Indigenous Elites in the Colonial Andes

Introduction

While largely written out of the historiography until the last half century, indigenous elites were crucial to the reproduction of both Spanish rule and indigenous society in the colonial Andes from the first years of the conquest until independence. The paradigmatic figure is the kuraka or cacique, a native lord somewhere between chieftain and justice of the peace responsible for tribute collection and the maintenance of order in communities ranging from a few dozen to several thousand people; in return, caciques were exempt from tribute, personal service, and the jurisdiction of some local Spanish officials. To the Spanish crown and its officials, the recognition of the local lordship of pre-conquest ruling castes (and particularly the Incas) symbolized just colonial rule, while concern about cacical tyranny and abuse of the indigenous commoners provided constant justification for Spanish intervention. While contemporary scholars have generally deemed Spanish rule tyrannical, concerns about legitimate authority and the abusive exercise of power similarly dominated early study of these colonial elites. A central concern was how to define political legitimacy in the república de indios, producing a dichotomy between the collaborator cacique who served as a puppet of colonial rule (and the market economy), and the legitimate cacique who instead defended communal interests. Assumptions of broad pre-conquest legitimacy thus produced studies particularly concerned with genealogical continuity and the rise of parvenu caciques, and with the erosion of pre-conquest ideals of economic reciprocity and the emergence of an Andean market economy and allodial property. The recent growth of Andean colonial and ethnohistory has produced a less dialectical view of colonial society, and case studies of both individual caciques and indigenous elites more broadly have increasingly focused less on questions of legitimacy than on the liminality of this privileged stratum of indigenous society, at once far more Hispanicized than the república de indios in general, but also the principle legal defenders and cultural patrons of their communities. These studies have also shown the complex, multiple hierarchies of colonial Indian communities, and focused attention on Indian nobles and church officials as well as on caciques. Objects of aggressive Catholic evangelization, but also patrons and producers of the arts and the literate stratum of the Indian republic, and––in the case of the colonial Incas––fetishized by creole society, indigenous elites were key actors in the emergence of an indigenous, viceregal culture. The Indian nobility also played a central, and conflicted, role in the great rebellions of the late 18th century, as both rebel leaders and staunch defenders of the crown. There is widespread consensus among scholars that the rebellions provoked a dramatic loss of wealth and authority among the Indian nobility (largely through loss of cacical office), although there is considerable debate as to the relative roles of royal hostility and legislation, and the repudiation of Bourbon indigenous elites by their communities.

Bibliography

To date, the only substantial published bibliography on indigenous elites in the colonial Andes is Tarragó 2006.

Tarragó, Rafael E. Los kurakas: Una bibliografía anotada de fuentes impresas (1609–2005). Madrid: Fundación Mapfre, 2006.
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Briefly annotated bibliography of several hundred sources, on both colonial Andean society generally and the kuraka elite, particularly strong on Spanish language literature.
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The Conquest and the Establishment of the Colonial Order

The half-century between the Spanish arrival at Cajamarca and the (partial) execution of viceroy Toledo’s sweeping reforms of Andean society witnessed constantly shifting alliances between and among indigenous and Spanish actors, and rapidly changing strategies by the Spanish crown in its attempts to formalize a colonial political order.

Primary Sources

In the 1550s and 1560s, members of the Lima and Chuquisaca audiencias and other royal officials actively debated the proper role of indigenous lords in the new colonial order. Deeply informing the divisions were attitudes toward Spanish colonists, and assessments of the “tyrannical” order of Inca society. Polo de Ondegardo (Lamana and Hampe 2012), generally viewed as the most sophisticated observer of the Inca political economy, offers a harsh portrait of the tyranny of indigenous lords, while expressing strong concerns about the deleterious impact of Spanish attempts at reform; Matienzo 1967 shares Polo’s views of indigenous tyranny and uses these as a justification to propose radical reform of Peruvian society. In contrast, Falcón 1864–1884 and Santillán 1879 offer more sympathetic portraits of caciques and Indian lords, and a far harsher assessment of the emergent colonial political and economic order.

Falcón, Francisco. “Representación hecha . . . sobre los daños y molestias que se hacen a los Indios.” In Colección de documentos inéditos del Archivo de Indias. Series I, Vol. 7. Edited by Luis Torres de Mendoza, 451–495. Madrid: Ministerio del Ultramar, 1864–1884.
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A 1560s defense of indigenous society against colonial innovation, generally sympathetic to kurakas and attributing the demographic decline and social collapse of indigenous societies to Spanish abuse and the failure to recognize indigenous custom.
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Lamana, Gonzalo, and Teodoro Hampe, eds. Pensamiento colonial crítico: Textos y actos de Polo Ondegardo. Lima, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas and IFEA, 2012.
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Writings by the most sophisticated observer of the Inca and 16th-century political economy, with critical essays. Fundamental source for the study of the Inca empire and social structure, and deeply influential in Spanish debates and reforms.
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Matienzo, Juan de. El gobierno del Perú. Edited with prologue by Guillermo Lohmann Villena. Lima, Peru, and Paris: IFEA, 1967.
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A 1570s political treatise by one of Toledo’s principal advisors, harshly critical of kurakas and their political and economic authority, which is coded as despotic. Matienzo proposes a radical restructuring of colonial society, closely parallel to the Toledan reforms.
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Santillán, Hernando de. “Relación del origen, descendencia política y gobierno de los Incas.” In Tres relaciones de antigüedades peruanas. Edited by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, 33–131. Madrid: Minsterio de Fomento, 1879.
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A 1560s analysis of Inca government and defense of the Indian tributaries of Peru against both encomenderos and kurakas, by an oidor of the Lima audiencia.
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Secondary Literature

Stern 1981, Sempat Assadourian 1994, and Lamana 2008 highlight the limits to Spanish strength in the first decades of the conquest, and the essential role that alliances with native lords played in the toppling of Inca rule and the establishment of Spanish hegemony. Sempat Assadourian 1994 also explores relations between kurakas and corregidores, and the effects of the alienation of Inca lands on the geography of colonial society. Mumford 2012 provides a valuable overview of the legislative politics of the era and both the involvement of kurakas and concerns about them by Spanish actors. González de San Segundo 1982, Lamana and Hampe 2012, and Lohmann Villena 1967 offer critical discussion on the role of indigenous lords. Julien 2007 emphasizes the crucial role of the strongly anti-Inca viceroy Francisco de Toledo in rendering impossible any serious treatment of the Incas and other Andean rulers as vassal lords of anything but local jurisdictions; however, Díaz Rementería 1977 makes clear the ongoing concern about and legal protection of Indian nobles and kurakas.

Díaz Rementería, Carlos J. El cacique en el virreinato del Perú: Estudio histórico-jurídico. Seville, Spain: Universidad de Sevilla, 1977.
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Documentary study of laws regarding cacicazgos in colonial Peru, giving particular emphasis to succession and proprietary rights under Philip II and Philip III, which established a bulwark of hereditary privilege for the colonial Indian nobility.
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González de San Segundo, Miguel Ángel. “El doctor Gregorio González de Cuenca, oidor de la Audiencia de Lima y sus ordenanzas sobre caciques e indios principales (1566).” Revista de Indios 42.169–170 (1982): 643–667.
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Analysis of the writings of Cuenca concerning the position and privileges that indigenous lords and nobles should occupy in colonial society.
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Julien, Catherine. “Francisco de Toledo and His Campaign against the Incas.” Colonial Latin American Review 16.2 (December 2007): 243–272.
DOI: 10.1080/10609160701644524Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of viceroy Francisco de Toledo’s assault on the Vilcabamba Incas and Inca privilege in Cusco, arguing that Toledo aggressively pursued his vision of the Incas as tyrants to prevent either Inca resurgence or the recognition of the Incas’ political claims within the viceroyalty.
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Lamana, Gonzalo. Domination without Dominance: Inca-Spanish Encounters in Early Colonial Peru. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822388715Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Critical reappraisal of Spanish accounts of the first decades of conquest, arguing against a successful imposition of Spanish cultural hegemony, and instead emphasizing Inca strategies to maintain their privileged political and ritual status in a radically changed world.
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Lamana, Gonzalo, and Teodoro Hampe, eds. Pensamiento colonial crítico: Textos y actos de Polo Ondegardo. Lima, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas and IFEA, 2012.
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Writings by the most sophisticated observer of the Inca and 16th-century political economy, with a useful bibliographical essay by Hampe and a critical essay taking a postcolonial approach by Lamana.
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Lohmann Villena, Guillermo. “Prólogo.” In El gobierno del Perú. Edited by Juan de Matienzo. Lima, Peru, and Paris, 1967.
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Historical and analytical discussion of Matienzo’s work, with biographical information.
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Mumford, Jeremy Ravi. Vertical Empire: The General Resettlement of Indians in the Colonial Andes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822395591Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of viceroy Toledo’s reducción of Andean societies in the 1570s, carefully attentive to bureaucratic and political debates surrounding the program, and particularly to the negotiations and participation of indigenous lords.
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Sempat Assadourian, Carlos. Transiciones hacia el sistema colonial andino. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1994.
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Essays on the foundation of the colonial order and the transformation of the Andean political economy, including discussions of the relations of corregidores and kurakas, and the role of kurakas from different ethnic groups in the conflicts between (and among) Spaniards and Incas.
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Stern, Steve J. “The Rise and Fall of Indian-White Alliances: A Regional View of ‘Conquest’ History.” Hispanic American Historical Review 61.3 (August 1981): 46–91.
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Study of alliances between encomenderos and kurakas in Huamanga from the 1530s to 1560s, arguing that the establishment of the encomienda economy depended on the continued functioning of the pre-conquest economy but introduced labor and commercial relations that ultimately alienated kurakas and tributaries alike.
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The Cacique and Indigenous Elites in the Habsburg Political Economy

Systematic academic study of indigenous elites in the colonial Andes dates to the 1970s and the emergence both of Andean ethnohistory, and a colonial historiography focused on the profound transformations in the political economy instituted by Spanish rule––in particular, the introduction of a monetized market economy. In general, those emphasizing the dislocative and destructive effects of European colonialism have emphasized the erosion of indigenous economic systems and the loss of political legitimacy of indigenous elites, while ethnohistorians have stressed a broader reproduction of indigenous Andean practices and systems. In line with arguments that the conquest did not immediately displace the material practices and relations of the Inca Andes, Murra 2002 and Pease García-Irigoyen 2012 emphasize the continuity of pre-conquest practices of reciprocity and distribution as the foundation of elite legitimacy well into the 17th century. Spalding (1970), Spalding 1973, and Stern 1982 instead argue for dramatic transformations in the mechanisms by which indigenous elites acquired and maintained authority, emphasizing the role of market exchange and state interests; Ramírez 1996, focusing on the north coast of Peru, makes an extreme case for such radical change. In contrast, Platt, et al. 2006 marshals extraordinary documentary evidence to argue for continuity in the organization and relations of Aymara societies in Bolivia, suggesting that Spanish conquest was not understood as a radical rupture within these societies. Focusing on Ecuador, Powers 1995 argues that caciques played an integral part in societies’ reorganization to confront the demands of epidemic and colonial rule; Saignes 1985 stresses the liminality of the Habsburg cacique in the southern Andes, challenging static and dualistic ideas of legitimacy. More recently, Choque Canqui and Glave 2012 and Glave 2008 have similarly emphasized the liminal role of the cacique, but paid particular attention to the legal and court politics of their participation in colonial justice.

Choque Canqui, Roberto, and Luis Miguel Glave. Mitas, caciques y mitayos: Gabriel Fernandéz Guarache: Memoriales en defensa de los indios y debate sobre la mita de Potosí. La Paz, Bolivia: Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, 2012.
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Documentary collection and critical essays about the caciques of Pacajes and their mid-17th-century legal campaign about the Potosí mita and its burdens, stressing both their role as the legal defenders of their communities against the labor demands of the viceregal state, and their complicity in the economy to which such demands were essential.
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Glave, Luis Miguel. “Gestiones transatlánticas. Los indios ante la trama del poder virreinal y las composiciones de tierras (1646).” Revista Complutense de Historia de América 34 (2008): 85–106.
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Analysis of a voyage to Madrid by two important caciques from northern Peru to present petitions for the recognition of their own service, and for the defense of their communities; pays particular attention to the larger viceregal politics of which the voyage was a part.
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Murra, John V. El Mundo Andino: Población, medio ambiente y economía. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2002.
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Collection of works from the 1950s to 1980s that laid the foundation for studies on the political economy of the Inca empire, stressing reciprocity and nonmarket exchange among ethnic groups distributed across ecological space; includes essays on regional ethnic political economies in the 1st century of conquest that stress the continuity of such organization.
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Pease García-Irigoyen, Franklin. Los Incas en la colonia: Estudios sobre los siglox xvi, xvii, y xviii en los Andes. Lima, Peru: Ministerio de Cultura, 2012.
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Posthumous, collected works of a leading Peruvian historian, covering Inca political economy and legitimacy, and post-conquest continuities and transformation. Essays on kurakas and reciprocity, the transformation of indigenous societies in the 16th century, the role of the kuraka in colonial indigenous society, and Inca messianism and anticolonial movements.
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Platt, Tristan, Thérèse Bouysse-Cassagne, and Olivia Harris. Qaraqara-Charka: Mallku, Inka y rey en la provincia de Charcas (siglos xv-xvii): Historia antropológica de una confederación aymara. Lima, Peru: IFEA; La Paz: Plurales Editores, 2006.
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Monumental study of Aymara society of Bolivia under Inca and Habsburg rule, emphasizing continuity over the longue durée, with close attention to cacicazgos and succession.
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Powers, Karen. Andean Journeys: Migration, Ethnogenesis and the State in Colonial Quito. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
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Study of migration and demography in 16th-century Ecuador, emphasizing the disintegration and reformulation of ethnic groups and the central role of indigenous lords in the process, who as a result entered into alliances with Spaniards somewhat distinct from those in the central and southern Andes.
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Ramírez, Susan E. The World Upside Down: Cross-cultural Contact and Conflict in 16th-Century Peru. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
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Monographic study of northern coastal societies in the first half-century of Spanish rule, arguing for profound transformations and the erosion of pre-conquest legitimacy enjoyed by kurakas.
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Saignes, Thierry. Caciques, Tribute and Migration in the Southern Andes: Indian Society and the 17th Century Order (Audiencia of Charcas). Translated by Paul Garner. London: University of London, 1985.
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Focusing on Upper Peru, analysis of liminal position of indigenous elites and the multiple meanings of their performances.
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Spalding, Karen. “Kurakas and Commerce: A Chapter in the Evolution of Andean Society.” Hispanic American Historical Review 54.4 (November 1973): 581–599.
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Study of how the introduction of the market and Spanish colonial demands affected the relationship of kurakas to their communities, emphasizing transformation of the political economy and erosion of legitimacy of indigenous elites within their communities. Foundational, useful article in the study of colonial Indian nobility. The subject is further addressed in the author’s “Social Climbers: Changing Patterns of Mobility Among the Indians of Colonial Peru.” Hispanic American Historical Review 50.4 (November 1970): 645–664.
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Stern, Steve J. Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
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Influential account of the effects of Spanish conquest on the indigenous societies of the Ayacucho region, emphasizing changes in the imperial economy and the replacement of the Inca tributary system with a colonial one dominated by mercantile capitalism. Emphasizes kurakas’ changing relations to both the crown and their communities.
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Regional Studies

While Indian nobility and cacical rule in indigenous communities were ubiquitous throughout the viceroyalty of Peru, the organization of indigenous elites and the politics of indigenous privilege, both within Indian communities and in relations to the crown, varied dramatically by region. The Incas of Cusco and the powerful Aymara cacical dynasties of the Titicaca Basin and the Bolivian Altiplano have received more systematic study and treatment as groups; elites of the central Andes, Ecuador, and the Pacific coast have received less attention.

Cusco and the Incas

Because of their symbolic importance to the Spanish, because of generous concessions of nobility and other privileges by the Spanish monarchs in the 16th century, and because of their exceptional organization and regional control, the Incas of Cusco formed a unique Indian nobility in the colonial Andes. Temple Dunbar 2009 is the foundational genealogical work on the descendants of the Inca emperors, while Rowe 2003 collects essays on Inca genealogy, politics, and art history by the pioneering scholar of the colonial Incas, generally with emphasis on an anticolonial identity. More recent studies have instead emphasized the deep ties of the colonial Incas to the viceregal order, and the complexity of Inca politics. Cahill and Tovías 2003, a collection of essays, suggests the breadth and diversity of interest in the colonial Incas. MacCormack 2001 emphasizes the multiple audiences for and meanings of Inca performance and authority in the 16th century. Amado Gonzales 2013 analyzes the evolving organization of the Inca nobility through their corporate manifestation, the Inca Cabildo; and Dean 1999 examines the politics and performance of Inca identity in Cusco’s civic processions. Cahill 2000 also examines public ritual, and complex hierarchies within the Indian nobility at the end of the Habsburg period; Garrett 2005 focuses on the organization of the Incas in the 18th century and their corporate decline after the Tupa Amaru rebellion, but also provides a historical rooting in the Inca empire and early colonial period. Because Cusco was deeply involved in the Great Rebellions of the 1780s, the literature cited under Great Rebellion and Its Aftermath also treats the Incas in considerable detail.

Amado Gonzales, Donato. El alférez real Inca y el cabildo de los veinticuatro electores del Cuzco, siglos xvi-xix. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2013.
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Study of Cusco’s Inca cabildo, the principal institutional presence of the colonial Incas, and of their highest honorific office. Careful discussion of changes in the corporate organization of the putative descendants of the Inca “kings” over the colonial period.
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Cahill, David. “The Inca and Inca Symbolism in Popular Festive Culture: The Religious Processions of 17th-century Cuzco.” In Habsburg Peru: Images, Imagination, and Memory. Edited by Peter T. Bradley, David Cahill, 87–150. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000.
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Examines the aggressive performance of Inca ancestry and colonial legal privilege, and the use of Inca ritual iconography and calendrics in public celebrations among the complex and variegated indigenous nobility of late 17th-century Cuzco, with close attention to competition for status and authority.
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Cahill, David, and Blanca Tovías, eds. Élites indígenas en los Andes: Nobles, caciques, y cabildantes bajo el yugo colonial. Quito, Ecuador: Abya-Yalo, 2003.
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An anthology of articles on indigenous elites throughout the colonial Andes, fully half focused on the Incas of Cusco, with topics ranging from alliances with Spaniards in the 16th century to participation in the colonial market and the deeply colonial identity of the 18th-century Inca, as loyal to the Spanish monarchs as to their Inca forebears.
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Dean, Carolyn. Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ: Corpus Christi in Colonial Cuzco, Peru. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
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Explores mid-colonial Inca identity through their participation in the city’s Corpus Christi festival, with iconographic readings of a series of paintings of this festival; contextualizes the processions and the Incas in both early modern Catholic public ritual, and Cusco’s complex ethnic history. The Spanish edition with vastly improved illustrations is Los cuerpos de Incas y el cuerpo de Cristo: El Corpus Christi en el Cusco colonial (Lima, Peru: Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, 2002).
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Garrett, David. Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of Cusco, 1750–1825. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511529085Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Longitudinal study of the Inca nobility of Bourbon Cusco, with comparisons to the cacical elite of the Titicaca basin. Locates both groups in the broader span of colonial history, examines collective identity, their role in the political economy, and their decline as a privileged caste in the last decades of Spanish rule.
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MacCormack, Sabine. “History, Historical Record and Ceremonial Action: Incas and Spaniards in Cusco.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43.3 (April 2001): 329–364.
DOI: 10.1017/S0010417501003516Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of ritual and civic life in Cusco from the conquest to the early 17th century.
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Rowe, John H. Los Incas del Cusco. Siglos XVI, XVII, XVIII. Cuzco, Peru: Instituto Nacional de Cultural Región Cuzco, 2003.
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Spanish translation that collects many of Rowe’s essays on the colonial Incas, which, unlike more recent scholarship, emphasize indigenous resistance to Spanish rule and posit an Inca Renaissance in the 18th century.
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Temple Dunbar, Ella. La descendencia de Huayna Cápac. Lima, Peru: Fondo Editorial Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2009.
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Genealogical study of the descendants of the last pre-conquest Inca emperor. Foundational work in establishing the presence of a colonial Indian nobility. Publication of Temple Dunbar’s dissertation of 1945 (parts of which appeared in print in the 1940s and 1950s).
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Southern Peru and Bolivia

The large, predominately Aymara-speaking societies of the Lake Titicaca and Bolivian Altiplano region were crucial to the colonial political economy through the mita, the mining labor drafts on which silver production at Potosí depended. For this reason, they were relatively sheltered from private Spanish settlement, and maintained complex political hierarchies. Platt, et al. 2006 analyzes the Qaraqara under both Inca and Habsburg rule, with extensive and careful attention to the role of indigenous lords. Focusing on the contemporary K’ulta, Abercrombie 1998 provides a deep history that explores the importance of kurakas in colonial society, and in memory. Rivera 1978, Choque Canqui 1993, and Escobari de Querejazu 2001 study particular caciques and noble families among the mixed Inca-Aymara ruling elite of the Titicaca basin, emphasizing economic position and genealogy. Glave 1989 examines indigenous participation in the viceregal economy with careful attention to cacical elites; while del Rio 2009 traces the fate of Inca priestly and royal lineages in the preeminent Inca colony on Lake Titicaca in the century after Spanish conquest. Because the Altiplano and the Titicaca basin were the terrain of the more radical phases of the Great Rebellions of 1780–1783, the literature cited under Great Rebellion and Its Aftermath pays close attention to indigenous politics and elites in the area during the 18th century generally.

Abercrombie, Thomas. Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History Among an Andean People. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
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Deep anthropological study of the K’ulta of the altiplano and their historical consciousness, including extensive discussion of kurakas and their role in colonial society.
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del Rio, Mercedes. “De Sacerdotes del Tawantinsuyu a Cofrades Coloniales: Nuevas evidencias sobre los Acustupa y Viracocha Inga de Copacabana.” Revista Andina 49 (2009): 9–69.
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Study of Inca lineages and their political and ritual importance in the colonial era, at the great Inca colony, and colonial reducción and pilgrimage site, of Copacabana.
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Choque Canqui, Roberto. Sociedad y economía colonial en el sur andino. La Paz, Bolivia: Hisbol, 1993.
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Collected essays on colonial Aymara societies, with considerable focus on the economic, political, and ceremonial sources of kuraka authority.
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Escobari de Querejazu, Laura. Caciques, Yanaconas y Extravagantes: La Sociedad Colonial en Charcas, x. xvi-xviii. Lima, Peru: IFEA, 2001.
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Includes chapters on cacical dynasties in the bishopric of La Paz, and on four lineages descended from Tupa Yupanqui scattered from Cusco to Lambayeque to Mexico.
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Glave, Luis Miguel. Trajinantes: Caminos indígenas en la sociedad colonial, siglos xvi/xvii. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1989.
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Essays on indigenous participation in the south Andean economy under the Habsburgs, particularly attentive to the effects of 17th-century demographic and economic decline on kurakas, and on their role as important market actors but also dominant forces in largely nonmarket local economies.
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Platt, Tristan, Thérèse Bouysse-Cassagne, and Olivia Harris. Qaraqara-Charka: Mallku, Inka y rey en la provincia de Charcas (siglos xv-xvii): Historia antropológica de una confederación aymara. Lima, Peru: IFEA; La Paz: Plurales Editores, 2006.
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Monumental study of the Aymara societies of Bolivia under Inca and Habsburg rule. By far the most substantial and analytically rigorous colonial Andean ethnohistory, with lengthy discussion of Aymara custom on noble succession and the organization of political power.
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Rivera, Silvia. “El Mallku y la sociedad colonial en el siglo XVII: el caso de Jesús de Machaca.” Avances (La Paz) 1 (1978): 7–27.
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Analysis of the will of a very rich mid-colonial kuraka from the Titicaca basin.
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Northern, Central and Coastal Peru

The central Peruvian and Ecuadorean highlands, and coastal Peru, were also home to powerful cacical lineages and local nobilities. Several ethnohistories in Cacique and Indigenous Elites in the Habsburg Political Economy address the central highlands. Espinoza Soriano 1969 was one of the earliest studies of a provincial society, its political structure and its elites, under both Inca and early Spanish rule. Varón Gabai 1980 offers a detailed, monographic study of the complex relations between indigenous lords and the new Spanish encomendero elite in the central sierra region of Huaráz in the 1st century of Spanish rule. Arellano Hoffman 1988 highlights the ongoing ethnic complexity of the Habsburg Andes through the will of a Cañari cacique in the central Andes. de la Puente Brunke Luna 2007 further complicates the relations of indigenous and colonial authorities by focusing on two centuries of caciques in the Mantaro Valley, their political and religious authority, and their battles and alliances with officials of the Catholic church. Rostworowski de Diez Canseco 1961 examines the Inca organization of important coastal señorios and their early colonial survival. Zevallos Quiñones 1989 and Zevallos Quiñones 1992 provide detailed genealogies and biographical and political accounts of the colonial cacicazgos erected in the pre-conquest realm of the Chimu. Diez Hurtado 1988 surveys the political organization of indigenous society the Piura region under the Habsburgs, while Férnandez Villegas 1992 examines the late colonial legal assault on a coastal cacicazgo located far from the rebellions of southern Peru.

Arellano Hoffman, Carmen. “Testamento de Pedro Milachami, un curaca cañari en la región de los wanka, Perú, 1662.” Revista Española de Antropología Americana 18 (1988): 95–127.
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Will of a Cañari cacique in a Wanka-dominated region of the central sierra, showing the ongoing ethnic complexity of the colonial highlands.
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de la Puente Brunke Luna, José Carlos. Los curacas hechiceros de Jauja: Batallas mágicas y legales en el Perú colonial. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2007.
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Detailed study of cacical dynasties and politics in the upper Mantaro valley from the 16th to the 18th centuries, focusing particularly on legal battles over allegations of witchcraft and idolatry.
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Diez Hurtado, Alejandro. Pueblos y cacicazgos de Piura, siglos XVI y XVII. Piura, Peru: Biblioteca Regional, 1988.
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Short study of the república de indios in Piura under the Habsburgs, focusing on cacical succession and rule.
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Espinoza Soriano, Waldemar. Lurinhuaila de Huacjra: Un ayllu y un curacazgo huanca. Huancayo, Peru: Publicaciones de la Casa de la Cultura, 1969.
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Pioneering study of the politics and succession of a central sierra señorio under the Incas and the 1st century of Spanish rule.
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Férnandez Villegas, Oswaldo. “La destructuración de los curacazgos andinos: Conflictos por la residencia del curaca de Colán, Costa Norte.” Allpanchis 23–4 (1992): 97–115.
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Analysis of a late 18th-century residencia of a cacique far from the Great Rebellion, but still subject to the strong royal hostility to the Indian elite.
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Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, María. Curacas y sucesiones: Costa norte. Lima, Peru: Imprenta Minerva, 1961.
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Study, with substantial documentary appendices, of Inca and early colonial political organization and cacical succession along the northern coast of Peru.
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Varón Gabai, Rafael. Curacas y encomenderos: Acomodamiento nativo en Huaraz, siglos XVI y XVII. Lima, Peru: P. L. Villanueva, 1980.
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Study of relations between kurakas and encomenderos in the central highlands under the Habsburgs.
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Zevallos Quiñones, Jorge. Los Cacicazgos de Lambayeque. Trujillo, Peru: Gráfica Cuatro, 1989.
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Genealogical study of major cacicazgos on the northern Peruvian coast and valleys, with documentary appendices.
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Zevallos Quiñones, Jorge. Los Cacicazgos de Trujillo. Trujillo, Peru: Gráfica Cuatro, 1992.
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Genealogical study of major cacicazgos on the northern Peruvian coast and valleys, with documentary appendices.
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Indian Noblewomen

The degree of political authority possessed and exercised by women in both Inca and colonial eras has excited considerable interest. Silverblatt 1987 argues for an early gender dualism in Andean political authority, diminished by the imperial conquest of the Incas and then erased as the Spanish imposed patriarchal models of political authority. Focusing on the societies of the central coast (incorporated into the Inca realms only two to three generations before the Spanish conquest), Rostworowski de Diez Canseco 1961 argues for female succession in some cacicazgos, in cases continuing into the colonial period. Rostworowski de Diez Canseco 1970 examines the substantial legacy of Beatriz Coya, Sayri Tupa’s daughter who was married into the high Spanish aristocracy. Nowack 2003 offers a less sanguine view of the fates of such women as they negotiated a radically changed society, often forming marriage alliances with Spaniards and pursuing their interests in Spanish courts; while Burns 1998 examines one aspect of these alliances: the mestiza daughters of conquistadores and the social anxiety they produced. Focusing on women’s succession rights to coastal cacicazgos throughout the colonial period, Graubart 2007 challenges Silverblatt’s and Rostworowski’s assessment of widespread, pre-conquest female authority, arguing instead that female lordship did not necessarily have strong pre-conquest precedent along the north coast, and that Spanish succession practices, with their emphasis on family possession across generations, actually created a space for female lordship. Focusing on Cusco and the Titicaca region, Garrett 2008 emphasizes frequent inheritance of cacicazgos by women, and an underappreciated degree of political authority, in 18th century pueblos; while Zuidema 1967 analyzes ongoing parallel descent structures among the 18th-century Inca nobility around Cusco.

Burns, Kathryn. “Gender and the Politics of Mestizaje: The Convent of Santa Clara in Cuzco, Peru.” Hispanic American Historica Review 78.1 (February 1998): 5–44.
DOI: 10.2307/2517377Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines politics and gender concerns around the founding of the convent of Santa Clara in Cusco as a religious community originally intended for daughters of conquistadores and indigenous women, particularly Inca royals.
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Garrett, David. “‘In Spite of Her Sex’: Cacicas and Female Political Authority in the Bourbon Andes.” The Americas 64.4 (April 2008): 547–581.
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Survey of female caciques in Cusco and Puno regions under the Bourbons, arguing that female succession to cacical office played an important role in indigenous politics, and that female possession of cacical power is under-represented in the archival record.
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Graubart, Karen. With Our Labor and Sweat: Indigenous Women and the Formation of Colonial Society in Peru, 1550–1700. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007.
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Chapter 5 (pp. 158–185) on cacical succession in northern coastal cacicazgos, argues that female inheritance and possession of such office owe more to Spanish understandings of familial property and inheritance than to pre-conquest traditions of female lordship.
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Nowack, Kerstin. “Aquellas señoras del linaje real de los Incas: Vida y supervivencia de las mujeres de la nobleza inca en el Perú en los primeros años de la Colonia.” In Élites indígenas en los Andes: Nobles, caciques, y cabildantes bajo el yugo colonial. Edited by David Cahill, Blanca Tovías, 17–46. Quito, Equador: Abya-Yalo, 2003.
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Detailed discussion of the fate of dozens of Inca women from royal lineages following the collapse of the Inca empire, with particular attention to marriages (often coercive and ultimately unrecognized) with Spaniards, and lawsuits.
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Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, María. Curacas y sucesiones: Costa norte. Lima, Peru: Imprenta Minerva, 1961.
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Study, with substantial documentary appendices, of cacical succession along the northern coast of Peru, indicating pre-conquest and post-conquest female inheritance and occupancy of the office in various societies.
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Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, María. “El repartimiento de doña Beatriz Coya, en el valle de Yucay.” Historia y Cultura: Organo del Museo Nacional de Historia (Lima) 4 (1970): 153–267.
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The encomienda of Beatriz Coya, daughter and heir of Sayri Tupac, which passed to the Marqueses of Alcañices on the marriage of her daughter.
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Silverblatt, Irene. Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
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Highly influential study of gender ideology and hierarchy in pre-Inca, Inca, and colonial Peru. Argues for the presence of pre-imperial systems of dual, gendered authority, undermined by the increasing assertion of male dominance with the expansion of Inca state authority, and suppressed by Spanish patriarchal ideals of political authority and patrilineal descent.
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Zuidema, R. Tom. “‘Descendencia paralela’ en una familia indígena noble del Cuzco (documentos del siglo XVI hasta el siglo XVIII).” Fénix 17 (1967): 39–62.
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Study with documents on parallel, gendered systems of matrilineal and patrilineal descent emphasizing the continuity of such Inca-era kinship organization through the entire colonial period.
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Religion and the Indian Nobility

Caciques and Indian nobles were understood by the church as crucial both to conversion and the ongoing campaign against unchristian or heterodox practice. The essays in Decoster 2002 give an idea of the varied relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Indian nobles. Certainly Indian elites were more steeped in orthodox Catholicism than the broader population. Alaperinne-Bouyer 2007 highlights the importance placed on the education of caciques’ children, and the central role the Jesuits had in this process; Cahill 2000 further elaborates the particularly strong ties between Jesuits and the Incas. Mills 1997 argues that a simple dichotomy between orthodoxy and either open resistance or a conscious syncretism misrepresents the complexity of colonial Andean religion. Ramos 2010 insists that a broad Catholic practice and belief were unavoidable within generations of the conquest, but examines urban elite death and burial practice to assess different indigenous and Spanish understandings. Focusing more on rural society, Gose 2008 also eschews a resistance model and argues for a shift in indigenous religion from ancestor to mountain worship, provoked in part by the declining fortune of indigenous elites. Salomon 1987 provides an excellent case study of ancestor worship in the 18th century, with a revealing analysis of local politics. Charles 2010 also examines the local politics of parish practice, focusing on the myriad indigenous church officials in all communities, often drawn from, or becoming, local elites. Dueñas 2010 (cited under Critical Literature) looks at the viceregal politics of Indian nobles and mestizos trying to enter the Catholic Church beyond the level of parish officials, while Muro Orejón 1975 provides the text and analysis of a crucial 1697 royal decree in favor of such indigenous noble claimants.

Alaperinne-Bouyer, Monique. La educación de las elites indígenas en el Perú colonial. Lima, Peru: IFEA/Riva-Agüero/IEP, 2007.
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Study of the education of the colonial Indian nobility, and particularly the Jesuit colleges established for them in Lima and Cusco.
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Cahill, David. “Sponsoring Popular Culture: The Jesuits, the Incas, and the Making of the Pax Colonial” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 6.2 (December 2000): 65–88.
DOI: 10.1080/13260219.2000.10429594Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of the close ties––including marriage between Inca royals and the nephew of St. Ignatius, and the Jesuit control of colleges for Indian nobles––between the Incas and Company of Jesus.
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Charles, John. Allies at Odds: The Andean Church and Its Indigenous Agents, 1583–1671. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2010.
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Study of indigenous church officials that focuses on indigenous literacy and legal agency in the Habsburg Andes, highlighting a stratum of local Indian elites below the cacique.
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Decoster, Jean Jacques, ed. Incas e indios cristianos: Élites indígenas e identidad cristianas en los Andes coloniales. Lima, Peru: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos Bartolomé de las Casas, Asociación Kuraka, IFEA, 2002.
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Wide-ranging collection of essays focusing on the relations between the Church and native Andean elites, on topics from evangelization, property and the Church economy, Indian nobles in cloistered communities, to religious practice and civic life.
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Gose, Peter. Invaders as Ancestors: On the Intercultural Making and Unmaking of Spanish Colonialism in the Andes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
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Examines the reworking of indigenous Andean religion between the 16th and 18th centuries, from ancestor to mountain worship as the burdens of colonial rule made the former unsustainable, with serious challenges for the legitimacy of kurakas.
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Mills, Kenneth. Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640–1750. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
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Study of mid-colonial Andean religion, emphasizing heterodox but devout Catholicism of Quechua-speaking practitioners, and ambivalence or hostility of Catholic officials. Little attention to Indian political and legal elites, but careful discussion of indigenous religious “specialists.”
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Muro Orejón, Antonio. “La igualdad entre indios y españoles: La real cédula de 1697.” In Estudios sobre la política indigenista española en América: Simposio conmemorativo del V centenario del padre Las Casas, Terceras jornadas americanistas de la universidad de Valladolid, 365–386. Valladolid, Spain: Universidad de Valladolid, 1975.
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Discussion of an important royal decree at the end of the Habsburg era, asserting the right of Indian nobles to enter the priesthood.
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Ramos, Gabriela. Death and Conversion in the Andes: Lima and Cuzco, 1532–1670. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2010.
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Arguing that formal conversion to Catholicism by Andean elites was inevitable, given the force the colonial state brought to bear on the matter, Ramos examines indigenous strategies of elite burial and kinship relations to examine elite Andean adaptation to Christian practice and belief.
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Salomon, Frank. “Ancestor Cults and Resistance to the State in Arequipa, ca. 1748–1754.” In Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th centuries. Edited by Steve J. Stern, 148–165. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.
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Illuminating case study of the local politics of a suit involving ancestor worship in the Bourbon era.
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Literary Works by Indian Nobles

While conquistadores and churchmen were fascinated by the Inca empire and Inca religion, the colonial Indian nobility received scant attention from colonial writers. Indeed, even in the tiny canon of literary and historical works by indigenous Andean nobles, the focus is primarily the pre-conquest past. Moreover, with the exception of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s Royal Commentaries, these remained unpublished until the 20th century. The earliest work, Tito Cusi Yupanqui 2006, is an account of the Spanish conquest from an Inca perspective. The most substantial and important native Andean chronicles (Garcilaso de la Vega 1987, Guaman Poma de Ayala 1980, Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamygua 1993) were written in first decades of 17th century, and have at their heart an attempt to reconcile an Andean past with Christian time. Inca Garcilaso’s account of the Inca empire, which was widely accepted from the 17th century until the mid-20th century as an accurate history, portrays the Incas as civilizers of barbaric Indians. Guaman Poma and Santa Cruz Pachacuti, members of provincial noble lineages, are more ambivalent about Inca imperial rule, while Guaman Poma provides a scathing critique of colonial society, and an apologia for “legitimate” Indian lords whom he sees as in decline. Sahuaraura Inca 2003, an odd collection of watercolors and documents prepared by a prominent Cusco Inca in the 1840s, serves as an intriguing, if insubstantial, coda with its emphasis on Inca emperors and colonial genealogy. In contrast, the Huarochirí Manuscript (Salomon and Urioste 1991), also written in the 17th century and the most important indigenously authored colonial Quechua text, displays minimal interest in either the Incas or the cacical elite.

Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. Royal Commentaries of the Incas, and General History of Peru. Translated by Harold V. Livermore. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.
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Enormously influential account of the Incas up to the conquest. First published in Spanish in 1609, and translated and republished repeatedly, The Royal Commentaries served as the standard history of the Incas until the 20th century. Portraying the Incas as a proto-Christian, civilizing force in the Andes, it is deeply unreliable as history but remains a masterpiece of Renaissance historiography.
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Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno. 3 vols. Edited by Juan V. Murra and Rolena Adorno. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980.
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Extraordinary letter to the king of Spain written by a central Peruvian noble in the early 17th century, undiscovered until 1908. Contains a universal history, Andean history, and scathing critique of colonial society and its personnae. Illustrated with four hundred line drawings. Partial English translation is available: Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, The First New Chronicle and Good Government (Abridged), translated by David L. Frye (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2006). Useful at all levels.
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Sahuaraura Inca, Justo Apu. Recuerdos de la monarquía peruana, o bosquejo de la historia de los Incas. Lima, Peru: Fundación Telefónica, 2003.
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Various documents relating to the Sahuarahura and Tito Atauchi lineages, along with excerpts from Inca Garcilaso and watercolors of the Incas, written by a descendant of Huayna Capac in the mid-19th century. Beautiful edition with critical apparatus. Originally published in Paris (with very different engravings of the Incas) in 1850.
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Salomon, Frank, and George Urioste, trans. and ed. The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
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Unique Quechua account of the legends and huacas of Huarochirí, with interesting references to 16th-century caciques.
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Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamygua, Juan de. Relación de antigüedades deste Reyno del Perú. Estudio Etnohistórico y Lingüístico by Pierre Duviols and César Itier. Cusco, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1993.
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Early 17th-century account of Andean history by a non-Inca noble from southern Peru; important non-Cusco source with Quechua hymns and poems; edition with excellent critical apparatus.
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Tito Cusi Yupanqui, Diego de Castro. How the Spanish Arrived in Peru. Translated by Catherine J. Julien. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2006.
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Bilingual edition of 1570 account (unpublished until 1916) by the penultimate Vilcabamba Inca of Spanish-Inca relations in the first generation of conquest, with good introductory essay.
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Critical Literature

Zamora 1988 examines the rhetorical strategies by which Inca Garcilaso de la Vega establishes his privileged authority, and the political and historical ends toward which he deploys it. Adorno 1982, Adorno 2000, Ossio 2008, and Rodríguez-Chang 2008 emphasize Andean elements in these works, highlighting strategies by which alternative visions were articulated in Spanish texts. MacCormack 1991 offers readings that locate the authors and texts in the deeply Christianized milieu of the literate Andes, while Brading 1991 emphasizes the authors’ negotiation of their Andean identity and position as Spanish vassals. The vast quantity of Indian noble petitions in the colonial archives has generally been treated as historical evidence rather than in terms of intellectual production, although Dueñas 2010 examines the political ideals expressed therein.

Adorno, Rolena. Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru. 2d ed., with a New Introduction. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.
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Structural, literary, and iconographic analysis of Guaman Poma’s chronicle, highlighting both the influence of 16th-century Spanish literature in the prose, and the pervasiveness of Andean order in the parallel pictorial text.
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Adorno, Rolena, ed. From Oral to Written Expression: Native Andean Chronicles of the Early Colonial Period. Syracuse, NY: Maxwell School, 1982.
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Collection of five essays by prominent anthropologists and literary scholars on the native chronicles, examining the strategies and goals of the authors in relating events of the conquest and Andean society in Spanish while deploying indigenous rhetorical strategies and epistemologies. An excellent critical introduction to these sources.
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Brading, David A. The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492–1867. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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Monumental study of colonial political thought, focusing on creoles but with useful chapters on Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Guaman Poma.
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Dueñas, Alcira. Indians and Mestizos in the “Lettered City”: Reshaping Justice, Social Hierarchy, and Political Culture in Colonial Peru. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2010.
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Study of legal petitions and other writings by Indian nobles, highlights their quantity and their attempts to bolster the political and social standing of the nobility.
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MacCormack, Sabine. Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
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Broad, erudite study of 16th- and 17th-century studies of Andean religion, with chapters on the Andean chroniclers that deeply root them in their intellectual milieu.
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Ossio, A. Juan. En busca del orden perdido: La idea de la historia en Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2008.
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Study emphasizing Guaman Poma’s elite and regional subject position, and his mediation of different cultural canons.
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Rodríguez-Chang, Raquel. La palabra y la pluma en Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2008.
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Emphasizes the political critique and cultural mestizaje at the heart of Guaman Poma’s work.
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Rodríguez-Chang, Raquel, ed. Entre la espada y la pluma: Inca Garcilaso de la Vega y sus Comentarios Reales. Papers from a conference held October 2009, City University of New York. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2010.
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Collection of critical essays, principally from a conference at the City University of New York (CUNY).
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Zamora, Margarita. Language, Authority and Indigenous History in the Comentarios Reales de los Incas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511519390Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of the Royal Commentaries analyzing Inca Garcilaso’s use of language and genealogy to establish his authority, and the goals of his history.
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Indian Nobles in Material and Civic Culture

As the dominant stratum of their communities, caciques and Indian nobles played a central role in the civic life of their communities; as such, they were important patrons and subjects both of status objects and communal rituals. Dean 1999 remains the most important study of the role of Incas in Cusco’s civic life, and of the Indian nobility in colonial processions generally; Perissat 2000 suggests the importance of Inca symbolism in Lima’s civic life as well. Majluf 2005 contains numerous essays and magnificent illustrations demonstrating the importance of Incas as subjects of religious and political art throughout the viceregal period, and is essential for their study; Gisbert and de la Mesa 1982 and Timberlake 1999 focus on particular, widely diffused images allying the Incas and Spanish, Catholic authority. Cummins 2002 and Stanfield-Mazzi 2011 treat Indian nobles as much as patrons as subjects, and examine colonial Indian noble aesthetics and social identity through the objects they commissioned; while Gisbert and de la Mesa 1982 makes clear the importance of Indian nobles in colonial artistic production. Burga 1988 addresses the treatment of Indian nobles in Quechua dramas, which occupied an important role in colonial Peruvian civic and ritual life. Mannheim 1991 offers a historico-linguistic study of colonial Quechua texts with attention to the politics of indigenous elites as patrons and audiences.

Burga, Manuel. Nacimiento de una utopía: Muerte y resurrección de los incas. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1988.
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Reflections on the role of the Incas in colonial culture and modern folklore; includes essays on the three great indigenous chroniclers, as well as on the treatment of Indian nobles in colonial literature, particularly Quechua drama.
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Cummins, Thomas. Toasts with the Incas: Andean Abstractions and Colonial Images on Quero Vessels. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
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Analytical study of changing design and imagery on ceremonial drinking vessels, and through this of changing aesthetics and mentality of indigenous elites.
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Dean, Carolyn. Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ: Corpus Christi in Colonial Cuzco, Peru. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
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Examines the role played by Incas and other Indian nobles in Cusco’s major civic festival, and of their representation in and patronage of paintings. The most important examination of the Indian nobility’s role in civic and ritual life in colonial, urban society.
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Gisbert, Teresa, and José de la Mesa. Historia de la pintura Cusqueña. 2d ed. Lima, Peru: Fundación Banco Wiese, 1982.
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Synthetic, sweeping overview and analysis of one of the principal schools of colonial Andean painting, with attention to indigenous (often noble) artists.
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Majluf, Natalia, ed. Los incas, reyes del Perú. Lima, Peru: Banco del Crédito, 2005.
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Magnificently illustrated collection of scholarly essays on the Incas in colonial art––painting, print, and textiles––from the 16th through the 19th centuries; primarily Incas as object, but also discussion of colonial Inca apparel and of Indian noble patrons.
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Mannheim, Bruce. The Language of the Inka since the European Invasion. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
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Historical and linguistic study of Quechua, emphasizing the colonial politics of language choice and change and the role of indigenous elites therein.
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Perissat, Karine. “Los Incas representados (Lima siglo xviii): ¿Superviviencia o renacimiento?” Revista de Indias 60.220 (November 2000): 623–649.
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Examines costume of indigenous characterizations of Inca royals in 18th-century Lima processions, arguing for a resurgence in the regard for the Inca dynasty.
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Stanfield-Mazzi, Maya. “Cult, Countenance, and Community: Donor Portraits from the Colonial Andes.” Religion and the Arts 15 (2011): 429–459.
DOI: 10.1163/156852911X580784Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of donor portraits in colonial Andean religious paintings, including analysis of dress and assertions of status through Andean iconography in the portraits of Inca noble donors.
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Timberlake, Marie. “The Painted Colonial Image: Andean and Jesuit Fabrication of History in Matrimonio de García de Loyola con Ñusta Beatriz.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 29.3 (1999): 563–598.
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Uses and production of history in paintings of the marriage of the Ñusta Beatriz (Sayri Tupac’s daughter) to the nephew of St. Ignatius Loyola.
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The Great Rebellion and Its Aftermath

Historians broadly have argued for a dramatic change in the political consciousness and strategy of indigenous actors in the 18th century under Bourbon rule. While Bourbon rule proved more open to Indian nobles entering the Catholic Church and maintaining a corporate presence in colonial society, violent challenge to the colonial order became increasingly common from the mid-1700s until the explosive outburst of the Great Rebellion from 1780 to 1783 led to a profound shift in the organization of authority within the república de indios. In the aftermath of the rebellion, both royal and popular opposition greatly weakened the Indian nobility, both collectively and at the familial level through the loss of economic and political privilege.

Politics in the Mid-18th Century

While rebellions and anticolonial sentiment are the focus of much of the historiography, focusing on Lima Glave 2011 calls attention to the success with which Indian nobles collectively asserted their rights to certain offices and privileges within the viceregal order––most importantly, that of defensor de naturales. However, the fitful entry of urban Indian nobles into church and state bureaucracies took place alongside a series of indigenous rebellions that rocked Spanish rule in the Andes from the mid-18th century. O’Phelan Godoy 1985 identifies nearly two hundred revolts and riots in the century preceding the conflagration of the Tupa Amaru and Catarista rebellions of 1780–1783, and argues that specific economic and political grievances provoked by the Bourbon Reforms were at the heart; while Pease Garía-Irigoyen 2012, Flores Galindo 2010, and Szeminski 1983 emphasize the importance of Andean thought systems, and particularly popular belief in the return of the Inca and the coming of a pachacuti, or inversion of the order, in motivating anticolonial rebels. Penry 1996 instead locates anticolonial politics in the Bolivian highlands within an indigenous public sphere dominated by elected officials and communal institutions, and often in conflict with the hereditary, cacical aristocracy, Spalding 1984 and Stern 1987 provide particular attention to the Huarochirí rebellion of 1750 (and the role of indigenous elites therein) and the ongoing anti-Spanish, neo-Inca movement led by Juan Santos Atahuallpa at mid-century.

Flores Galindo, Alberto. In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes. Edited and translated by Carlos Aguirre, Charles F. Walker, and Willie Hiatt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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A collection of essays, first published in Spanish in 1986, on the role of the Inca in Peruvian political and utopian thought from the colonial period to the present. With strong essays on the cultural politics of the Tupa Amaru rebellion and the 1805 Cusco conspiracy.
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Glave, Luis Miguel. “Memoria y Memoriales: La formación de una liga indígena en Lima (1722–1732).” Diálogo Andino 37 (2011): 5–23.
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Account of successful efforts by Indian nobles in Lima to demand control of certain bureaucratic offices, particularly the Protector de Naturales.
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O’Phelan Godoy, Scarlett. Rebellions and Revolts in 18th-century Peru and Upper Peru. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1985.
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Study of more than one hundred revolts preceding the Great Rebellion, arguing that economic and legal grievances caused by changing royal policies drove unrest.
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Pease Garía-Irigoyen, Franklin. Los Incas en la colonial: Estudios sobre los siglox xvi, xvii, y xviii en los Andes. Lima, Peru: Ministerio de Cultura, 2012.
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Includes 1984 essay on Inca messianism in colonial Andean rebellions preceding Tupac Amaru, including that of Juan Santos Atahuallpa.
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Penry, S. Elizabeth. “Transformations in Indigenous Authority and Identity in Resettlement Towns of Colonial Charcas.” PhD diss., University of Miami, 1996.
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Argues for a popular public sphere in Upper Peruvian pueblos of the 18th century, emphasizing the importance of elected officials and communal political and religious institutions against the authority of a hereditary Indian aristocracy.
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Spalding, Karen. Huarochirí: An Andean Society Under Inca and Spanish Rule. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.
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Contains a lengthy discussion of the Huarochirí rebellion of 1750, and the role of indigenous elites therein.
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Stern, Steve J. “The Age of Andean Insurrection, 1742–1782: A Reappraisal.” In Resistance, Rebellion and Consciousness and the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th Centuries. Edited by Steve J. Stern, 34–93. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.
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Argues for an expanded dating of the era of Andean rebellions, and for the significance of the Juan Santos Atahuallpa rebellion in the central highlands.
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Szeminski, Jan. La Utopia Tupamarista. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica, 1983.
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Reading of the actions and declarations of anticolonial rebels through an Andean lens, emphasizing the importance of the Pachacuti as a reordering and inversion of the world.
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The Great Rebellion

Until 1780 Bourbon rule had the contradictory effect of expanding access of Indian nobles to corporate and bureaucratic authority in colonial society, while provoking widespread indigenous and rural opposition to increasing taxation and material demands. The latter culminated in the Great Rebellion of 1780–1783, the largest challenge to Spanish rule in the Americas between the conquest and the wars of independence, and provoked a sweeping royal assault on Indian noble privilege that would redefine the organization of colonial society in the decades before independence. Serulnikov 2013 provides an excellent account of the different uprisings that collectively constituted the Great Rebellion; Walker 2014 provides a strong narrative of the Cusco (Tupa Amaru) rebellion; and Stavig and Schmidt 2008 offers a useful anthology of primary sources in English translation. The earliest scholarship on the interrelated Tupa Amaru and Catari rebellions has long focused on the roles of indigenous elites, because of neo-Inca rhetoric and the leading roles of Indian caciques both in the Peruvian (Tupa Amaru) rebellion, and the earlier stages of the Alto Peruvian (Catarista) rebellion. Rowe 1959 and Valcárcel 1977 are emblematic of an earlier literature that emphasizes the Inca ancestry of Tupa Amaru and locates the rebellion within a broad neo-Inca movement in which Inca nobles were understood to have played a central role. Cahill 2003 and Garrett 2004 emphasize instead the strong royalism of the Indian nobility of Cusco and the Titicaca basin, who both repudiated Tupa Amaru’s Inca claims (elaborated in Loayza 1946) and remained loyal to the crown. Serulnikov 2003 locates the rebellions as a critical juncture in a multi-decade breakdown of elite legitimacy and a dramatic increase in class and political tensions provoked by the Bourbon Reforms; the latter three emphasize the radical popular politics of Upper Peru.

Cahill, David. “Nobleza, identidad y rebelión: Los Incas nobles del Cuzco frente a Túpac Amaru.” Histórica 27.1 (2003): 9–49.
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Close study of Inca politics in major lawsuits involving Tupa Amaru in the decades leading up to the rebellion.
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Garrett, David. “‘His Majesty’s Most Loyal Vassals’: The Indian Nobility and Túpac Amaru.” Hispanic American Historical Review 84.4 (November 2004): 575–618.
DOI: 10.1215/00182168-84-4-575Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examination of the Inca nobility and the cacical elite of the Titicaca basin and the reasons for their staunch opposition to Tupa Amaru.
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Loayza, Francisco A., ed. Genealogía de Tupac Amaru por Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru (documentos inéditos del año 1777). Lima, Peru: Miranda, 1946.
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Edition of documents presented by Tupa Amaru to support his claims to the Marquesado de Oropesa in the 1770s.
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Rowe, John H. Quechua Nationalism in the Eighteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959.
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Argues for an anticolonial Inca revival in the 18th century, placing Tupa Amaru in that context.
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Serulnikov, Sergio. Subverting Colonial Authority: Challenges to Spanish Rule in 18th-Century Southern Andes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822385264Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of origins and trajectory of the Tomas Katarí rebellion around Potosí in 1780–1781, emphasizing communal efforts to use the audiencia court of Chuquisaca against increasingly corrupt alliances of kurakas and corregidores; carefully attentive to both interethnic tensions among Indian groups, and increasing class conflict within communities.
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Serulnikov, Sergio. Revolution in the Andes: The Age of Túpac Amaru. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822378303Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Short, strong synthesis of the scholarship on the Great Rebellion, emphasizing both the regional divisions and origins of the different stages, and widespread peasant rejection of the colonial order that drove them. Emphasizes peasant politics, but is attentive both to the roles of Indian elites in the leadership of rebel and royalist forces, and the Indian elite as an object of popular fury.
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Stavig, Ward, and Ella Schmidt, eds. and trans. The Tupac Amaru and Catarista Rebellions: An Anthology of Sources. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2008.
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Substantial, useful collection of documents (translated into English) that provide general information on the colonial political economy and a wide collection of documents from all stages and areas of the rebellion. Includes an introduction by Charles F. Walker.
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Valcárcel, Carlos Daniel. Túpac Amaru: Precursor de la independencia. Lima, Peru: Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, 1977.
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Nationalist reading of the Tupa Amaru rebellion, emphasizing Tupa Amaru’s Inca claims.
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Walker, Charles F. The Tupac Amaru Rebellion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.
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Narrative account of the Tupa Amaru rebellion in Cusco and the Titicaca region, tracing its radicalization and increasing violence, and its legacy in Andean society.
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The Aftermath

Following the collapse of organized, regional rebellions by 1783, and the execution of their leaders, the royal government began a sweeping legal and bureaucratic assault on Indian cacicazgos and noble privilege. Simultaneously, internal opposition to noble privilege within the Indian pueblo eroded local support for the Indian elite and cacical authority, and provoked a profound transformation in the political structure of Indian communities. O’Phelan Godoy 1997 and Thomson 2002 analyze the rise of the alcalde de indios and indigenous cabildos as the main political force in the pueblo in between the Great Rebellion and the wars of independence; Hidalgo Lehuedé 1986 explores the specific impact on the societies of the southern coast and the Atacama. Sala i Vila 1996 similarly asserts a collapse in cacical legitimacy, but emphasizes the increase in economic demands of the crown as the driving force in ongoing rural unrest in the decades before independence. While all concede a dramatic decline in the power and authority of indigenous elites, Cahill and O’Phelan Godoy 1992, Cornejo Bouroncle 1956, and Walker 1999 make clear the importance of indigenous participation, and of elite leadership, in the wars of independence.

Cahill, David, and Scarlett O’Phelan Godoy. “Forging Their Own History: Indian Insurgency in the Southern Peruvian Sierra, 1815.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 11.2 (May 1992): 125–167.
DOI: 10.2307/3338120Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Emphasizes the importance of indigenous participation, leadership, and political goals in the failed 1815 southern Peruvian rebellion against Spanish rule.
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Cornejo Bouroncle, Jorge. Pumacahua: La revolución del Cuzco de 1814. Estudio documentado. Cusco, Peru: H. G. Royas, 1956.
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Large collection of documents regarding Mateo Pumacahua, cacique of Chinchero, and the 1814–1815 revolt in Cusco.
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Hidalgo Lehuedé, Jorge. “Indian Society in Arica, Tarapaca and Atacama, 1750–1793, and Its Response to the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru.” PhD diss., University of London, 1986.
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Study of class structure and cacical-communal relations in Atacama desert and adjacent Pacific coast before, during, and after the rebellions in neighboring Upper Peru.
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O’Phelan Godoy, Scarlett. Kurakas sin sucesiones: Del cacique al alcade de indios, Perú y Bolivia, 1750–1835. Cusco, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, 1997.
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Examines the reformulation of the communal politics of indigenous communities, highlighting the transformation from hereditary to elective authority and the growth in importance of the Indian alcalde as the cacicazgo declined under economic and political assault from the Bourbon reforms.
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Sala i Vila, Nuria. Y se armó el tole tole: Tributo indígena y movimientos sociales en el virreinato del Perú, 1784–1814. Huamanga, Peru: Instituto de estudios regionales José María Arguedas, 1996.
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Drawing on case studies from across the Andean highlands, examines local, anticolonial politics in the aftermath of the rebellion. Attentive to anti-cacical and anti-elite aspects, but emphasizes the enormous rise in tribute burdens in the 1780s as a defining motive.
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Thomson, Sinclair. We Alone Will Rule: Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
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Focusing on Aymara societies of La Paz, argues for a popular, indigenous political vision before and after the Great Rebellion. Reads the aftermath of the rebellion not simply as the crisis of aristocratic Indian authority, but as the moment when power in the Indian republic shifts to the base of the community.
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Walker, Charles F. Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Creation of Republican Peru, 1780–1840. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822382164Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of the breakdown of the colonial order and the emergence of the republic of Peru, from the perspective of Cusco and its indigenous population. More concerned with popular politics than the surviving remnants of the Indian nobility, but attentive to class conflict within the república de indios and the role of individual Indian nobles in late colonial and early republican politics.
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