifications will be in order for the pre- and post-conquest periods. Alejandro Málaga Medina’s piece is a careful survey of the region’s sixteenth-century history and is very helpful in tracing the early encomienda grants and the impact of Viceroy Toledo’s measures on Indian residential patterns.
There are minor difficulties with the essays. The order selected will create some problems and a reader unfamiliar with the Collaguas as well as the sources and literature on the colonial Peruvian Indian should turn first to those by Málaga Medina and Pease. Their disparate concerns may also be troublesome. Collaguas I is of major value, nevertheless, and as the 1591 visita and other pieces are studied further, they will clearly add considerably to our views on the Peruvian Indian. One looks forward to future volumes.
