﻿THE 
  QUECHUA 
  IN 
  THE 
  COLONIAL 
  WORLD 
  

  

  By 
  George 
  Ktjbler 
  

  

  INTRODUCTION 
  

  

  The 
  function 
  of 
  this 
  paper 
  is 
  to 
  provide 
  an 
  account 
  of 
  the 
  transfor- 
  

   mation 
  of 
  the 
  Inca 
  community 
  into 
  the 
  modern 
  Quechua 
  settlement. 
  

   How 
  to 
  combine 
  the 
  treatments 
  of 
  cultural 
  change 
  and 
  cultural 
  struc- 
  

   ture 
  has 
  been 
  the 
  writer's 
  main 
  concern. 
  The 
  interpenetration 
  of 
  

   Indian 
  and 
  European 
  patterns 
  produced 
  a 
  Colonial 
  culture 
  within 
  

   which 
  Quechua 
  behavior 
  was 
  both 
  continuous 
  and 
  adaptive. 
  To 
  speak 
  

   of 
  Quechua 
  "culture" 
  is 
  artificial 
  and 
  misleading; 
  the 
  student 
  is 
  faced 
  

   with 
  the 
  phenomenon 
  of 
  Colonial 
  Peruvian 
  culture, 
  and 
  within 
  it 
  he 
  

   may 
  occasionally 
  isolate 
  a 
  Quechua 
  component, 
  related 
  at 
  all 
  points 
  

   to 
  the 
  enveloping 
  Colonial 
  matrix. 
  

  

  In 
  what 
  is 
  perhaps 
  the 
  only 
  other 
  study 
  of 
  this 
  kind 
  in 
  English, 
  

   relating 
  to 
  Colonial 
  Maya 
  ethnology 
  in 
  Guatemala, 
  Oliver 
  La 
  Farge 
  

   (1940, 
  pp. 
  281-291) 
  calls 
  attention 
  to 
  one 
  of 
  its 
  difficulties. 
  

  

  There 
  is 
  a 
  tendency, 
  with 
  whatever 
  approach, 
  to 
  over-simplify 
  the 
  problem, 
  as 
  

   if 
  all 
  we 
  had 
  to 
  do 
  were 
  to 
  segregate 
  Spanish 
  and 
  pre-Columbian 
  elements, 
  while 
  

   noting 
  what 
  parts 
  of 
  each 
  culture 
  had 
  been 
  overthrown 
  by 
  the 
  other. 
  This 
  ten- 
  

   dency 
  overlooks 
  the 
  fact 
  that 
  the 
  peculiar 
  history 
  of 
  this 
  area 
  has 
  produced 
  a 
  situa- 
  

   tion 
  of 
  great 
  complexity 
  . 
  . 
  . 
  

  

  One 
  might 
  add 
  that 
  every 
  area 
  of 
  Latin 
  America 
  has 
  had 
  a 
  peculiar 
  

   history, 
  and 
  that 
  the 
  situation 
  grows 
  most 
  complex 
  at 
  the 
  three 
  or 
  four 
  

   great 
  foci 
  of 
  Colonial 
  and 
  Republican 
  life: 
  Mexico, 
  Peru, 
  New 
  Gran- 
  

   ada, 
  and 
  Chile. 
  The 
  significant 
  aspect 
  of 
  La 
  Farge's 
  method, 
  more- 
  

   over, 
  is 
  that 
  writing 
  as 
  an 
  ethnologist 
  he 
  has 
  had 
  to 
  rely 
  upon 
  adminis- 
  

   trative 
  and 
  legislative 
  material 
  concerning 
  Indian 
  land 
  tenure 
  "taken 
  

   together 
  with 
  major 
  historical 
  developments," 
  in 
  order 
  to 
  "show 
  the 
  

   rising 
  and 
  falling 
  pressure 
  of 
  non-Indian 
  culture 
  upon 
  the 
  tribes," 
  more 
  

   than 
  upon 
  the 
  internal 
  evidence 
  of 
  Indian 
  society 
  itself. 
  Such 
  will 
  of 
  

   necessity 
  be 
  the 
  approach 
  followed 
  here. 
  

  

  HISTORICAL 
  SOURCES 
  

  

  Evidence 
  for 
  the 
  internal 
  structure 
  of 
  Colonial 
  Indian 
  society 
  is 
  most 
  

   unevenly 
  distributed. 
  The 
  flood 
  of 
  written 
  material 
  bearing 
  expressly 
  

   upon 
  Quechua 
  ethnology, 
  written 
  in 
  the 
  16th 
  and 
  early 
  17th 
  centuries, 
  

  

  331 
  

  

  