Andean Worlds: Indigenous History, Culture, and Consciousness under Spanish Rule, 1532-1825, and: Indian Society in the Valley of Lima, Peru, 1532-1824 (review)

In very distinct ways, these two books contribute to a veritable explosion of work on indigenous Andean (mostly Quechua) life under Spanish rule. Both span the entire colonial period. Andrien's is a mature, highly readable overview of recent findings by scholars trained in several disciplines: anthropology, history, art history, and literature. The focus is primarily highland Peru, but some discussions extend to the Pacific Coast, Bolivia, and other margins of the old Inca Empire. New Granada is mostly left out. Charney's is a less-polished historical monograph treating the indigenous population of Lima and its near hinterland. It derives from a 1984 Ph.D. dissertation, but certain discussions, and also the bibliography, have been updated.

Andean Worlds, part of the University of New Mexico Press's popular Diálogos series, is intended for classroom use, and it is, in fact, ideally suited for undergraduate and other nonspecialist readers. Students of this reviewer called it the best of five texts assigned in a recent History of the Andes survey. Andrien's writing is straightforward and clear, and he manages to make accessible a huge range of subjects, from economic history (his specialty) to textile iconography. Chapters cover the formation and mechanics of the Inca Empire; the development of colonial administration; "the colonial socioeconomic order" (treating the encomienda, mita, and other institutions); indigenous art and literature; orthodox and unorthodox religion; and the great eighteenth-century rebellions. There are useful maps, a glossary, and a bibliography, and in general, this is a very handsome and nicely illustrated introductory text.

Overall, Andrien has done a remarkable job of synthesizing and summarizing a flood of recent material. That said, some of the author's thematic choices strike this reviewer as problematical. The first is the Peru-centric nature of the work, despite its broader-sounding title. Andrien, who has written extensively on Quito, does not list its audiencia, or high court, among those founded in the mid–sixteenth century (48), for example (Quito is not even in the index, in fact). Omitting a large geographical area for the sake of clarity or narrative flow is not itself a problem, but failure to alert the unschooled reader of this choice of what constitutes lo andino inadvertently reinforces a chauvinism long evident in Andean studies.

There are other choices worthy of mention. As has become somewhat fashionable, Andrien reduces the Spanish conquest to a slightly bumpy segue, and in general, continuities are emphasized over ruptures. It is more than reasonable to yank the Pizarros and Almagros from the limelight in a book such as this, but it seems odd that Spanish figures like Viceroy Francisco de Toledo should emerge in their stead. Certainly Toledo's late-sixteenth-century administrative reforms deeply impacted indigenous life in Peru, but emphasizing his actions, and those of the later Bourbons, more than indigenous ones reinforces the old "colonizer acts/colonized reacts" paradigm.

This raises another concern: chapter 3, "The Colonial State," feels like a detour in a book subtitled Indigenous History, Culture, and Consciousness. It is probably necessary background for many readers, but this structural choice has the effect of putting off the more immediate indigenous experience until after page 100. Chapter 5, the source of the book's subtitle, is a gem; I just wish it came earlier. Chapter 6 also is superb, covering Andean religious metamorphosis and the so-called extirpation of idolatry campaigns of the seventeenth century. Overall, Andean Worlds is a notable achievement, a fine interweaving of quite diverse material that should also...