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Reviewed by:
  • Collaguas II Lari Collaguas (Homenaje a Franklin Pease G. Y.)
  • Kendall Brown
Collaguas II Lari Collaguas (Homenaje a Franklin Pease G. Y.). Edition and study by David J. Robinson. Introduction by Noble David Cook. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2003. Pp. cxii, 514. Maps. Illustrations. Graphs. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. No price.

Responding to complaints that a devastating volcanic eruption made it impossible for the region's inhabitants to satisfy their encomenderos' tribute demands, the Peruvian viceroyalty ordered a new census of the Colca Valley, which was carried out in 1604. The resulting documents, transcribed and edited here, comprise an invaluable window onto the impact of Spanish colonialism on Andean social and economic structures.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, two major ethnic groups, the Aymara-speaking Collaguas and the Quechua-speaking Cabanas, inhabited the Colca Valley. Francisco Pizarro created encomiendas there in 1540, and in 1565 the crown established the corregimiento of Collaguas centered at Yanque to govern the region. Within a decade pre-hispanic settlement patterns gave way to the new reductions mandated by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo to concentrate the indigenous population for its easier Christianization, governance, and exploitation. Editor David J. Robinson provides a perceptive analysis and statistical description of the data contained in the census or visita. Among other things, he examines family structure, age distribution [End Page 656] of the population, naming patterns by gender, size and type of landholdings, and species of crops cultivated. Lari Collaguas was less isolated than it initially appeared because its residents used their teams of llamas to transport goods between Cuzco, Arequipa, and the Pacific coast.

The volume pays homage to the renowned late Peruvian scholar Franklin Pease G. Y. (1939-1999), the driving force behind the collection, transcription, analysis and publication of many early colonial ethnohistorical documents. Indeed, Pease edited Collaguas I (1977), which contains the visita of 1591 to Yanque Collaguas, and established the research team of colleagues and students that produced not only the second volume but many other associated works. Such primary sources contain data for detailed analysis of the indigenous social and economic structure of the early colonial Andes. As more visitas become available, it will be possible to study change over time. In the case of the Collaguas, other factors will also have to be factored in, such as the impact of the major discovery of silver around 1620 at Caylloma, which lay within the Colca region.

Kendall Brown
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
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