Abstract

MORRONE, Ariel J.. Chiefly women on the colonial board: Family, kinship and ethnic power in the Titicaca lake  (1580-1750). Andes [online]. 2018, vol.29, n.1, pp.00-00. ISSN 1668-8090.

The paths of ethnic authorities in the Andean world between the late the 16th and the first half of the 18th centuries offer a wide spectrum for analyzing the transformations in the criteria of legitimacy of political leadership, the socioproductive dynamics of ethnic groups, and the contested territorialities. But, if colonial Andean lords (caciques) occupied these key positions in the local political dynamics, women of their family groups played no minor roles in the creation of personal and social networks. Legitimate wives, secondary women, mothers, and daughters operated actively in the folds of colonial society, also mediating between their male political referents and their ayllu, as well as in relation to other regional caciques and different Spanish authorities. This article focuses on corregimientos de indios (colonial rural provinces) around the Titicaca Lake basin (jurisdiction of the city of La Paz, Audiencia de Charcas) within a series of episodes carried out by women of high rank families. Marriage, mestizaje, inheritance and succession, compadrazgo, access to land, and genealogical memory will be recorded by notaries who registered lives, alliances, adventures, and misfortunes of these chiefly women from the Titicaca basin and its surrounding high plateau.

Keywords : Ethnic leadership; Kinship; Inheritance; Social networks; Political women actor.

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