Belonging and Exclusion in Early Colonial Huamanga (Ayacucho), Peru: An Isotopic, Religious and Archival View

Summary

Built in AD 1605, La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesus de Huamanga is the earliest Jesuit church in modern-day Ayacucho, Peru. Archaeological excavations underneath the church floor uncovered human and faunal remains dating to the 17th and 18th centuries CE. Only indigenous individuals appear to be buried underneath the church floors. Despite significant forced labor practices (mita) at the time, few individuals buried in the church show signs of bodily stress or disease prevalent in those engaged in mining. Beyond the simple and sometimes problematic dichotomy of Spanish and indigenous, it seems likely that additional divisions appeared when considering the application and avoidance of the mita system of forced labor. In addition to bioarchaeological evidence, ethnohistorical documents show that some indigenous Andeans used the Spanish legal system, church service and labor agreements to evade forced labor at the mines. Further, analyses of strontium isotopes reveal that one-third of the individuals were not born locally, correlating with census records documenting rural migration into the city. Indigenous Andeans actively shaped their lives, using migration and manipulation of Spanish religious and legal systems to avoid the harshest occupations, thus moving beyond the stereotypical Black Legend trope.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21895