The Humachis of Huancavelica during the Late Colonial Period (AD 1780-1840)
Author(s): Douglas K Smit
Year: 2016
Summary
This paper will present preliminary results from excavations at Santa Barbara, the central labor encampment for the mercury mines of Huancavelica. Located in the Central Peruvian Andes, Huancavelica was the largest source of mercury in the Western Hemisphere and a critical source of wealth for Spain’s colonial empire. The Spanish administration mobilized labor through the infamous mita, a rotational labor tax that required colonial provinces to send one-seventh of their population to work in the mines. While historians emphasized the importance of Huancavelica for the colonial political economy, we know very little of the indigenous laborers actually responsible for this immense wealth. Therefore, this research combines archaeological analyses of household material culture, local notarial documents, and historical ethnography in order to understand the organization and colonial transformations of indigenous labor systems at Huancavelica.
Cite this Record
The Humachis of Huancavelica during the Late Colonial Period (AD 1780-1840). Douglas K Smit. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434783)
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Keywords
General
Labor
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Markets
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Mining
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
Colonial Latin America
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 813