Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800; Anthropology and History by G.
A. COLLIER, R. I. ROSALDO and J. D. WIRTH
Review by: Michiel Baud
Source: Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, No. 37 (Diciembre de 1984), pp.
125-128
Published by: Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika (CEDLA)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25675243
Accessed: 05-04-2020 02:47 UTC

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 Both authors concentrate on the core-nature complex of Mexico, Peru and north
east Brazil around 1580-1750. Here cities catalysed caste formation, attracting migrants,
expelling marginals, gradually influencing the countryside. In due time the process was
repeated in outlying areas ? each of which is considered ? until 'the east coast revolu
tion' created new centres, cradles of the independence movement. Meanwhile old core
castes merged into a single mass which also submerged city Indians; similarly, Brazilian
mulattoes practically became the mining area's middle class.
The emphasis is not so much on trends or outcomes as on the processes them
selves : the role of migrants, 'family strategies', relations of clerics and officials to patri
archs, and the nuanced alterations from corporate Indian to diffuse Hispanic. The com
parative view permits perceptive analogies between Pombal's Brazilian reforms and those
of Charles III in Spanish America. All these parallels and processes are constantiy incul
cated in what at times appears all too purposeful. While being reminded frequentiy of
how much remains unexplored, the student is left with at least one clear view of Latin
America's growth, along with a bare political outiine and insightful epitomes of its
cultural and religious life.
Behind these 'lines of intelligibility' lies the assimilation of a vast amount of the
latest studies. Though it may not appear in print, the name of some recentiy revisionist
scholar comes to mind on almost every page.
Of the backgrounds, the Iberian is outstandingly presented, the African not at all ?
'because Africans became so enmeshed in the Iberian sector' (p. 215). Pre-Columbian
culture, history, art and religion are also excluded. Indeed, the Andean and Mesoamerican
areas appear basically alike in their regional functions. 'It was the crops, the organisation
of work, and the nature of territoriality which put their stamp on nascent Latin American
society' (p. 5 7).
Hardly to be found are those minor errors which often creep into this type of
summation. In seventeenth century Peru, wine was an export, zambos ('zambaigos') well
known, corregidores well paid. Figure 13 states sugar output in uncertain (actually
Portuguese) arrobas, figure 15 records thousands where millions of pesos were intended.
Cuba was surely not granted free-er trade after British occupation because 'there was
nothing more to lose' (p.365). And the over-succinct discussion of the non-Hispanic
Caribbean or the Wars of Independence borders on parody. But these are the underside
of a scholarly and pedagogic feat.

Fred Bronner
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

G. A. COLLIER, R. I. ROSALDO, J. D. WIRTH (eds.), The Inca and Aztec States, 1400
1800; Anthropology and History. Academic Press, New York, etc. 1982. Pp.475.

This book reflects new trends in preColumbian historiography and can in this
respect be considered the successor of the special number of Annates, 33e annee, 5, 6,
sept.-dec. 1978, 'Anthropologic historique des societes Andines'. The opening lines of
Collier's introduction are very clear in this respect : 'The civilizations of central Meso
america and the Andes pose both a challenge and an opportunity for the comparative
study of civilization because they developed independentiy of counterparts in Europe,
the Near East, and Asia. They challenge us to arrive at an authentic understanding by
means of concepts and interpretations that do not distort the facts to fit an alien ana
lytical scheme' (p. 1; my italics).

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 This search for new conceptions has led, according to Collier, to 'a dramatic re
direction of studies toward the importance and enduring character of their [the states']
sub-imperial organization' (ibid.). On the one hand, attention has shifted to the peri
pheral areas of the large imperial states. From the strongly Cuzco-centred emphasis
on the political and religious aspects of the preColumbian states, which characterised
anthropological research for a long time, recent historiography has been more interested
in the socio-economic structures which determined the fate of the subject ethnic groups.
This sub-imperial emphasis shows many similarities with the 'regional history' which is
a hallmark of Annates. On the other hand, the new research has a distinct social flavour.
The practices of everyday life in preColumbian society and the perceptions of the com
mon people have replaced the colourful features and dynastic glamour of the imperial
courts at the centre of scientific attention.
In this perspective it is also logical to extend research on preColumbian cultures
well into the period of Spanish domination. The conquest effectively destroyed the state
organization of the Inca and Aztec states, but it never succeeded in subduing popular
culture completely. While the Spanish colonization caused the 'virtual obliteration of
the culture-carrying stratum of native society' (Borah, p. 268), popular indigenous culture
and religion proved to be very resistant, vital and able to endure the period of Spanish
colonization.
The articles which make up this volume were first presented at a conference in
Stanford in 1978. According to the editors' preface, the possibilities and scientific utility
of a comparative approach to the Inca and Aztec states were extensively discussed. Some
participants asked whether the two archipelagoes of the Andean and Mexican civilizations
were really linked by more than the shared fact of Spanish conquest. In the first essay,
P. Carrasco sets himself the task of indicating the similarities between the Aztec and Inca
states. As he points out, both were 'politically organized economies', wherein 'the eco
nomic process was embedded in the political institutions of a stratified society', i.e. in
which the politically powerful also determined the economic organization. Both eco
nomies were characterised by rudimentary technology and the consequent heavy de
mands on the dependent peasant population. The surplus production of this population
was creamed off by what Carrasco calls a 'primitive fusion', in which state-directed
organization of production left the local ethnic and political structures virtually intact.
Following anthropologists such as Polanyi and Wittfogel, Carrasco concludes that dif
ferences between the Aztec and Inca states were merely 'variations of degree' and do not
in any way preclude a comparative approach.
Carrasco's article is the only one in the book that actually tries to compare the
two societies. For the rest, it seems that Mesoamerican and Andean preColumbian histo
riography still remain separate. In this sense, the book as a whole fails to live up to its
comparative aspirations. After Carrasco's comparative essay the book is divided into four
main sections : Aztec State Formation (2 articles); Inca State Administration and Colon
ization (6 articles); The Imposition of Spanish Governance (3 articles); and Indigenous
Culture and Consciousness (4 articles). As will be clear, this division is based on the
content of the different articles and not on differences in historiographical perspective.
Some contributions were written with a more or less traditional emphasis on the political
processes of the centralised bureaucratic Inca and Aztec states (Rounds, Morris, Calnek
and, to a lesser extent, Julien). They unravel, sometimes very cleverly, the intricacies
of the political structure of the centralised Inca and Aztec states, showing how ap
parently monolithical systems contained very differentiated patterns of control and
subjection. They make clear that local elites of the subdued peoples did not lose their
prestige and status, but became instrumental in the process of Aztec and Inca state
building. In this way they also give a very useful perspective on the subsequent Spanish
colonization. Their articles, however, have a predominantly political and descriptive

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point of departure, with the focus mainly on the central power, and in this sense they do
not offer significantly new perspectives.
The sub-imperial viewpoint is a feature of the majority of the remaining articles.
Alongside the articles of the 'oldtimers', Murra and Rowe, the reader contains contribu
tions by Pease and Stern, in which this is very clear. These authors throw new light on
the social impact of the institutions devised by the Incas in order to obtain a regular
labour supply. Although their opinions sometimes differ ? Rowe states that the Inca
reign caused more cultural unification than had until now been assumed, while Murra
on the contrary claims that local sources show that the Inca influence on subdued ethnic
groups is grossly overestimated ? these authors agree that the social and cultural impafct
of the Inca state regulations was rather limited and heavily influenced by local circum
stances. In this manner they reopen the discussion about the Tawantinsuyu's effective
control over subjected ethnic groups and the mechanics of Inca conquest.
It is no coincidence that all these writers concentrate on the institutions of the
Inca empire for securing labour. These indirect systems of recruitment of labour by
imperial officials and local chiefs were to have the most profound influence on the social
and cultural institutions of these peoples.
Rowe describes how the Inca authorities by way of the yanacona, camayo and
mitima unintentionally exercised a profound cultural impact on their subjects. He shows
the two-sided politics of the Tawantinsuyu : on the one hand unifying their empire
culturally, on the other purposefully maintaining the local differences. It is interesting
to note that it was only through the arrival of the external, Spanish enemy, that the
Andean population acquired a common identity. Since this unity could be conceived
only in Inca terms, it was ironically the Inca tradition which became a symbol of re
sistance for all Andean peoples against the Spanish colonizers (p. 114). This identifica
tion of the past with the time of the Inca groups forms one more obstacle to the historian
who wants to investigate preColumbian inter-ethnic relations (p. 179).
According to Murra it was above all the economic exactions of the Inca state
which transformed the subdued ethnic groups. He and Pease believe that a Cuzco-centred
point of view of past research has impeded a correct understanding of the different local
modes of production. While placing more emphasis on the economic consequences
of the Tawantinsuyu rule, they also point to the variable impact on local cultures. Using
concepts of M. Godelier, Pease differentiates three forms of Inca colonization : explicit
consent (e.g. the Altiplano); confrontation (e.g. in Chimor); and relative neglect (as in
Chachapoyas). He concludes that 'the Tawantinsuyu is a more complicated and extensive
network of relationships than it is the apparently monolithic and showy apparatus of
power that the chroniclers described in the sixteenth century' (p. 190).
It is the merit of this reader that it clearly shows how many continuities and links
existed between the preColumbian and the Spanish colonial empires. The articles of
Borah and Stern, focussing on the place of the Indians in the Spanish colonial system,
form a logical and natural continuation of the preceding articles. Central in these con
tinuities was the fact that the Spaniards initially took over many of the existing imperial
institutions. Sixteenth century Latin American history remained in this way characterised
by a continuous conflict in which alternately the retention and the destruction of native
institutions was favoured. These authors show that the Spanish juridical institutions
functioned as a tool available to the native population to defend their interests and to
foster their struggle against oppression. In the same process of using the Spanish juridical
institutions, the Indians, however, linked themselves to the colonial order, implicitiy
asserting Spanish hegemony. It is a Gramscian paradox of colonial power, that the more
juridical rights are given to the subdued, the more firmly the latter are linked to the
colonial structures of oppression.
In a completely different manner, K. Spalding shows how from the very arrival

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of the Spanish troops, a kind of amalgamation of economic systems came into existence.
Following the theories of French anthropologists on the 'articulation of modes of pro
duction', she rejects the thesis which maintains that the Spanish did not form a dualistic
system in which the native economy was kept outside the colonial economy. On the con
trary, the Spanish integrated the native economy into their own in order to facilitate
and systematize economic exploitation. Although this article stands rather apart from the
others through its clear marxist and macro-economic analysis, it is prerequisite reading for
anyone who wants to understand the socio-economic and cultural dimensions of the
Spanish colonial domination.
The 'histoire de mentalite' occupies pride of place in the last section of the reader.
The articles by Klor de Alva, Karttunen and Zuidema are very specific, covering various
aspects of the perception and symbolism of different preColumbian peoples. The articles
of Wachtel and Lockhart are of a more general nature. Wachtel continues the themes of
his La vision des vaincus (1971). He shows that for the native population initially there
was not a tremendous difference between Inca and Spanish imperialism, but that also in
this respect significant local differences existed. For instance, the strength of the ties
between the mitimas and their place of origin varied greatly. This accounted for very
different reactions towards the arrival of the Spanish, from flight to their native villages
to indifference or even cooperation.
The most original contribution comes from Lockhart in his article on 'Views of
Corporate Self and History in Some Valley of Mexico Towns'. His focal point is what he
calls the 'Corporate Self, the collective identity of the preColumbian people in the period
of Spanish domination. This identity was formed by a good deal of syncretism and
acculturation and consisted of a curious combination of legend, stereotype and ignorance
of the outside world. These views, which were above all prevalent in the non-elite parts
of the population, can be reconstructed from the so-called 'primordial titles' (real or
fake land tides of the original villages, which were brought before the Spanish courts
to prove the towns' autonomy). Lockhart makes clear that for most Indians the Spanish
colonial order was a quite incomprehensible entity, whose representatives acquired
magical and unreal proportions. Despite the intense striving for local autonomy that these
documents reveal, there is no hint of any disloyalty to the Spanish king or to the christian
religion. Rather, very much like the image of the king in European medieval popular
culture, God and the king were seen as the protectors of the common people and as the
ultimate support for the legitimacy of the towns' claims. Lockhart sketches an Indian
perception of the outside in which it is accomodated in the best possible way to their
own vision of reality 'taking place in the timelessness of legend or dream' (p.391). He
offers in this manner a thoroughly human relativisation of preColumbian as well as
Spanish domination.
This is an important and stimulating reader. The editors deserve praise for their
careful and clear editing. The book has very much gained in accessibility through its
good maps and the short editorial introduction which precedes every article. Regarding
the content and the claims to innovation of the different contributions, I have more
misgivings. I am not sure that this book offers all the new perspectives which the reader is
promised in the preface. Rather, it seems to mark the end of an epoch of anthropological
and historical research, in which scientists were looking for the structures of preCo
lumbian civilisations and the socio-economic and cultural consequences of the Spanish
Conquest. The articles of Lockhart and, to a lesser extent, Wachtel and Spalding are the
only ones which may show the way to really new concepts and interpretations, and thus
to a better understanding of the Inca and Aztec states.

Michiel Baud
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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