Abstract

CONTRERAS CRUCES, Hugo. Crisis and changes in indigenous communities of the Aconcagua Valley (Chile), 1580-1650. Poblac. soc. [online]. 2013, vol.20, n.1, pp.11-40. ISSN 1852-8562.

By focusing on the indigenous communities of the Aconcagua Valley, this paper studies the process of crisis and change suffered by the native population from the last decades of the sixteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century. This crisis was marked by a decline in native demographics, the diversification of the Chilean economy and its impact on the use of Native American labor under the encomienda system. Besides, the arrival of new Spanish owners to the valley meant a decrease in occupational and economic exploitation areas by the native populations and their forced migration to Spanish mines and ranches with the resulting depopulation of their settlements.

Keywords : Aconcagua valley; Social crisis; Economic change; Personal service.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )