46 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 14 



changes in the social composition of the Peruvian 

 population. But these changes can perhaps be 

 apprehended more clearly if we examine the pro- 

 vincial rates of change between successive mo- 

 ments. This can be done by disregarding majority 

 and minority groups, in favor of tabulation by 

 caste percentages. In the accompanying maps 

 (maps 9-16), Indian groups are recorded by the 

 percentage of increase or decrease of the group 

 since the head count immediately preceding. 

 Thus we chart the growth or decline of the Indian 

 group, relative to the total population of the re- 

 spective province, by changes in the percentage of 

 the group between 1796, 1826-54, 1876, and 1940. 

 In the first two tabulations, for 1795-1826/54, and 

 1826/54-1876, the information is incomplete be- 

 cause we lack the tax registers for several provinces 

 during 1826-54. Such undocumented provinces 

 are cross-hatched in the map showing the political 

 divisions of the early Republic (map 3). 



PERCENTAGES IN 1795, 1826-54 



Maps 9 and 10 show percentage changes as they 

 would have appeared to a student of the question 

 in 1854, based upon the viceregal census of 1795 

 and upon the tax registers from 1826 to 1854. It 

 is immediately evident that the Indian caste 

 throughout Peru had increased in numbers, and 

 that this increase had occurred throughout the 

 Republic (map 9) . The extreme north shows rela- 

 tive Indian increase as a whole, in Piura and 

 Chachapoyas. On the coast as a whole, the In- 

 dian group was increasing relative to the non- 

 Indian group, especially in Trujillo, Chancay, and 

 lea, where strong rising percentages were recorded. 

 On the coast the Indian groups lost ground rela- 

 tive to others only in Santa and Lima (map 10), 

 where the shifts of strength were small. In the 

 highlands generally, the strongest relative gains of 

 the Indian caste were registered for the eastern- 

 most provinces: Pataz, Huanuco, and Urubamba 

 (map 9). Elsewhere strong Indian gains appeared 

 in areas that today are more densely Indian than 

 they were at the end of the Colonial era: Conchucos, 

 Andahuaylas, Chumbivilcas, and Canas (map 9). 



Map 10, which records relative Indian losses, 

 shows far weaker percentage changes. The great- 

 est loss recorded is for Cotabambas (now Grau) 

 Province, in the south highlands, and Jaen in the 

 north. Comparison of maps 9 and 11 shows that 

 increasing Indian percentages are linked together 



in continuing blocks, as from Luya to Chancay 

 Provinces. These blocks enclose or surround far 

 smaller areal units in which the mestizo groups 

 were gaining ground. The maps clearly indicate 

 the extent to which Colonial population trends of 

 the late eighteenth century had been arrested and 

 even reversed by 1854. This appears also in the 

 total figures for the Republic. After we exclude 

 the provinces not reported either in 1795 (all the 

 Department of Puno), or in 1826-54 (as marked 

 on map 3), the Indian percentage relative to total 

 population was 57.96 percent in 1795; by 1854 this 

 had risen to 59.35 percent. 



PERCENTAGES IN 1826-54 



The preceding discussion has the defect of 

 treating the period 1826-54 as a unit. Actually 

 the tax registers of this period were prepared at 

 5-year intervals. Hence if all tax registers had 

 been prepared, and if they had all survived, we 

 would have six different census reports for the 

 Republic, spaced 5 years apart. As it is, numbers 

 of these reports either were never prepared, or 

 if prepared, they were lost or destroyed. Instead 

 of six census reports, we have large fragments of 

 each that can be assembled to produce the rough 

 record of two census reports. The earlier is based 

 upon the registers before 1840, and the later upon 

 registers after that date to 1854. For many 

 provinces a report upon both Indian and non- 

 Indian groups is available in both periods, before 

 and after 1840. It therefore seemed desirable to 

 plot relative changes of the two groups during 

 the time 1826-54. The effort reveals tendencies 

 of the population that could not otherwise be 

 known. 



Indian percentages decreased relative to total 

 populations only in the central coastal Province 

 of Santa, and in the southern provinces. In other 

 words, the mestizo gains by percentage were reg- 

 istered mainly in southern Peru, in the traditional 

 stronghold of the Indian world. Ica, Castro- 

 virreyna, and the newly created Province of La 

 Uni6n, registered the strongest mestizo advances. 

 The block from Ica, through Castrovirreyna, 

 Yauyos, and Jauja Provinces, extends from the 

 Pacific to the Apurimac Basin. These mestizo 

 advances are particularly significant in view of 

 the fact that after 1840, the tax collectors were 

 increasingly unable to register the mestizo or casta 

 inhabitants in each province. These citizens 



