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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — ^PUBLICATION NO. 11 



population produced by the initial Conquest, the 

 later incursion of Nufio de Guzman 1529-30, 

 and the devastation by introduced diseases. 

 Beginning in the 1530's and culminating in the 

 period 1593-1603, the remnant populations of 

 several contiguous pueblos were brought together 

 or congregated in the central or most suitable 

 locality. Commonly the name of but one of the 

 constituent pueblos would be retained, although 

 Jaso and Teremendo (congregated with several 

 other communities just north of Quiroga in 1603) 

 were known as Jasso-Teremendo throughout the 

 remainder of the colonial period, and the earlier 

 congregated pueblos of Sanambo and Zirandan- 

 gacho were known as the pueblos of Sanambo- 

 Zirandangacho at the time of their congregation 

 in 1603 with Cocupao. Although the inhabitants 

 might be moved off their lands, they continued 

 to claim and own them legally. It was as a 

 result of the various congregations that many of 

 the pueblos of Michoacdn, including Cocupao, 

 claimed considerable territory. These congrega- 

 tions were made in the name of more efficient 

 religious instruction by the comparatively small 

 number of friars available. Every congregated 

 pueblo had a church, and the church became the 

 center of the community in practically every way. 

 As early as 1523 the crown had made regulations 

 concerning new settlements of cities, towns, and 

 other places (lugares), which specified that there 

 be a central square {■plaza) with streets going out 

 from it, and that there be ample public lands at 

 the exits (ejidos) to allow for expansion, for the 

 movement of livestock, etc. The 1523 and later 

 regulations were codified and made more explicit 

 in the Ordenanzas para descubrimientos, nuevas 

 poblaciones y pacificaciones of Philip II in 1573. 

 Commonly, wherever possible, the settlement was 

 laid out in accordance with the cardinal directions, 

 the main plaza was placed in the center, the parish 

 church and local governmental building would 

 front the plaza, and streets led away at right angles 

 from the sides and corners of the plaza. Usually, 

 however, the rectangular pattern obtained only 

 in the immediate vicinity of the central square. 

 In 1567 the viceroy of Mexico ruled that every 

 pueblo de Indies should have 500 varas (Spanish 



yards) of arable land measured toward each of the 

 "four winds" from the last inhabited house on 

 each side of the community. The Spanish land- 

 holders managed to have most of the measure- 

 ments made from the church instead of from the 

 periphery of the settlements, so that many Indian 

 villages had no ejidos or arable land outside of the 

 pueblo. Cocupao, for example, was limited at 

 the village exit toward the south by the lands of a 

 vecino of Valladolid during much of the sixteenth 

 century. The condition of the Indians became so 

 aggravated that in 1687 a royal cedula raised the 

 radius from 500 to 600 i^aras and insisted that it be 

 measured from the last houses. However, the 

 pressure of white and mestizo landholders was 

 sufficient to have this regulation modified in 1695 

 so that measurements were made from the church. 

 The limits, settlement pattern, and properties 

 of Cocupao during the entire colonial period are 

 quite uncertain. Practically all of our informa- 

 tion comes from the papers accompanying law- 

 suits over boundaries with Santa Fe, Tzintzun- 

 tzan, and the hacienda which held the lands to the 

 east from the seventeenth into the nineteenth 

 century. The Indian community of Quiroga 

 possesses a notarized copy, made in Morelia in 

 1837, of all the titles and papers pertinent to the 

 boundaries and claims of Cocupao from 1522 to 

 1803 which could be located in the archives in 

 Morelia and in the possession of the community. 

 These papers are chiefly the briefs that were 

 drawn up at the time of each lawsuit, which 

 briefs would copy all extant pertinent titles and 

 summarize the actions that had been taken 

 previously. Unfortimately there is no copy but 

 merely a reference to the title of 1522 (granted by 

 Ant6n Paranguarende to Cocupao) which the 

 audience of Mexico had found valid. The other 

 important documents are the first royal title 

 issued in 1534, the act of congregation of 1603, 

 the 1681-82 act of measuring the legal town site, 

 and the 1714-19 reviews with a statement of the 

 boundaries of Cocupao. Most of the litigation 

 in the colonial period was with Santa Fe; we found 

 nothing in the Cocupao documents concerning 

 controversies with Tzintzuntzan, and we did not 

 have the time to examine the Tzintzuntzan docu- 



