Society of castas: Spanish America
Gender: patriarchies and double standards--Native, Iberian, African
Condition: slave/not encomendado/not
Race/calidad/casta: español, indio, casta--phenotype (color), not enough
Culture: language, dress, food, social interaction
1580: colonial hegemony
Spanish cities and towns: 225 (tot. pop ~500,000)
Native towns and villages: thousands (~5 million)
Spanish mines and plantations
Post-conquest society (Spanish America)
Gender: patriarchies and double standards
Native: gendered division of labor universal, early marriage (15-16 yrs) access to village lands via household
Iberian sex-ratio imbalance--5-10 males/female nearly universal, later marriage (17-18) equi-partible inheritance
African sex ratio imbalance--3 males/female slavery threatened family, community advantage of informal unions
Ethno-racial composition, New Spain
Race/calidad/casta
Racial lines more apparent than real
Phenotype (color) not enough
Flexibility: calidad (character, reputation)
Three divisions
Español peninsular, creole
Indio encomendado, migrant (naboria)
Casta negro (bozal) mulato, etc.
Marriageways
Spain: “Better to marry than to burn”--low illegitimacy in Spain.
New Spain: “Better to be well fixed with a concubine than badly married.”--high illegitimacy in Spanish America.
Slavery
Indian: rampant in the Caribbean (until the virtual extinction of the population) and on the frontiers (until the end of colonial rule)
African: first the earliest conquests small in number until 18th century but important in society, economy and even politics (militias)
Slave Traffic from Africa: 1451-1870Click here for table
from P.D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade
- 1451-1600: beginning (1/4 million)
- 1601-1700: growing (1.3 million)
- 1701-1811: peaking (6 million)
- 1811-1870: declining (2 million)
Cacao Boom: Venezuela, 4 regions occurred after 1680s (data for 1684, 1720, 1744)
Encomienda and encomenderos
Encomenderos: conquerors and royal favorites
Encomienda: Grants of tribute and labor of native villagers, primarily to conquistadores
Crown attempts to convert from private to royal control (New Laws of 1542)
Attempts to restrict use of labor by encomenderos (personal service banned 1549)
Labor drafts: mita and repartimiento (1550-)
Potosí (Upper Peru), 1545: richest silver mine in the early modern world
Inside Potosí: native miners
Migrant labor draft: mita every 7 years
16 provinces: lost 50% of pop in a century
End