Chiefdoms Under Siege: Spain's Rule and Native Adaptation in the Southern Colombian Andes, 1535-1700 [Hardcover]

Luis F. Calero (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

Most of what we know about Spain's New World encounters with native peoples comes from contacts in the mineral-rich areas of Mexico and Peru where Indians living in large, complex state systems were easily adapted to Spain's tribute needs. This book looks at an entirely different areathe economically marginal Pasto region in the southern Colombian Andes. This is the first detailed ethnohistory of Spain's conquest of peoples who were not easily incorporated into the imperial order. In the Andean region of Colombia, economies based on hunting and gathering and small-scale agriculture dominated; local chiefdoms exercised extensive political control. Spanish rule disrupted the centuries-old cultural, economic, environmental systems of the Pastos, Quillacingas, and Abads. It also provoked various forms of resistance among the drastically reduced native population against overzealous local elites who abused Indian workers by unrealistic labor and tribute demands.

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About the Author

Luis F. Calero, S.J., is professor of anthropology at Santa Clara University and an ethnohistorian of colonial Spanish America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826317723
• ISBN-13: 978-0826317728
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,545,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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