Introduction

Summary

This book is a much expanded and revised version of an essay originally published in the Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas: South America (edited by F. Salomon and S. Schwartz [Cambridge, 1999], III: 2, 558–703), which is part of a multi-volume study of indigenous histories and cultures throughout this hemisphere from ancient times to the present day. My original assignment was to write about indigenous responses to independence and liberal reforms throughout South America's western highlands, interior jungles, and southern pampas. Notwithstanding my editors' confidence in me, I immediately recognized my own limitations of time and expertise and convinced them to “carve up” South American ethnic territories, leaving me with the broad swath of territory that once formed the core regions of the Inca empire. My colleagues Jonathan Hill and Kristine Jones brought, respectively, their own talents and expertise to the Amazon lowlands and the Araucanian plains of the far south. By contrast, this study focuses specifically on native peoples of the Andean highlands, stretching from the Chibcha peoples of northern Colombia to the Quechua and Aymara communities of southern Bolivia. Most were peasants who lived in sedentary villages or on Spanish estates, where they eked out a living from agriculture and herding. Many peasants also engaged in a variety of other subsistent activities, including barter and trade, pack driving, textile spinning and weaving, and day wage labor.