Reviewed by Robert H. Jackson, Texas Southern University, for
H-LATAM <aas_jackson@tiger.tsu.edu>
Brooke Larson and Olivia Harris with Enrique Tandeter, eds.,
_Ethnicity, Markets, and Migration in the Andes: At the
Crossroads of History and Anthropology_.Durham: Duke University
Press, 1995. vii + 428 pp. Tables, notes, bibliography, and
index. $57.50 ea. (cloth); $18.95 ea (paper).
Originally published in Bolivia with a larger collection
of essays, this edited volume addresses a very important topic:
the involvement of indigenous peoples in the southern Andes
(southern Peru and Bolivia) and European-introduced market
economies. Essays in the volume range from pre-hispanc topics to
current anthropological studies. This volume contains the
following essays:
1. Brooke Larson, "Andean Communities, Political Cultures, and
Markets: The Changing Contours of a Field
2. John Murra, "Did Tribute and Markets Prevail before the
European Invasion?"
3. Steve Stern, "The Variety and Ambiguity of Native American
Intervention in European Colonial Markets"
4. Carlos Sempat Assadourian, "Exchange in the Ethnic Territories
Between 1550 and 1567: The Visitas of Huanuco and Chucuito"
5. Susan Ramirez, "Exchange and Markets in the Sixteenth Century:
A View
>From the North"
6. Thierry Saignes, "Indian Migration and Social Change in
Seventeenth- Century Charcas"
7. Enrique Tandeter, et al, "Indians in Late Colonial Markets:
Sources and Numbers"
8. Brooke Larson and Rosario Leon, "Markets, Power, and Politics
of Exchange in Tapacari, c. 1780 and 1980"
9. Tristan Platt, "Ethnic Calendars and Market Interventions
among the Ayllus of Lipes During the Nineteenth Century"
10. Olivia Harris, "The Sources and Meanings of Money: Beyond the
Market Paradigm in an Ayllu of Northern Potosi"
11. Marisol de la Cadena, "Women are More Indian: Ethnicity and
Gender in a Community Near Cuzco"
12. Olivia Harris, "Ethnic Identity and Market Relations: Indians
and Mestizos in the Andes"
As with any essay collection, the contributions to this
volume are uneven in quality and take different methodological
approaches. There are several major themes that include the
nature of pre-Hispanc exchanges and the early intervention of
indigenous peoples in evolving European markets; migrations
within the Andes, and the involvement in different ways of
Indians in markets at the end of the colonial period, in the
nineteenth century, and today. The central theme is well
developed in the book and is of major concern for specialists in
Latin American history. In terms of historiographic context, the
contributors to this volume clearly show that indigenous peoples
were able to choose the ways in which they entered the European
market economy and they reject an older vision of indigenous
peasants as passive actors. Although focusing on the southern
Andes, the essays in this volume have implications for all
students of Latin American rural history.
Several essays in particular highlight the complexities
of indigenous participation in market economies. In a stimulating
theoretical essay, Steve Stern offers different perspectives for
understanding indigenous involvements in markets. Stern also
calls for more studies that compare the Andean region with other
parts of Latin America, Africa, or Asia (88-89). Curiously,
though, one recent comparative article that deals with a topic
addressed in the volume-mestizaje- (Olivia Harris's essay on
Indians and Mestizos) does not appear in the bibliography.(1)
Susan Ramirez offers a well-written analysis of the emergence of
markets in northern Peru. Tristan Platt's essay explains the
economy of the Lipes ayllus in southwestern Bolivia in the
nineteenth century and how the ayllu members fit a mixed economy
based on the supply of salt to local silver mines, trade, and the
transporting of goods into the semi-annual tribute calendar. The
essay by the late Thierry Saignes points to the importance of
internal migration. Finally the contributions of Olivia Harris
and Marisol de la Cadena document current issues related to
Indians and markets.
This book reflects a somewhat updated state of the field
in the early 1980s when most of the essays were written. Although
strong on the social aspects of indigenous involvements in
markets, there are also some significant gaps that are not
addressed. For example, there is no discussion of Indians as
laborers on haciendas, Indian-hacienda competition for land and
water, or the evolution of land markets and indigenous
participation in land markets. Thousands of Indians labored on
haciendas as either permanent or seasonal workers, as service
tenants, day laborers, or share-croppers/tenants. Conflicts over
land and water resources help, among other things, to document
power relationships and the functioning of royal and later
republican Indian policies. Indian involvement in land markets,
particularly in the nineteenth century, at times defined
conventional stereotypes of indigenous behavior. For example,
there are cases of ayllus or individual ayllu members buying
non-Indian lands to supplement their land base. Although
liberalism in the nineteenth century is mentioned by several
authors, there is little discussion of how liberal policies
modified local and regional markets and Indian involvement in
those markets. Recent studies, some not included in the
bibliography or Larson's introductory essay, address these
important issues (2).
The book has a decided bias towards the colonial period
which might have been addressed by including several more essays
on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An essay on changing
government policies vis a vis the indigenous populations of Peru
and Bolivia would also have been useful. There is a tendency to
ignore both the intent and implementation of laws designed to
regulate relations between the government and Indians, and
Indians and non-Indians. For example, a discussion of Bolivian
community land policy, especially Melgarejo's efforts to sell
community lands in the 1860s and the 1874 law of ex-vinculacion,
would help explain changing Indian responses to markets during
that period. Finally, I was a bit disappointed that a number of
essays from the 1987 Spanish language version of the book were
not included in this edition. They would have provided a bit more
balance. In particular I am thinking of Erick Langer's essay on
Indian involvement in the grain market, an issue not addressed in
any of the essays in this edition, Ann Zulowski on mine labor in
Oruro, and Lillian Lewinski's essay on the Oruro market at the
end of the colonial period.
On balance, this book is worth reading as an introduction
to the study of indigenous involvement in market economies in one
Latin American region. It contains insights and methodological
approaches that could be applied to the study of rural history in
other Latin American regions. It is suitable for use by graduate
students and advanced undergraduates, and in paperback at a
fairly reasonable price so that it could be used for classes. The
bibliography and introductory and concluding essays provide a
good beginning for students and specialists wanting to learn more
about the history of the Andean region, although they are
incomplete for the literature published after 1987. The maps are
well done and add to the essays.
Robert H. Jackson, Texas Southern University,
<aas_jackson@tiger.tsu.edu>
Notes
1. Robert Jackson and Gregory Maddox, "The Creation of Identity:
Colonial Society in Bolivia and Tanzania," _Comparative Studies
in Society and History_ 35:2 (1993), 263-284.
2. See, for example, Robert H. Jackson, "Evolucion y persistencia
del colonaje en las haciendas de Cochabamba," _Siglo XlX_ 3:6
(1988), 145-162; Erick Langer and Robert H. Jackson, "El
liberalismo y el problema de la tierra en Bolivia (1825-1920),"
_Siglo XlX_ 5:10 (1990), 9-32; Robert H. Jackson, _Regional
Markets and Agrarian Transformation in Bolivia: Cochabamba,
1539-1960_. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.
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