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Bolts of Cloth and Sherds of Pottery: Impressions of Caste in the Material Culture of the Seventeenth Century Audiencia of Quito*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Ross W. Jamieson*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Extract

People use domestic material culture to create an image of themselves that they project to others who live in, or visit, their homes. This was as true in the Spanish colonial city as it is in any city today. If, therefore, we wish to investigate status and ethnicity in the Spanish colonies, domestic material culture is an excellent source of information on how people imagined their own place, and that of others, in society. The first step toward this is the reconstruction of the material culture of urban colonial houses. There are two main bodies of evidence available to accomplish this. The first is descriptions of household goods in the notarial archives of the colonies, and the second is the physical remains of household refuse found in archaeological contexts in cities. Each body of evidence can make unique contributions to our understanding of social relations in the colonial city, but each also has unique limitations. I use the interplay between colonial notarial documents and archaeological remains to help define the role of material culture in the study of caste relations in Cuenca, Ecuador. The Spanish colonial régimen de castas was a system that categorized people by caste, using a complex mixture of legal status, ethnicity, racial (or physical) categorization, and economic roles.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2004

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References

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11 The complex roles of the many caste groups in 17th century urban Latin America are admirably covered by Cope, R. Douglas, The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660–1720. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994).Google Scholar

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16 ANH/C C116.404a, f.3r ( 1664). All references to primary documents are from the notarial section of the Archivo Nacional de Historia, Cuenca, Ecuador, referred to hereafter as ANH/C. Lovejoy, Paul E., Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2000),Google Scholar and Thornton, John, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1680, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)Google Scholar both discuss the complexity of the analysis of such “tribal” identities of enslaved Africans in the New World, given the complexities of the assimilation of , subject peoples into other ethnic groups in Africa, and the stereotypes of Europeans and colonial elites in the use of such terms. Thornton, “Africa and Africans,” p. xvi, identifies Bran as a cultural group in the region of what is now Dakar in Senegal.

17 Epperson, Terrence W., “The Contested Commons: Archaeologies of Race, Repression, and Resistance in New York City,” In Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism: p. 88 Google Scholar gives a British colonial example of such changes in “national” designations by enslaved Africans.

18 Lienzo is a plain-weave cotton fabric, according to the glossary of Costume and identity in Highland Ecuador, ed. by Rowe, Ann Pollard (Washington D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1998): p. 284.Google Scholar

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24 For the ongoing role of coral as prehispanic and colonial jewelry item, usually set in silver, see Rappaport, Cultura Material,” p. 13 Google Scholar and Caillavet, Chantal. “Caciques de Otavalo en el siglo XVI: Don Alonso Maldonado y su esposa.” Miscelánea Antropològica Ecuatoriana 2 (1982): p. 44.Google Scholar

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26 ANH/C L526f840r-84lv (1690).

27 The first official census of the city, in 1778, showed that the 484 people of African descent (both enslaved and free) made up about 3% of the total urban population of 14,763. The slightly higher (7%) numbers in the San Bias neighborhood to the east of the city core suggests that this was where the majority of free people of African descent lived in the late 18th century. See Simard, Jacques Poloni, “Formación, desarrollo y configuración socio-étnica de una ciudad colonial: Cuenca, siglos XVI–XVIII.” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 54:2 (1997): p. 440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 On the use of the topo by an elite woman in seventeenth-century Cuenca see Jamieson, Ross W., “Doña Luisa and Her Two Houses: Widowhood as Power in the Colonial Andes,” In Lines That Divide: Historical Archaeologies of Race, Gender and Class, ed. by Delle, James A., Mrozowski, Stephen A., and Paynter, Robert (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press), p. 158.Google Scholar Salomon, Indian Women,” pp. 334337 Google Scholar discusses Native Andean elite women's clothing in the 16th century.

29 In late 17th century Cuenca we know that, at least in the case of the income of priests, rental of part of their houses was common. See Pérez, Jesús Paniagua and Viforcos Marinas, María Isabel, “El poder económico del clero secular cuencano en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII.” Estudios de Historia Social y Econòmica de América 13 (1996) p. 62.Google Scholar In Quito many colonial households consisted of an upper floor where the property owners lived, and ground floor rooms for servants, rental to the urban poor, or to small businesses, according to Minchom, , “The People of Quito,” p. 29.Google Scholar

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31 Forastero means “outsider” or “immigrant,” and thus it is clear that Bustamente was not from Cuenca, most likely because he was an itinerant trader. His background is entirely unknown. On the many implications of the term forastero see the contributions in Robinson, David J., ed., Migration in colonial Spanish America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 ANH/C C94.124flr-2v (1696).

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34 Rowe, Ann P., “Dyes,” In Costume and Identity, ed. by Rowe, , p. 20 Google Scholar describes añil in Ecuador as indigo dye from the Indigofera suffruticosa plant; a blue dye, processed into cakes and traded extensively to Ecuador from Central America until the 1970s.

35 Camello/pelo de camello refers literally to camel/camelhair, and probably refers to a cloth (known also as camelote, or camlet in Énglish) that was a woven mix of camelhair and sheep's wool, according to Estupiñán, Diccionario básico,” p. 87.Google Scholar Camello could also refer to a lot of different mixes of camelid/goat hair, as well as silk or other fibers.

36 Ruán is a type of cotton “broadcloth” stamped with colored decoration, made in Rouen, France, according to Estupiñán, , “Diccionario básico,” p. 297 Google Scholar and Diccionario de Autoridades (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1726–1739) p. 647. The Rouen broadcloth industry is examined in Belhoste, Jean-François, “La maison, la fabrique et la ville: l'industrie du drap fin en France (XVe–XVIIle siècles),” Histoire, Economie et Société 13:3 (1994): pp. 457475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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41 The pecho could be what is now called in Ecuador a pichu (Quechua pronunciation of Spanish pecho, or “chest”). This is a traditional woman's wrapped dress, resembling Inca women's costume, as described by Miller, Laura M. and Rowe, Ann P., “Majipamba, Troje and Cacha,” In Costume and Identity, ed. by Rowe, , p. 187189 Google Scholar

42 Estupiñán, Diccionario básico p. 165 Google Scholar describes papel de estraza as a rough wool fabric used to wrap market goods.

43 Solimán is corrosive sublimate, or mercuric chloride (HgCl2).

44 Pita and cabuya axe both terms used in Ecuador for fiber made from Agave americana or Furcraea andina plants. See Rowe, Ann P. and Meisch, Lynn A., “Fibers,” In Costume and Identity, ed. by Rowe, , pp. 1617.Google Scholar

45 Bauer, Arnold J., Goods, Power, History: Latin America's Material Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 110113,Google Scholar discusses the consumption of fine European cloth in the colonial Audiencia of Quito, Salomon, while, “Indian Women” pp. 334336,Google Scholar shows that Native Andean women of wealth were heavy consumers of such cloth, at least in the early colonial period.

46 For details on Panama majolica recovered in the Andes see Jamieson, Ross W., “Majolica in the Early Colonial Andes: The Role of Panamanian Wares,” Latin American Antiquity Vol. 12 (2001): pp. 4558,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Rovira, Beatriz E., “Presencia de Mayólicas Panameñas en el mundo colonial: Algunas consideraciones acerca de su distribución y cronología,” Latín American Antiquity Vol. 12 (2001) pp. 291303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 On archaeological excavations in houses near the plaza mayor of Cuenca see Jamieson, , “Domestic Architecture,” and Jamieson, Ross W: Informe al Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural del Ecuador de la Prospección Arqueológica Realizada en Tres Casas del Centro Histórico de Cuenca, Azuay. (Cuenca, Ecuador: unpub. manuscript, INPC, 2001).Google Scholar

48 Boyer, , “Negotiating Calidad” p. 70.Google Scholar