Guaraní Kinship and the Encomienda Community in Colonial Paraguay, Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Kimberly Gauderman, Suzanne Oakdale, Ignacio Telesca, and María Laura Salinas. This work was supported by the Tinker Foundation/Latin American & Iberian Institute PhD. Fellowship and two Field Research Grants.

Notes on contributor

Shawn Michael Austin received his PhD. from the University of New Mexico and is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. His book manuscript explains how Guaraní social norms informed colonial encounters between Spaniards, the Guaraní, and Africans in the upper Río de la Plata during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Notes

1. The following narrative is constructed from a criminal litigation proceeding. Archivo Nacional de Asunción (ANA), Sección Histórica (SH), 1577, vol. 11, no. 7.

2. The data I analyze in this article was gleaned from some 350 litigation records and hundreds of notarial records. The majority of these records were gathered from the Asunción National Archives in Paraguay and the Archive of the Indies in Seville in 2011 and 2012. James Lockhart reflects on the value of these kinds of sources in Lockhart (2000, 27).

3. Of course Guaraní voices do not come unfiltered through Spanish civil litigation records. On the complexity of notarial records, see Burns 2010.

4. See also Gauderman 2003, and Mangan 2005.

5. For a survey of Tupí-Guaraní societies at the time of contact, see Garavaglia 1999.

6. On the encomienda as an avenue to indigenous cultural loss, see also Garavaglia 1983, Saeger 1981, Velázquez 1982, and Service 1951. The source of this conclusion is Service (1954, 8). Service's legacy on Paraguayan scholarship is profound. His work is still the staple for understanding the Paraguayan encomienda: it was recently republished in Weber and Rausch (1994). While North American scholars are familiar with Service's HAHR article, most are not familiar with his 1951 book-length treatment of colonial Paraguay. The conclusions of this publication have proven useful for nationalist historians: rapid and complete acculturation of the Guaraní occurred inside the Spanish encomienda—in contrast to the Jesuit missions—creating ‘national characteristics very early in its history’ (81). Service's publications and conclusions need to be placed in the context of his ethnographic work. In 1954, Service and his wife, Helen Service, produced an ethnography of Tobatí, a small Paraguayan town near Asunción. They argued that ‘in rural Paraguay today there are virtually no Guaraní cultural traits surviving other than language.’ Turner and Turner (1993) have challenged some of the Services’ claims through an analysis of Paraguayan naming practices. To be fair, anthropologists in the 1950s were particularly interested in dividing authentic indigenous cultures from modern cultures. See Friedlander 1975, and Adams 1957.

7. While the documentation is very slim for the sixteenth century, it appears that tribute was paid only in personal service. If the Guaraní provided Spaniards with material goods, they were exchanged for metal tools. After the pueblos formalized, encomenderos required their tributaries to produce cloth for them.

8. The Franciscan-sponsored pueblos have received little attention. The most important works are Durán Estragó 1987 and 2005, and Necker 1990.

9. The literature on the Jesuit missions in the Río de la Plata is extensive. Some of the most noteworthy works include Mörner 1953, Furlong 1962, Susnik 1965, Maeder 1992, Ganson 2003, Quarleri 2009, Telesca 2009, Sarreal 2014b, Wilde 2009, and Jackson 2015.

10. Guaraní in the pueblos also served in militias under the Paraguayan governor, but they never received a universal tribute exception like their counterparts in the Jesuit missions. Instead, every military action had to be negotiated individually. The governors’ rewards for military service included payment in iron tools (usually axe heads) and short-term tribute exemptions (six months to a year).

11. The problem with analyzing specific socio-political units and levels of leadership (besides the extended family or teyÿ) is that the documents do not use this terminology. Instead, one only finds references to homogenizing terms like casa, pueblo, cacique, etc. The only exception I have identified is found in ANA, SC, 1595, vol. 12, f. 186 in which an indigenous witness noted that a daughter pertained to tequa of a powerful cacique. ‘Tequa’ might refer to teko'a, but without other examples of the use of this term, it is speculative. The only reason the scribe recorded the Guaraní word was because the translator could not identify a Spanish equivalent.

12. Terence Turner (1978, 258) explains how bride service functioned among the Kayapó, a Jê group of the southern Amazon.

13. Clastres (1995) argues that the powers exercised by karaí [shaman] and mburuvich´ [chiefs] were mutually exclusive. Wilde (2009, 88) suggests that the division between spiritual and political power among pre-contact Guaraní was never so neat, and that such a division was a product of the Jesuits' explicit separation of spiritual and political power in the missions. Within the missions, Wilde (2006) shows that Jesuits struggled to construct political authority as an institution of primogeniture in contrast to traditional Guaraní political authority, which was built through charisma, eloquence, and generosity. Whereas Wilde underscores the persistence of a Guaraní political authority that was fluid and contingent, Sarreal (2014a) reveals the care with which Jesuits maintained primogeniture. Among Chaco groups, scholars are exploring the ways that natives used diplomacy and political savvy to negotiate colonial power (see Lucaioli 2014).

14. This analysis is drawn from a random sampling of seventy-six testaments from the 1540s to 1700, fourteen from the sixteenth century.

15. ‘ … se de a María niña hija de María my criada e a Petrolyna niña hija de Francisca my criada a cada una de las dhas niñas mil pesos de oro a su justo peso [ … ] si dios fuere servido de las llegar a tpo q se puedan casar o tomar otro estado e orden de vivir lo cual yo les mando’ (ANA, SC, 1547, vol. 4, f. 78).

16. In 1612, the cabildo begged that the Crown endow Bocanegra's casa de recogidas and orphanage (consisting of one hundred ‘orphan daughters of the nobles’) claiming that it was in utter ruin. ANA, SH, 1612, vol. 14, no. 3.

17. Other documents that specifically mark individual yanacona as captives are litigation records. See, for example, the dispute over the possession of a yanacona named Juana, who was taken as a captive, in ANA, CJ, 1605, vol. 2185, no. 1. The majority of the suits reveal, however, that yanacona were acquired through kinship networks.

18. ‘Cabildo petitions Capt. Pedro Sanchez to guard against Guaycurú and Payagua,’ 1613, Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript 1531–1920 (hereafter MG), 14118, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas at Austin.

19. Just one example is the following edict prohibiting trade with the Payaguá: ANA, SH, 1678, vol. 33, f. 2. By 1730, however, officials reversed the policy and invited trade with several chaco groups in an attempt to pacify them under reductions (Ganson 1989; Saeger 2000).

20. ‘para que fuese a llorar … ’ (ANA, SC, 1545, vol. 3, f. 128).

21. Susnik (1993, 61) provides information on the regional trade. Garavaglia (1983) is the best account of the yerba trade.

22. ‘no consienten q yndios de otros repartimientos y encomiendas no se pasen ni muden a do los suyos estubiere’ (Irala, Ordenanzas, 1556; cited in Lafuente Machaín 1939, 516).

23. Valderrama, who could not represent himself in court, was represented by Diego González de Santa Cruz, but to avoid confusion, I will refer to Valderrama (ANA, SC, 1595, vol. 12, ff. 177–251).

24. ‘son hermanas de padre segun su costumbre q llama a las primas hermanas quanto son hijos o hijas de los hermanos o hermanas’ (ibid., f. 210).

25. ‘que algunas personas vecinos y moradores de la ciudad maliciosamente persuaden e yncitan a sus yndios se casen con yndias agenas por que las traygan a sus casas y tener quien les sirva … ’ (ANA, SH, 1596, vol. 13, no. 2, f. 21).

26. ‘que estando yo en los pueblos de mi encomienda en precencia de mucha gente española queriendo tener una yndia de ella a mi casa me dixo un yndio del dicho Pedro de Lugo que no trajese yo aquella yndia sino a la dicha Malgarida y que aunque entrambas eran mias que les dexase la otra y asi lo hice … ’ (ANA, SC, 1596, vol. 13, f. 37).

27. For an insightful discussion of the ethnohistorical possibilities and limits of early modern Spanish litigation, see Mumford 2008.

28. At least two sources, one from Buenos Aires, the other from Guayrá, confirm the spread of a particularly devastating epidemic in 1607 (MG, 1607, vol. 1477; AGI, 1607, vol. 1690, no. 13). That such an epidemic occurred around the same time as these major reform efforts is no surprise.

29. The greatest proponent of the reduction movement was Governor Hernando Arias de Saavedra. He continually pressed the Crown for more priests to help in the process of incorporating more indigenous groups into the encomienda system. See Hernandarias 2001.

30. ‘y por que de ir las mugeres de los encomenderos a los pueblos de su encomienda redunda en mucho daño a los naturales y en particular a las indias haciendolas hilar y trabjar todos los días y cuando se vuelven a sus casas procuran llevar chinas para su servicio’ (Ordenanzas, Governor Velasco, ord. 40; in García Santillán 1928, 363).

31. ANA, CJ, 1693, vol. 1682, no. 3. Ganson (2003, 73) briefly treats hilanderas in the Jesuit reductions. I have not found any labor contracts for hilanderas, suggesting that most of this work was performed through the encomienda.

32. Ordenanzas, Governor Velasco, ord. 40; in García Santillán 1928, 371.

33. See, especially, Stern 1993, ch. 4, and Spalding 1988. Mumford (2012) examines the ‘colonial ethnographies’ and colonial logic that informed Toledo's reforms. He shows that what actually occurred ‘on the ground’ was ambiguous. Susnik (1965, 35–39), Mora Mérida (1973, 174–76), and Garavaglia (1983, 273–74) portray Alfaro's reforms as effective and as a critical historical juncture.

34. Alfaro also addressed the legal status of the Jesuit missions and granted the majority of them exemption from Spanish tribute demands, which incensed encomenderos in the region. The missions formed in areas already under Spanish control remained subject to encomenderos in Asunción. These included San Ignacio del Paraná, San Ignacio de Ipaumbuzú, Loreto de Pirapo, Itapúa, Corpus, San Ignacio de Caaguazú, and Nuestra Señora de Fe. See Maeder 1984, 120–21.

35. ‘lo que mas me espanta es que ni hombre ni mujer de ninguna edad estubiese reservado al menos en efecto ni casamiento ubiese libre ni mujer con marido sino todo dependiente de la voluntad del encomendero u de un poblero que es la mas mala gente que el mundo tiene … .’

36. ‘porque los más indios, en las visitas q he hecho, especial en esta ciudad de la Asunción dicen q no quieren pagar tasa; unos, o los mas, porque no saben lo q es, aunque se les ha procurado dar a entender; otros, porque dicen que ellos sirven cuando quieren y como quieren y les dan alguna gratificación los españoles, no a título de tasa ni servicio sino como a parientes’ (Ordenanzas, Francisco de Alfaro; in Gandía 1939, 221).

37. ‘los yndios en aquella governacion no quieren pagar tasa sino servir a sus encomenderos como de antes’ (Francisco de Alfaro, Ordenanzas, ord. 57; in Gandía 1939).

38. ‘los dichos yndios no estan desnaturalizados sino que biven y habiten dentro de su mismo natural no solo comarcanamente sino casi dentro de los mismos terminos donde nacieron, que demas de que abitan dentro de sus mismos pueblos alrededor de esta dicha ciudad muchos dellos a la mayor parte de los que al presente son de servicio an nacido en las mismas casas y chacaras y estancias de los dichos encomenderos criandose en compañia de los hixos de los españoles de nacimiento de que se a conservado y conserva hasta aora un amore casi natural entre los unos y los otros’ (Father Jerónimo Luján de Medina to Crown, 19 March 1612; in Gandía 1939, 453).

39. ‘biven con ellos con tanto amor como si todos fueran de un natural en tanta manera que los llaman parientes a los españoles’ (ibid.).

40. ‘por via de amistad y parentesco’ (Bartolomé Fernández Pedro del Toro to His Majesty; in Gandía 1939, 512).

41. ‘y ningún encomendero muere que no dexe en su testamento mandas de desir misas por sus yndios difuntos y a los vivos algunos bienes cada uno conforme a su posibilidad’ (Father Jerónimo Luján de Medina to Crown, 19 March 1612; in Gandía 1939, 453).

42. A statistical schema of encomenderos’ bequests is impossible since testaments do not state if a Spaniard was an encomendero or not. Problems with analyzing last wills and testaments for colonial Paraguay are rooted in the disorganized state of the Asunción National Archive. Unlike in many other archives, testaments from colonial Paraguay are not organized by the notaries that produced them; they are, instead, spread almost randomly throughout a section of the archive called Nueva Encuadernación.

43. ‘y mando q a todos los yndios y yndias de mi casa e servicio q les den un vestido de la tierra de lienço el ombre como a ombre y la muger como es costumbre sus tipos aun que tenga otros y otras’ (ANA, SC, 1593, vol. 12, ff. 46–50).

44. Ignacio Telesca (2009) believes that a shared material experience was crucial to Paraguay's social development. ‘If it is not appropriate to speak of ethnic groups given that they all spoke the same language (Guaraní), they shared the same kind of relationship to the land, they shared the same conception of family, and shared the same gender relations, we will need to find other categories that can explain Paraguayan social reality.’ Telesca is referring to the late eighteenth century, when there were even fewer social distinctions. Moreover, it is not clear that notions of land, family, and gender were shared among all social groups. The kinship-concubinage-labor paradigm is one thing, but that does not imply a complete cultural collapse into one hybrid identity (156). Evidence from testaments confirms Spaniards’ complaints about the poverty of the region. Most possessed small wardrobes and usually no liquid wealth. To declare only a few arrobas of yerba, a piece of land, a few weapons, and one or two sets of clothing was the norm in encomenderos’ wills.

45. Consider, for example, the following account from Lt. Governor Pedro Sánchez Valderrama who noted in May 1612 that when Alfaro's ordenanzas were announced in the Pueblo de Pitu, eighty Indians interpreted the news as a renunciation of Spanish labor demands on them. So they fled back to the forests where they were ‘free to celebrate their ancient rites’ and idolatries. With no other records to support this, we can safely assume that Valderrama was inventing the episode (cited in Gandía 1939, 520). Martín Morales analyzes the Guaraní responses to Alfaro's reforms and believes that they are authentic (1998, 121–22).

46. ‘despues q las ordenanzas se hizieron a esta parte que los naturales que han querido guardar conciertos y servir por paga no permanecen por el demasiado travajo y esclavitud en que se veen sin libertad q con sus encomenderos hazen y dizen q por no verse con esta subjeccion que les caussara gran novedad’ (AGI Charcas 33, 1613, f. 6).

47. If a Guaraní had been to Peru, he most likely would have been a porter as part of a mule train taking goods to Potosí from Tucumán. Jane Mangan (2005) documents Paraguayans in Potosí.

48. ‘amor q ay de ambas partes y parentesco que ay de por medio … ’ (AGI Charcas 33, 1614, f. 2).

49. On the persistence of personal service and the late demise of the encomienda in Paraguay, see Saeger 1981.

50. ANA, NE, 1694, vol. 185, f. 3. This format of identifying mestizos by physical aspects during visitas was typical. Also common was a mother's request that her child receive an official ‘declaration of mestizo.’

51. ‘se declaro de ser y gosar del privilegio de mestizo y que solo por el amor que tubo a su encomendero El Mre de Campo Juan de Ensinas por el buen trato y pago no desamparo la encomienda … ’ (ibid.).