Huamachuco

OTHER ETHNOHISTORICAL INFORMATION

The number of mitima settlements in the Huamachuco area can be clarified somewhat more by examining the ethnohistorical information. Espinoza (1974: 25) lists seven groups of mitimas serranos, four groups of mitimas yungas, and five groups of mitimas from the coast, highlands, and Chachapoyas that he classifies as ecological enclaves. Unfortunately, this list is based on seventeenth-century documentation and is not ideal for our purposes.

The González de Cuenca Ordenanza specifies that there were two huarangas of mitimas, one composed of serranos and the other of yungas. According to that document, in 1567 the serranos were located in Santiago de Chuco, Quinua, Puramarca, Lochababamba (Cochabamba?), San Marcos de Chuco, and Huamachuco. The yungas were located in Callancas, Santiago de Lúcuma, Santiago de Chuco, Cachicadán, San Felipe de Chusgón, Chuquibarriba, and Huamachuco. The Ordenanza, however, gives no information about the derivation of the mitimas. Moreover, many of the towns named in the Ordenanza were reducciones founded in 1565, resulting in the conflation of different mitima groups. For example, it is clear that both mitimas yungas and mitimas serranos were mixed together with the local population in Santiago de Chuco and Huamachuco. Less clear is the mixing of different groups of either serranos or yungas, as in the case of San Marcos de Chuco discussed above. Finally, Lúcuma and Cachicadán were populated by mitimas yungas as well as representatives of the indigenous population. On the other hand, the mixing of these groups by 1567 was probably not as extensive as Espinoza (1974: 86) has inferred, based on a misinterpretation2 of the González de Cuenca tasa (tax assessment), part of which he excerpts (Espinoza 1974: 291-295).

While it is still difficult to locate all mitima groups precisely, a detailed analysis of just the Ordenanza and the tasa provides the general pattern of their distribution. The mitimas yungas were scattered in several settlements throughout the upper Chicama, as well as in settlements in the Condebamba, Chusgón, Tablachaca, upper Virú (Río de la Vega), and upper Moche valleys. As well as being dispersed, these settlements. were small. Calculations based on data in the Ordenanza indicate an average of only 26.5 taxpayers (married and single) per town in a sample of eight towns. A similar calculation based on the tasa, where the mitimas yungas cannot be separated from the chaupi yunga groups and only the number of married taxpayers can be determined, indicates that the average number of married taxpayers in ten chaupi yunga and mitima yunga towns is thirty-three. The small size and dispersed nature of the mitima yunga groups is probably not coincidental, most likely reflecting. an Inca policy of dividing and isolating these groups as part of a strategy of controlling the remnants of the Chimu kingdom. Netherly (1988a) makes the same point when she notes that the assignment of the chaupi yunga, with its important coca fields, to Huamachuco was designed to sever lands from the coastal polities.

In contrast to figures from lower elevations, the Ordenanza indicates an average of 55.3 taxpayers in each of six mitima serrano towns; since the tasa does not differentiate mitimas serranos, it is impossible to arrive at any estimate based on that source. The mitimas serranos were concentrated in the center of the province: three of their six towns were located on the Inca road between Cajabamba and Huamachuco; one was located somewhat to the east of the main road, in the upper Chusgón drainage; and Huamachuco and Santiago de Chuco each had mitimas serranos resident in them. The concentration of highlanders would, again, seem to reflect an Inca strategy of controlling the heart of the province by controlling the major roads.

While Espinoza's (1974: 25) list of mitima groups is based on seventeenth-century sources, at least some of the groups are referred to in earlier documents. Espinoza himself (1970) provides further documentation for one group, the Huayacuntus, who were moved south to Huamachuco from the area around Huancabamba and Ayabaca by Topa Inca; they were weavers and were apparently located in two locations, to the north and south of Huamachuco. We have not had the opportunity to examine the documents relating to the Residencia of González de Cuenca ourselves, but Eric Deeds, while working as a research assistant for the Huamachuco Project, prepared a brief report; only mitimas from Chachapoyas and Incas from Cuzco are clearly identified. The Incas may have been brought to Huamachuco from Canco in the valley of Jaquijahuana (cf. Rowe 1946: 189); Juan de San Pedro (1992: 186) states that the mitimas Incas Orejones from Cuzco brought a huaca (idol) with them, a small, black plumb-bob-shaped stone called Topallimillay; Cristóbal de Albornoz (Duviols 1967: 27) states that the Indians of Canco had a huaca called Llimillay, which consisted of several stones. The presence of Cañaris in Huamachuco is confirmed by the González de Cuenca Ordenanza as already discussed. The only yunga group whose derivation is securely known to us is a group from Paiján in the Chicama Valley, which was resettled in Chuquibamba, apparently to serve some colcas located there.3

Our field surveys are not sufficiently extensive to allow us to say whether the local population was always removed to other provinces in order to make room for these mitimas or whether in some cases the mítimas were settled on lands which had been underpopulated. The only reference we have located regarding the resettlement of the Huamachuco population is in the Relaciones Geográficas de Indias (Perú) (Jiménez de la Espada 1965: tomo 184: 255) which identifies mitimas from Huamachuco in the province of Chimbo, Ecuador. This account, written in 1581, indicates that there were 301 mitimas ("souls") from Huamachuco in the town of Azancoto, where they were mixed with mitimas from Cajamarca, Huambos, and "many other places." The association of mitimas from Huambos, Cajamarca, and Huamachuco is interesting because it suggests that the Incas may have considered these three provinces as one large administrative unit (huaman), as the Spanish later did.

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