Itinerant Agents: Colonial Representatives at the Obraje de Chincheros

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Itinerant Bureaucrats and Empire" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Obraje (textile mill) de Chincheros, located in the Apurímac region of Peru, was established in the late Sixteenth Century and operated throughout the Spanish colonial period. At the Obraje men, women and children worked long, hard hours to pay the taxes demanded of them from the colonial Spanish government. As men had to serve a forced labor requirement in the mines for a time every year women were the stable inhabitants at the Obraje. Along with the frequent movement of male workers at the Obraje, colonial representatives sporadically moved through the Obraje. These visits were short and infrequent but impactful on life at the Obraje. Through the examination and analysis of archival documents related to these periodic visits we can see how interactions between colonial agents, migrant men, and female workers at the Obraje shaped colonialism in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Itinerant Bureaucrats and Empire   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 316