THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE POLITICS OF SACRIFICE: AN AYMARA COSMOLOGY IN ACTION A DISSERTA TION SUBMITTED TO THE FACUL TY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY THOMAS ALAN ABERCROMBIE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE, 1986 TABLE OF CONTENTS LISTOFMAPS ......................... v LIST OF TABLES ...................... VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................... Vll CHAPTER I. lNTRODUCITON: H1ERARCHY, HEGEMONY ANO REsISTANCE . 1 IN A" SYNCRETIC" RITuAL SYS1EM The Research Prob1em . ................ 1 The Thesis in Summary . .. ................ 13 II. THE GENESIS OF A SOCIAL FORMA TION: AN INITIAL VIEW . 24 Preliminaries . ... .. 24 Killaka from Inside and Out . .. 31 Transitions from Inka to Spanish control: Early Sources . 36 Asanaqi and Killaka kingdoms in the Repartimiento de Quillacas y Asanaques .. 55 Symbolic Bases of Authority and Their Transformations " .. 75 AsyrnmetricalReciprocity and Social Hierarchy from Ayllu to Moiety: Some Hypotheses . .. 96 III. SYMBOLIC ACTIVITIES, PRACITCAL STRUCTURES: SPACE-TlME PROM UTA TO AYLLU . 102 Introduction . .. 102 Controversy and Confusion in Andean Kinship 105 Marriage and Affinity, Sacrifice and Predation: Production and Reproduction of the Person, Househo1d and Patri1ine . .. 127 IV. MEMORY ANO THE GODS: SPACE-TlME ANO COSMIC ZONES OF A COLONIAL SOCIETY 161 Libations and the Paths ofMemory: The Nature of Ch'alla Texts and Performances 161 Space-time, Social Process, and Gender in Myth, Architecture and Weaving . 190 V. FIESTAS ANO AUrnORITIES OF THE K'ULTA POLITY ... 208 The Paths of Authority 208 A K'ulteo Fiesta Performance 227 111 A Jach'a P"ista Performance: The Events of Guadalupe, September, 1982 231 VI. CONCLUSIONS: SUBORDINATION AND RESISTANCE 265 The fiesta as macro-ritual: altemative interpretations . 265 The role of doctrina and reduccion in the reformation of Andean polities: a research trajectory . 276 APPENDlCES 1. THE ARAKAPI KINGDOM (<;mARUYOS y HARACAPIS) 290 2. THE AWILAKA-URUKILLA KINGDOM ANO TIIE LANGUAGEIETIINICITY QUESTION " " .. " " " " . " . 293 GLOSSARY " . " .. " .. " . " . " " . " " .. " 302 REFERENCES CITEn . " " " " . 309 iv MAPS 1. THE STUDY REGION: MODERN BOLIVIA ........... 3 2. THE KILLAKA FEDERA TION IN THE EARL Y COLONIAL PERIOD ........... '" . 43 3. K'ULTA AND ITS AYLLUS .................... 110 v TABLES 1. TIffi CHACARA OF COLCHACOLLO 41 2. KllLAKA IN TIffi VISITA OF VICEROY TOLEDO 44 3. AYLLUS OF ASANAQI REDUCCION TOWNS 56 4. AYLLU STRUCTURE OF TIffi KllLAKA KINGDOM 63 5. ASANAQI KINGDOM STRUCTURE 69 6. KIN TERMINOLOGY IN K'ULTA 121 7. AFFINAL KIN TERMINOLOGY 123 8. CH'ALLAS OF UYWA ISPlRA ". 169 9. TIffi FIESTA CAREERS . 222 10. FORMS OF FIESTA ANO SACRIFICE . 266 11, AYLLUS OF THE KINGDOM OF SIW ARUYU-ARAKAPI 293 12. AYLLU STRUCTURE OF TIffi AWLLAKA-URUKILLA KINGDOM. 296 VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research upon which this thesis rests was carried out between January of 1979 and October, 1982. Initial ethnographic fieldwork, carried out between January of 1979 and July of 1980, was supported by a Dissertation Research Fellowship, Fulbright Hays. Archival research in the Archivo General de la Nacion (Argentina) in 1980 and 1981 was supported by a fellowship from the Fulbright Institute for Intemational Education. Further ethnographic research in K'ulta was conducted in 1982 with the support of a fellowship from the Division of Social Sciences, University of Chicago, a Mellon Award from the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago, an Elizabeth and Melville Jacobs Research Fellowship from the Whatcomb Museum, and a Grant-in-Aid-of- Research from Sigma Xi. Their support was essential to the completion of this research. A fellowship from N. E. H. to attend the 1984 Surnmer Institute in Paleography and Archival Sciences at the Newberry Library, Chicago, enabled me to attend a paleography course in 15th to 16th c. Spanish taught by Doctora Vicenta Cortés A., which greatIy facilitated analysis of archival materials. It would be impossible to give credit to all of the individuals who have contributed to the completion of this project. First of all, however, I must express my most profound thanks to Terry Turner, who has provided detailed cornments and incisive criticism on this thesis and its drafts during all stages of preparation, and has been in general a supportive and encouraging teacher, friend and colleague beyond the call of duty as the chairman of my thesis advisory cornmittee. The other members of my advisory cornrnittee, John Coatsworth, Don Rice, Marshall Sah1ins, and Michael Taussig, have also provided important guidance and criticism of the ideas developed in this thesis at crucial junctures in their development, for which I thank them. I must also give heartfelt thanks to Vil vili Tristan Platt, for inspiration and intellectual generosity, for being my tutor in Andean ethnography and ethnohistory, and for suggesting K'ulta as a research site. Jean Comaroff, Inge Harman, Billie Jean Isbell, Roger Rasnake, Frank Salomon, and Gary Urton have given me especially valued comments on early or late drafts of thesis chapters, for which 1 thank them. Michael Silverstein provided important criticisin of an early draft of chapter 4. Lucy T. Briggs, Catherine Julien, M. J. Hardman, John V. Murra, and Thierry Saignes gave valued criticism and comments on a draft of chapter 2. They deserve my sincere thanks. Participants in a symposium on "Civil and Ecclesiastical Administration and the Transformation of Andean Polities," at the 1985 meetings of the American Society for Ethnohistory, also provided needed guidance and inspiration. Participants in the 1985 A. A. A. symposium on "Ritual Reproduction and Resistance to Hegemony in South America" gave criticism of an early draft of chapter 1, for which 1thank them. 1must also express my gratitude toTerence Turner and Don Rice for their cornments on ideas expressed here, and general intellectual support, during the year-Iong course on South American EthnographylEthnohistorylPrehistory which we co-taught during 1984-85 at the University of Chicago. Students in the course also provided essential criticism of the key arguments in the thesis. Discussions with my fellow graduate students have helped the ideas presented here reach their current formo Particularly helpful were discussions with Mark Francillon, Raphael Sanchez, Julie Skursky, Martha Lampland, and Rebecca Tolen who, along with a host of others, have provided a challenging intellectual environment as well as friendship during the writing of this thesis. Without the practical guidance, encouragernent, and friendship of a several individuals in Bolivia, the research could not have been cornpleted. Phil Blair, Tristan Platt, Roger Rasnake and Inge Harman were especially helpful in all of these respects during our work there. Juan de Dios Yapita served as patient and tireless teacher to recalcitrant students when he taught rny wife and 1Ayrnara language (and culture) in 1979 IX in La Paz. Without his help fieldwork would have been impossible. In Sucre, 1 also benefitted from the advice and suport of Gunnar Mendoza, the Director of the Archivo and Biblioteca Nacional de Bolivia, who kind1y allowed me access to the documentary sources employed in chapter 2. 1 would like to acknowledge the considerable interest in and aid towards the completion ofresearch in K'ulta by very many consultants and friends of Ayllu K'ulta. All deserve thanks, for friendship as well as for agreeing to let us stay in K'ulta to begin with. 1 must, however, thank the cabildo authorities for 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1982, who kind1y allowed Mary Dillon and me to stay in K'uIta. A number of individuals in Cruce Ven tilla also provided valuable aid in our research. 1 also thank the cabildo officials for 1980 in Challapata, Huari, and San Pedro de Condo for their help understanding the ayHu organization of their respective counties. Heeding their expressed wishes, all of these individual s will remain anonymous in this thesis, but not they will not be forgotten. 1 must apologize to those whose searching questions 1 have not been able to address or fully answer here. For my wife and co-researcher Mary Dillon, who accompanied me to Bolivia and has been my intellectual inspiration ever since, words are not enough to express my gratitude. To cite all of the points in which she has made essential contributions to this thesis would require many additional pages. Many of the ideas presented here are as much hers as they are mine, and 1dedicate this thesis to her and to our daughter Chloe, who has learned the meaning of the word patience while waiting for us to finish our work. Despitethese many sources of support and insight, however, responsibility for the faults and inadequacies of the present work is, of course, mine alone. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: HIERARCHY, HEGEMONY, AND RESIST ANCE IN A "SYNCRETIC" RITUAL SYSTEM 1.1. The Research Problem 1.1.1. [nidal Rcsearcli Goals: Change in "Syncretic" .'\vmara Collective Rites When the research on y: 'eh this dissertation is based was no more than a glirnmer in this anthropologist's ey. , and the Andes something only dimly reflected there from others' ethnographies, 1 saw an opportunity to remove the motes from those others' eyes through research which would make fiesta-cargo systems, indeed ritual in general, intelligible as historically active forces through which Andeans come to grips with--that is, change--the changing world in which they live. My original