THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



33 



into the Totonac language, appeared: Pantaleon, 

 Bonilla, F. Dominguez, and J. M. Dominguez, in 

 the middle eighteenth century ; and, in relatively 

 recent times, P. Cuevas and Corona. 



The weakness of colonial religious architecture 

 in most of Totonacapan is another indication of the 

 slight attention devoted to its evangelization, once 

 the epoch of Fray Andres de Olmos was past. 

 Religious structures, monastic and secular alike, 

 built during the colonial epoch, are both scarce 

 and exceedingly modest. 



COLONIZATION 



Once the conquest of Totonacapan was com- 

 pleted, attention turned to the problems of organi- 

 zation and exploitation. In this connection, it is 

 essential to recall the apprenticeship which the 

 Spaniards had served in the Iberian Peninsula, 

 in the course of seven centuries of war with and 

 reconquest of the Moors. In essence, the colonial 

 system in Totonacapan followed the patterns de- 

 veloped and applied earlier in Spain, with the 

 modifications necessitated by new surroundings. 



Briefly, this pattern of colonization retained the 

 social, political, and economic structure of the con- 

 quered pueblos, but involved replacement of rulers. 

 The Spaniards supplanted the Triple Alliance and 

 erected a new superstructure which, in time, over- 

 whelmed the primitive native organization and 

 gradually destroyed it. 



The history of the colonization of Totonacapan 

 may be subsumed as follows : the initial system of 

 repartimiento and encomienda; the appearance 

 and ultimate dominance of the hacienda; and the 

 reduction and the Indian congregation. These 

 will be considered briefly in the discussion to 

 follow. 



NATIVE ORGANIZATION 



In Totonacapan the Spaniards found a native 

 organization which Cortes attempted to retain 

 without major change, believing that it migb* be 

 adapted easily to his own ends. 



The early chronicles indicate that Totonac soci- 

 ety was stratified. The upper social group was 

 formed by the caciques or senores, from whose 

 families the religious, possibly also the military, 

 leaders were recruited. The lower group, which 

 comprised the bulk of the population was com- 

 posed of warriors, agriculturalists, and slaves. It 



is logical to suppose that in the large centers there 

 were important groups of artisans, perhaps also 

 of merchants, but we know nothing of their social 

 position. 



The military conquest, followed by the evangeli- 

 zation and colonization, sped the disappearance of 

 the native priests. Even so, there are indications 

 (Olmos; Torquemada 3:203-205) that in some 

 places the latter continued to function secretly 

 and still had undoubted influence over the native 

 peoples. Likewise, it seems probable that the sys- 

 tem of encomiendas and reductiones, combined 

 with Spanish control of all important commerce, 

 led to the disappearance of the native merchants 

 and artisans, if such groups existed. Native mili- 

 tary organization also was eliminated by the Span- 

 iards as soon as the need for auxiliary forces no 

 longer was imperative — perhaps soon after the fall 

 of Tenochtitlan. 



In short, while the Spaniards maintained the 

 two principal native social divisions, the latter 

 were simplified through the suppression of priests, 

 probably of merchants and artisans, and of war- 

 riors. The remaining members of the upper 

 stratum, the ancient chieftains or caciques, were 

 utilized by the Spaniards as intermediaries with 

 the rest of the population. They were, of course, 

 controlled intermediaries, who were replaced, in 

 case of rebellion or marked disobedience, by other 

 native authorities. 



The prewhite political organization as a whole 

 was retained by the Spaniards. In ancient times, 

 an important center, such as Hueytlalpan, had a 

 cluster of small settlements subject to it; to the 

 political center of this nucleus, the Spaniards ap- 

 plied the term of cabecera. The system of land 

 ownership likewise appears to have suffered no 

 great alterations. Arable lands, woods, and water 

 supply continued, on the whole, to be communal 

 property (AGN, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 17), except in 

 cases where they belonged directly to the native 

 chiefs. The lower class continued to till the land 

 for their caciques, for their own benefit, and for 

 the payment of tribute. As the system of enco- 

 miendas and church organization developed, some 

 Indians were obliged to render more labor than 

 previously to their new Spanish overlords, both 

 lay and ecclesiastical. 



Despite these changes in the ancient Totonac 

 social structure, the most direct factors which led 



