People of the Volcano: Andean Counterpoint in the Colca Valley of Peru (review)

Cook’s book is a masterful synthesis of methodologies from geography, demography, and anthropology. His point of departure in this study is ethnohistorical, exploring the relationship between the present and its dynamic past: “My hope is to provide a guide for those who, moved by the experience in the valley, may wish to understand better how its people transformed their landscape, making it what we see today” (xi). Cook clearly defines a turning point in this valley’s history: “Much of what one views in the valley is the result of what the outsiders, the Spanish, took in the sixteenth century and the way they modified Inca and pre-Inca foundations” (xi). This turning point is still relevant for our understanding of Andean societies. The Spanish conquest and colonization transformed the way the natives organized their lives, and its legacy continues into today.

Cook’s central argument is that the transformations of the people in the Colca Valley, the Cabanas and Collaguas during the sixteenth century, have been long-lasting: “The basic political and social structure of the Andean world have been remarkably constant over the past half millennium”(252–253). Despite the colonial assault and the threats of the Peruvian state, the “people of the volcano” have survived and their social structures still remain in place.

Cook’s use of such concepts as reciprocity, community self-sufficiency, redistributive state, resistance, accommodation, and destructuration are good examples of his ability to summarize the important contributions made by Andean ethnohistorians as well as by scholars like Murra, Rostworowski, Pease, and Espinoza.¹ His new emphasis is the focus on the history of the landscape. Cook’s analysis of changes in the landscape evinces a familiarity with the geography of the region that, together with his extensive archival research, provides a fruitful approach for a regional study.

Cook’s choice of title for the book speaks to the importance of the environment for the populations of the Colca valley. He cites several environmental factors that have been decisive in the transformations of this valley. For example, he argues that the decline of the encomendero elite was a result of ecological events, specifically natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, droughts, insect infestation of crops, and demographic factors). This new argument should be taken seriously and tested elsewhere in the Andes. Cook’s analysis of the function of duality in Andean societies is compelling. Additional monographs and ethnographies will confirm his remarks.

Although fascinating and meritorious in its focuses on the history of the Colca valley during the early colonial period, the book offers little information about late colonial and republican times. Cook defines the influence of the republican state on the Colca valley communities as negative, describing their relationship as conflictive and dysfunctional. However, these remarks are not backed by archival evidence or by the kind of ethnographical analysis that he brings to the colonial period.