Landscapes of Power and Identity

Radding Cynthia Radding

Description

Landscapes of Power and Identity is a groundbreaking comparative history of two colonies on the frontiers of the Spanish empire-the Sonora region of northwestern Mexico and the Chiquitos region of eastern Bolivia's lowlands-from the late colonial period through the middle of the nineteenth century. An innovative combination of environmental and cultural history, this book reflects Cynthia Radding's more than two decades of research on Mexico and Bolivia and her consideration of the relationships between human societies and the geographic landscapes they inhabit and create. At first glance, Sonora and Chiquitos are quite different: one a scrub-covered desert, the other a tropical rainforest of the greater Amazonian and Paraguayan river basins. Yet the regions are similar in many ways. Both were located far from the centers of colonial authority, organized into Jesuit missions and linked to the principal mining centers of New Spain and the Andes, and then absorbed into nation-states in the nineteenth century. In each area, the indigenous communities encountered European governors, missionaries, slave hunters, merchants, miners, and ranchers.Radding's comparative approach illuminates what happened when similar institutions of imperial governance, commerce, and religion were planted in different physical and cultural environments. She draws on archival documents, published reports by missionaries and travelers, and previous histories as well as ecological studies and ethnographies. She also considers cultural artifacts, including archaeological remains, architecture, liturgical music, and religious dances. Radding demonstrates how colonial encounters were conditioned by both the local landscape and cultural expectations; how the colonizers and colonized understood notions of territory and property; how religion formed the cultural practices and historical memories of the Sonoran and Chiquitano peoples; and how the conflict between the indigenous communities and the surrounding creole societies developed in new directions well into the nineteenth century.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Geography
• Cultural studies
• Latin America

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 18 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822387404
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Landscapes of Power and Identity

Landscapes of Power and Identity

Comparative Histories in the Sonoran Desert and the Forests of Amazonia from Colony to Republic

c y n t h i a r a d d i n g

Duke University Press durham&l ondon 2005

∫2005 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Designed by Erin Kirk New Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

The author and Duke University Press gratefully acknowledge the

publication subvention provided by the University of New Mexico,

Albuquerque, New Mexico, through the O≈ce of the Provost and the

College of Arts and Sciences.

This book is dedicated to four extraordinary women whose loving

presence has enriched my life and inspired my work.

Ettie Mae Gingrich Lowman

Vera Revson Radding

Eulalia Cabrera de Saldívar

Marcelina Saldívar de Murrieta

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xiii Preface xv Acknowledgments xxi

Savannas and Deserts: Two Histories of Cultural Landscapes 1 Ecological and Cultural Frontiers in Sonora and Chiquitos 19 Political Economy: Communities, Missions, and Colonial Markets 55 Territory: Community and Conflicting Claims to Property 89 Ethnic Mosaics and Gendered Identities 117

Power Negotiated, Power Defied: Political Culture, Governance, and Mobilization 162

Priests and Shamans: Spiritual Power, Ritual, and Knowledge 196

Postcolonial Landscapes: Transitions from Colony to Republic 240 Contested Landscapes in Continental Borderlands 295 Notes 327 Glossary 375 Bibliography 385 Index 423

Illustrations

Figures

1 Charte von Nordamerica 2 2Ancient fence rows along the San Miguel River, Sonora 6 3 Chiquitos landscape with Piraí River 16 4 Irrigationacequia28in the Moctezuma River valley 5 Newly planted fence rows at Mazocahui, Sonora River Valley 28 6 Pre-Hispanictrinchera30 7 Roof repair in San Xavier, Ñuflo de Chávez, Bolivia 42 8 Plano corográfico (1777) 60 9 Tabula America specialis geographica regni Peru, Braziliae, Terra Firme, Amazonum (1737) 94 10 Mapa de parte de los virreynatos de Buenos Aires, Lima, Santa Fé, y Capitanía General de Caracas (1796) 95 11 Carte du Mexique (1771) 122 12Map of Mexico or New Spain, in which the motions of Cortés may be traced (1795) 123 13 Tabula geographica Peruae, Braziliae, et Amazonum regionis (1730) 128 14 Insert of Chiquitos, tabula geographica Peruae, Braziliae, et Amazonum regionis (1730) 129 15 Facade of the mission church at Opodepe, Sonora 220 16 Bell tower of mission church at Onavas, Sonora 221 17 Facade of mission church at Onavas, Sonora 221 18 Mission San Miguel, in the province of Velasco, Chiquitos 224 19 Mission San Miguel, detail from the sacristy 224 20 Baptistry, mission San Javier, in the province of Ñuflo de Chávez, Chiquitos 225 21 Detail of baptistry, mission San Javier, Chiquitos 225 22 Map of Peru and Bolivia (1834) 246 23 Upper Paraguay River, 1777–1903 303