Kurakas and Commerce: A Chapter in the Evolution of Andean Society

Abstract

HE CREATION of a colonial society begins rather than ends with conquest and the imposition of foreign rule, but that rule, if it is to last, cannot be based only upon the threat of physical force. The society that existed in the Andean area prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquerors functioned through a complex web of social relations that regulated social, economic, and political intercourse among its members, and determined their access to the goods and resources produced by their fellows. The long process of colonization involved the fragmentation of the social relationships holding that society together, and their replacement by ot-her relationships which tied the members of the subject society to their conquerors and limited their internal solidarity. Thanks to the work of several scholars, we now have a relatively good outline of the colonial system imposed upon the members of Andean society by their Spanish conquerors.' More work needs to be done, but it is possible to present a picture of the Spanish colonial institutions, legal and extra-legal, affecting the Indians. This background permits us to alter our focus, move closer to native society, and ask how those institutions, and the Spanish presence itself, affected the internal organization of Andean society. The term Andean, as used in the following discussion, refers to the indigenous system of social organization and to the people who shared that cultural and social framework, in contrast to that of the Europeans. In the following pages, I want to examine one aspect of the transformation of Andean society under Spanish colonial rule, contrasting