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Born of Pumas and Lions: Cultural Mestizaje in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1532-1650
McCutchen, Chad Brandon
McCutchen, Chad Brandon
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2016
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This dissertation analyzes the social and political role that cultural mestizaje played in the formation of Peruvian colonial society from the arrival of the Spanish in 1532 until the middle of the seventeenth century. By this time, Spanish hegemony was more secure, and the various non-Spanish ethnicities had been relegated to plebian status within society. This research also deconstructs traditional notions of ¿conquest¿ and ¿colonialism¿ that have provided the lens through which scholars have traditionally viewed the formation of Peruvian society. By analyzing how post-contact civilization evolved within the context of cultural mestizaje, new interpretations emerge, and the means by which the Spanish were able to establish and maintain hegemony become clearer. By the time Pizarro arrived in Peru, the Spanish well understood the saying, ¿without Indians there are no Indies.¿ The indigenous populations provided both the labor for Spanish economic endeavors as well as the religious justification for their presence in the Americas. The Spanish Crown maintained a desire to conserve two separate republics, or dos rep¿blicas, one Spanish and one indigenous. Adversely, Spanish officials implemented systems and policies that required almost continual interaction with the natives. As a result, cultural mestizaje began to take effect, threatening the Spanish philosophy behind the dos rep¿blicas. Originally, both the Spaniards and the indigenous populations began to draw from their own experiences and cosmological understandings. As society progressed, a localized culture developed that broke down traditional social structures among the indigenous populations and created a sense of separation for those Spaniards who had adapted to the Indies. Additionally, the first generations of mestizos and creoles born in Peru possessed a multiculturality that initially proved beneficial. Spanish officials began to view these multicultural populations as a threat to their hegemony as the creoles, mestizos, and natives began to interact and form kinship networks. A series of rebellions from the 1560s through the early decades of the seventeenth century demonstrated the danger that these alliances posed to Hispanic society. As a result, the Spanish adapted their philosophy of the dos rep¿blicas in order to incorporate mestizaje and establish their preeminence in Peru.
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History