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Journal of Interdisciplinary History 33.3 (2003) 504-505



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Andean Worlds: Indigenous History, Culture, and Consciousness under Spanish Rule, 1532-1825. By Kenneth J. Andrien (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2001) 290 pp. $45.00 cloth $21.95 paper

Colonial Andean studies have long been interdisciplinary. Historians frequently use the research of anthropologists, linguists, economists, demographers, and archeologists to understand the impact of Spanish rule on the native people of the area, and some important historical studies have actually been written by scholars trained as anthropologists. More recently, as cultural history has become more popular, the work of literary critics and art historians has become more integrated into works of history as well.

Andrien's Andean Worlds is an impressive synthetic work that integrates a vast amount of scholarship from all of these fields to give a comprehensive picture of the experiences of native Andeans under colonialism. The book is not only packed with information; it is clearly and elegantly written. It could be used for teaching advanced undergraduates who have little or no previous knowledge of the region or the period. Furthermore, since Andean Worlds is interdisciplinary, it will be of interest to scholars in many fields. Those who work mainly in one discipline may be most attracted to the rich summaries of research with which they are less familiar.

As a book that concentrates on "the contributions of Andean people themselves to the formation of colonial society," Andean Worlds appropriately begins with a succinct discussion of Inca society and culture on the eve of conquest. Andrien always makes good use of examples to illustrate his general points, as when he writes about various instances of the Inca manipulating older Andean settlement practices for their own expansionist aims.

Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the colonial state and the socioeconomic system, respectively. Since government and economy were so interrelated, however, there is inevitably some overlap between the two chapters. Those less familiar with the colonial Andes may find the repetition helpful for refreshing their memories. The chapter on the state emphasizes the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo's political reforms of the late sixteenth century as an answer to the twin threats of Andean rebellion and civil war among the colonists and traces the ultimate failure of many of Toledo's projects to their reliance on the already undermined Andean political and economic system. In the chapter about the economy, Andrien uses Lockhart's concepts of trunk lines and feeder lines to discuss main trade routes that linked the Andes to the European world economy (trunk lines) and areas where regional markets developed (feeder lines). 1 He traces the increasing entry of Andean people in the [End Page 504] market economy, both voluntarily and through force, and uses the concept of "ethnogenesis" to describe how the migration of people away from their homes caused cultural change but still resulted in the maintenance of distinctly Andean social patterns.

The fifth and sixth chapters shift from historical primary sources and the writings of historians. Chapter five, which deals with Andean culture in the colonial period, relies on the work of literary critics and art historians. It demonstrates how Andean people used literacy, and such European cultural artifacts as portraits, to create a uniquely Andean form of expression that, in many cases, defended their claims to political authority and property rights. In the chapter on religion, Andrien relies on manuscripts of idolatry trials, the work of historians of religion, and anthropologists, among others, to examine the gradual imposition of Catholic orthodoxy on a society that traditionally had accommodated many different types of deities.

The last chapter deals with the economic and social exploitation that intensified during the eighteenth century and contributed to the massive native rebellions of the 1880s. This interesting chapter uses recent research on the rebellions, elucidating the differences in organization and ideology among rebels in different regions of the Andes.

Although it is perhaps unfair to find fault with such an ambitious and successful work, the book contains little discussion of gender-related issues...

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