THE INDIAN CASTE OF PERU, 1795-1940 KUBLER 



THE WORKING FIGURES, 1795-1940 



The evidence is of two classes. The official and 

 unofficial census reports compose the body of pub- 

 lished materials, which must be rearranged to 

 show population changes for uniform areas. In 

 the census reports now known, the provincial units 

 of territory for which the populations are listed, 

 were in constant change. The changes always di- 

 vide an increasing population into smaller prov- 

 inces. By reference to legislation on provincial 

 boundaries, as compiled by Tarazona (1946), it is 

 possible to establish uniform and comparable terri- 

 torial units for any spread of time within our scope. 

 These territorial comparisons are presented in the 

 maps of the next chapter. Here the raw materials 

 of the actual census reports, insofar as they cite 

 the numbers composing each caste, are reduced as 

 much as possible to tables based on constant terri- 

 torial units. 



The other class of evidence consists of the un- 

 published tax reports from the period 1826-54. 

 These tax reports, when prepared for demographic 

 study, yield knowledge that was heretofore lack- 

 ing on population changes between 1795 and the 

 official census of 1876. The tax reports themselves 

 are far too cumbersome for reproduction. In- 

 stead, abstracts by Indian and non-Indian castes 

 in the various districts of each province have been 

 prepared. Table 2 presents these comparative 

 digests, which all are scaled to the provincial 

 boundaries of the period 1826-54. For purposes 

 of generalization, the information from the census 

 of 1876, as well as the census of 1940, is also tabu- 

 lated, again in respect to the provincial boundaries 

 of the period 1826 to 1854. It did not seem appro- 

 priate to base these territorial units upon the pro- 

 vincial divisions of 1795, for the census of 1795 is 

 better used as a comparison to 1826/54 than as a 

 point of departure. The census of 1795 merely 

 gives provincial totals, without district subtotals. 

 The tax reports of 1826-54, on the other hand, are 

 arranged by districts, which allows their compari- 

 son with the later reports of 1876 and 1940. In 

 theory the maps might have been based upon 

 provincial units as of 1940, were it not that so 



many district boundaries are of undetermined ex- 

 tent prior to 1876. 



Table 3 shows further elaborations of the evid- 

 ence. Table 2 represents the extended digest of 

 tax-record information, scaled to uniform terri- 

 tories, and carried from 1826/54 to 1940. Table 3 

 carries the analysis of the material a step further, 

 by giving percentages in the composition of the 

 population of an area at various moments, and by 

 incorporating numerous bits of information drawn 

 from published census reports and from occasional 

 newspaper articles of the period. 



PROVINCIAL CASTE TOTALS (1826/54-1940) 

 ARRANGED BY TERRITORIAL UNITS 

 AS OF 1826/54 (TABLE 2) 



The tax collectors were frequently men of 

 limited education. Their additions are usually 

 incorrect, both in district subtotals, and in pro- 

 vincial totals. Their difficulties were compounded 

 by the official requirement that they subtract from 

 the total population the old and infirm people 

 exempted by law from the payment of taxes. 

 Hence the tabulated totals often differ widely 

 from the totals as added by the tax collectors in 

 the summary pages at the end of each matricula. 

 We have here distinguished between the "added 

 total," as calculated by machine, and the total 

 recorded as "text total" and given by the collector. 

 Of the two, the "added total" is more nearly cor- 

 rect, for it represents the actual head count, 

 rather than the collector's estimate of taxable indi- 

 viduals. The absence of a text total means that 

 none is available. 



Immediately beneath the date at the head of 

 each column, unless otherwise noted, is the cata- 

 log number at the Archivo Hist6rico of each 

 item abstracted. Under the columns for 1876 

 and 1940, the reference is always to the complete 

 published figures for these 3 7 ears. In the case of 

 the census of 1876, it is to the relevant section of 

 the seven-volume Censo General; and in the case 

 of 1940, it is to the appropriate section of the 

 eight-volume Censo National. 



