Fronteras, colonizacion y mano de obra indigena en la Amazonia andina (siglo XIX-XX): La construccion del espacio socio-economico amazonico en Ecuador, Peru y Bolivia (1792-1948) (review)

Fronteras, colonización y mano de obra indígena en la Amazonía andina (siglos XIX-XX): La construcción del espacio socio-económico amazónico en Ecuador, Perú y Bolivia (1792-1948). Edited by PILAR GARCÍA JORDÁN. Lima: Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú; Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona y el Taller de Estudios e Investigaciones Andino-Amazónicas, 1998. Maps. Tables. Appendixes. Bibliographies. 539 pp. Paper.

This book is a valuable contribution to the study of the Amazon region seen from the perspective of the Andean nations (Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). Five authors present studies of the Andean Amazon, from different points of view. Pilar García Jordán examines the Franciscan missions among the Guarayo Indians in Bolivia. Her interest is in the institutional framework within which the missions developed. Using the Guarayos missions as her test case, she shows how the Bolivian government's regulations changed the mission regime. Her analysis of the 1871 and 1905 regulations are especially valuable, showing how the Bolivian state's perception of the role of the missions changed over time. The 1871 regulations provided greater independence to the missionary, whereas the 1905 regulations virtually made the missionary an employee of the state, with an obligation to provide laborers for the rubber contractors farther into the Amazon. Although the Franciscans were able eventually to get the labor provision thrown out, the role of the missions had changed substantially. Lastly, García Jordán provides details on how the state failed to provide the Indians effective citizenship after the secularization of the missions in the 1930s and 1940s.

Federica Barclay analyzes how labor was used in the Napo River in Ecuador. Using Blanca Muratorio's studies as a base, she shows how different types of workers were evaluated. The best workers, because they were more "civilized," were Quichua-speakers of the villages of the Andean foothills. The merchants of the region, often also local officials, controlled the labor force and exported workers to the rubber regions downstream. The merchants also used the Aucas, indigenous peoples farther downriver, as a labor source. At times, they organized raiding parties to capture Indians to use as workers for rubber collection. Wealth was defined by the number of laborers working in the jungle. The rubber barons kept the Indians working through the classic mechanisms of debt peonage, even selling or buying Indians.

Ascensión Martínez Riaza's chapter deals with the failed attempt of the Spanish Crown to mediate the conflict over Amazon territory between Ecuador and Peru at the beginning of the twentieth century. She shows how the Spanish lost influence due to the increasing power of the United States in South American affairs.

Lissie Wahl's chapter is the best organized and conceptually most interesting. She examines Franciscan mission policy in the early twentieth century among the Harakmbut, who resisted assimilation into the Peruvian nation-state. Particularly valuable is her analysis of the missionaries, who "de-educated" the Indians. The Franciscans became cultural intermediaries for the Indians, as well as intermediaries for contracting out their labor. In the end, the missionary enterprise failed. Only extreme violence, such as the massive poisoning of the Indians and aerial bombing of villages, could make them accept the missions. Secondly, Wahl shows that the missionaries' plan to make the Harakmbut into agriculturalists failed because the Amazon territory was unable to sustain intensive agriculture. In the end, the Indians left to form their own villages outside of the missions and regain some control over their lives.

Núria Sala i Vila describes in great detail the efforts by the Cuzco elite in Peru...