Ethnicity inthe andes

Ethnicity in the Andes

There are three prominent perspectives on ethnicity in the Andean literature: that, having developed in the remote past, ethnic groups are essentially autochthonous; that ethnicity is causally related to ecology; and that ethnic identity can only be understood in the context of state formation and collapse. These are not inherently contradictory positions and it is quite possible to accept all three premises simultaneously.

The view that ethnic groups are autochthonous fits well with European conceptions of folk cultures and anthropological constructs like tribes, linguistic families, and archaeological traditions. Most scholars working in the Andes have, at least at times, implicitly assumed the long-term existence of ethnic groups in the Andes. Spanish sources like Polo (1940 [1561]:131). Sarmiento (1907 [1572]), Garcilaso (1966 [1609]), and Guaman Poma (1980 [1615]) describe Inca expansion as a process of conquering pre-existing ethnic groups, and ethnohistorians (Murra 1982:238; Pease 1982; Rowe 1946; 1982; Rostworowski 1990) have tended to accept the general veracity of those sources.

John Rowe (1946:185, 256; 1982:110) points out that the Inca both combined small groups to form administrative units and broke up large states like Chimor, but, in general, they respected existing ethnic divisions. Maria Rostworowski (1990) thinks that the ethnic group constituted the highest level of integration during the Late Intermediate Period, but that this unit varied greatly in size. Franklin Pease (1982) cautions us not to consider ethnic groups as static entities and focuses our attention on the system of relationships that operated at different levels of integration; his analysis points out the vagaries of ethnic boundaries. John Murra (1982:238), on the other hand, does see the ethnic group as a perduring social construct that became the basic building block of the Inca administration. He (1980:85-86; 1975: chapters 1 and 3) goes somewhat further to imply that much of Inca organization was ethnic organization writ large (state mitmaq policy being modelled on ethnic vertical economies and state redistribu-tion on ethnic patterns of reciprocity).

While the ethnohistorians often identify rather small senorios as ethnic groups, archaeologists, myself included, have sometimes focused on larger units and treated Rowe's (1946) list of Inca provinces somewhat un critically as a list of ethnic groups present during the Late Intermediate Period. Archae-ologists have considered the general continuities within regions over large time periods as evidence for long term cultural stability and limited population movement; "archaeological traditions" (Willey 1945; Willey and Phillips 1958: 34-39), identified by the persistence of particular material attributes, are good examples (stirrup spouts on the north coast, double spout and bridge vessels on the south coast, keros in the south highlands, continuities between Moche and Chimu or Nasca and Ica, etc.). When we see the great art styles of the Early Intermediate Period (Moche, Cajamarca, Recuay, and Nasca), together with Tiahuanaco, then we may talk of political unity but we also think of cultural unity.

In his classic study, Fredrik Barth (1969: 19-20) pointed out that ethnic groups sharing the same general territory will often occupy different ecological niches. The ecologically determined nature of ethnicity is seen in the Andean area in terms such as yungas, chaupiyungas, and quechua, which apply to both people and to ecological zones. While these terms do not correspond to named ethnic groups, they were used in a general way to distinguish broad ethnic differences (Rostworowski 1990:13). Moreover, there are general cultural differences between at least the yungas and quechuas that can be defined on the basis of both historic and archaeological information (Murra 1980; 1975; Rostworow-ski 1975; 1989b; cf. Rowe 1948). In a some-what more specific way, archaeologists and ethnographers recognize a relationship between geographical regions (the altiplano, for example, (Bolton 1979)) and a degree of shared culture.

In their own "histories", highland peoples sometimes described themselves as taking over the quechua ecological zone from previous inhabitants, who were killed or chased down into the lower elevation chaupiyungas (J. Topic 1992; Taylor 1987). Alternatively, quechua dwellers were occasionally considered the original inhabitants (huari) who were intruded upon by high altitude herders (llacuaz) (Duviols 1973). It is important to note that these mythological histories emphasize descent from a founding ancestor as the legitimation of a people's right to control an ecological zone. In the emic perspective, then, ayllu affiliation and ecological location jointly determine a significant degree of ethnic identity.

A rather different view is taken by some theorists who see ethnogenesis (i.e., the creation of an ethnic cultural identity) as a histori-cal process related to the formation of states and colonial empires (Vail 1989; Gailey and Patterson 1987). Gailey (1987) notes ways in which ethnic identity can be forged out of resistance to state formation and state sponsored ideologies; in this view, ethnic identity represents "authentic" culture while state propaganda engenders "spurious" culture. Patterson (1987) applies this model to the Inca case, pointing out that imperial policies resulted, in different instances, in both ethnocide and ethnogenesis.

Vail (1989), writing about the develop-ment of ethnic consciousness in southern Africa in colonial and post-colonial times, has proposed a historical model that relates the development of ethnic ideologies to the needs of a variety of actors; in this model foreign and indigenous intellectuals, colonial administrators, emergent bourgeoisie, and ordinary villagers all found that the creation of ethnic identities served their needs even though the various actors were often in opposing situations. Many of these African situations have parallels in the Inca Empire: the conscious codification of custom, tradition, and language provided ideological support for the curacas, who needed to legitimize their claims to authority over the "ethnic" group; the Inca were then able to use the local elite as an efficient means of indirect control while, at the same time, obfuscating the major structural changes imposed on local organizations; commoners, especially men who were away from families and fields on service for the state could rely on the local elite, operating on the basis of "custom" and "tradition", to protect their interests at home.

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