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3. Pueblo Economies After Spanish Contact
- University of Arizona Press
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65 CHAPTER THREE Pueblo Economies After Spanish Contact In chapter 2, I discussed the impact of Spanish colonization in the political sphere of Pueblo social life. Efforts to colonize Pueblo people were part and parcel of Spanish state-making efforts in the region. In order to extend the edge of the Spanish state into what is now the American Southwest , Spanish authorities realized it was crucial that they bring indigenous populations under their control. Such efforts at control did not stop at the political sphere; they were carried out in all areas of Pueblo social life. In this chapter, I focus on efforts to carry out state making in the economic sphere, and the impact of such efforts on Pueblo peoples. By “state-making efforts in the economic sphere” I mean that the Spaniards who came to New Mexico—be they commoners, religious authorities, or secular authorities—attempted to enrich themselves and to support themselves and their families or missions by creating a nascent market system that relied (at least in part) upon the Pueblo labor and craft production. Spanish authorities and commoners expected Pueblo people to produce for this market, which meant that Pueblos had to be at least somewhat integrated into the market system. As I discuss below, there were numerous mechanisms by which Pueblo labor and products were secured for this market—from simple barter to forced extraction that amounted to a “kind of coerced ‘putting out’ system .”1 Pueblo communities were thus penetrated by a nascent market system—a system that was imposed upon them by Spanish contact.2 The goal of the rest of this chapter is to analyze the ways in which Pueblo people and communities were impacted by their integration into the 66 chapter 3 Spanish market system and, more broadly, the Spanish state as it existed in New Mexico. In order to provide a basis for understanding what economic activities men and women did and whether changes in duties and responsibilities occurred as a result of the arrival of the Spanish, I first outline and compare the gendered division of labor in Pueblo communities in the pre- and post-contact period. I then discuss changes in men’s and women’s workloads that are detectable in the documentary record, as well as evidence that suggests that male elites came to control certain aspects of production , exchange, and distribution. The basic questions that I answer in this chapter include the following: How did Pueblo individuals and communities negotiate the new economic demands placed upon them as a result of Spanish contact? What, specifically, were these demands? And, finally, in what ways (if any) did the negotiation of Spanish power and authority in the economic sphere result in culture change in Pueblo communities? I argue that Pueblo people used the same tactics to respond to Spanish contact in the economic sphere as they did in the political sphere: they attempted to keep traditional practices in place as much as possible, expanding those practices (rather than creating new ones) to meet Spanish demands for goods and labor. As in the political sphere, preexisting social divisions—both gender and class—were reinforced as Pueblo communities attempted to meet the many economic demands that Spanish contact placed upon them. In short, Pueblofication occurred in the political as well as the economic spheres of Pueblo social life. The Gendered Division of Labor in Pueblo Communities Before and After Spanish Contact A gendered division of labor, or an allocation of tasks based on gender, existed in Pueblo communities in both the pre- and post-contact periods in the Southwest. Some of the most enduring images of Pueblo people depict them performing different types of labor: men as corn farmers in the harsh Southwestern desert or women at the grinding stone, processing corn. Grinding was one of Pueblo women’s main economic roles in the pre-Hispanic period. Archaeological evidence concerning the period after the introduction of corn in the Southwest shows that “female adults spent considerable amounts of time grinding meal by kneeling and extending their arms across the metate.”3 In addition to grinding corn, Pueblo women also prepared other foods for consumption in their homes,4 tended to domesticated animals (the dog and the turkey)5 as well as small house gardens,6 and took care of children.7 Archaeological evidence shows that [44.200.179.138] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:56 GMT) Pueblo Economies After Spanish Contact 67 they also constructed houses,8 plastered...