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Hispanic American Historical Review 84.1 (2004) 146-147



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Indian Society in the Valley of Lima, Peru, 1532-1824. By Paul Charney. Lanham: University Press of America, 2001. Maps. Tables. Figures. Appendixes. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. xxv, 218 pp. Cloth, $59.00. Paper, $42.00.

Several years ago, during an Easter celebration in Cuzco, I witnessed members of one cofradía tossing fruit to the gathered crowd of worshipers and onlookers as they left the church with their "Virgin." I asked one of the locals who these people (mainly of mestizo and indigenous background, if appearances can be trusted) were. He replied that they were fruit retailers from the local market who had formed a cofradía to provide themselves with a much needed degree of unity and organization, recognizing that the roles of cofradías extend far beyond the religious realm alone. In his book on the indigenous people of the Lima Valley during the colonial period, Paul Charney explores how self-identifying indios used cofradías, as well as other political and social institutions, to promote their interests and maintain a sense of identity even in that most Spanish of all places in Peru, the city and region of Lima.

Charney covers the entire colonial period, focusing on such issues as identity, the changing nature of regional society, land tenure, indigenous communities and leadership, religion and thecofradía, and families. His central argument is the nonethnic nature of indigenous identity in the Lima region. Lima was a receiving area for a large migrant population of indigenous peoples. But with the decline or weakening of older ethnic ties, identity focused on simply being indio, rather than being from a particular ethnic group, as was more common in the highlands. Charney argues that "the contrived label and status 'indio' actually became a template with which Indians could promote social reproduction. . . . [W]hat constituted Indian-ness . . . became increasingly complex as the Indians maneuvered to find a place in the valley" (p. 27).

Charney is careful to nuance these statements by noting that class remained important within Indian society and that some indigenous nobles made much of their names and ethnic origins. They often managed to continue their power as curacas or, when the ability to exert control over land and labor declined, in the new Spanish-created position of gobernador. It is noteworthy that in Lima some non-Indians wanted, and needed, to pass as Indians to claim racialized titles of [End Page 146] nobility and the benefits that came with that status. Charney also argues that native people, confronted with racial discrimination by Europeans, used Spanish law to assure certain rights and offices, such as procuradores, militia members, office holders, and members of guilds. At the same time, however, they often prohibited or restricted Spanish participation in their guilds or cofradías. In doing this "they acted less as colonized peoples and more like competitors for power and prestige, not so much in Spanish society but in the Indian one" (p. 102). In other words, they took the idea of the two republics and did what they could to make the best of it for themselves.

The hallmark of indigenous survival in the Lima area was flexibility. In many ways, Charney's account has these people living in line with the maxim that "if things are going to stay the same, things have to change." For instance, in discussing access to land, he notes that indigenous people had to readjust or give up Andean practices of endogamy while at the same time adopting Spanish legal practices in order to assure viable access to land. "In wrestling with and accepting an externally imposed ethnicity, Indians demonstrated an admirable degree of resilience and independence throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries" (p. 67).

Charney's work supports other research on colonial indigenous society, and he makes good use of the pioneering work of María Rostworowski, as well as more recent scholarship on the coast and Lima. While he brings the reader face-to-face with many historical actors, the...

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