Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800: Anthropology and History by
George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo and John D. Wirth
Review by: Frances F. Berdan
Source: Ethnohistory, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 313-314
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/482725
Accessed: 05-04-2020 02:47 UTC

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BOOK REVIEWS 313

This
This book
bookis an isimpressive
an impressive
example of the
example
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the cross-
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placeanthropologists
between anthropologist
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ethnohistory.
ethnohistory. It is refreshing
It is refreshing
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historian (Farriss)
(Farriss)
stressingstressing
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Indian culture inand Indi
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(Wasserstrom) emphasizing
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toriansare are
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thropologists are doingaremore
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res
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John K. Chance University of Denver

The Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800: Anthropology

Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth. (Ne
+ 475 pp., references, appendices, notes, index. $47.0

The Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800 is illustr

rents in anthropological and historical schola
"currents" are interlocked in this volume. Firs
in the literature, the inclusion of works on both
gle volume represents a serious attempt at dat
goal of constructing broad generalizations. A s
continuity: the notion that the Spanish conque
states in the early 1500s was not necessarily
ments in native life. A third theme involves
imperial regions: when focus shifts from conq
tives on life in these areas emerge. Together w
volume confronts the problems of "accountin
under the sway of empire" (p. 11), whether t
European origin. Fourth, the interpretation an
ethnohistorical sources is highlighted: visions o
produced documents supplement the "official scr
None of these themes is novel, but their com
How does the content of this book meet the ch
interwoven themes? The volume assembles sixt
and an afterword) grouped into five categ
Model," consists of one article, a general com
Aztec political economy by Pedro Carrasco. P
presents a study by Edward E. Calnek on the p
the Valley of Mexico, stressing the importanc
chapter by J. Rounds on the relationships be
succession and centralization of power. Part II
tration and Colonization." John Rowe focuses
that either promoted imperial unification or te
ences." Catherine J. Julien elucidates the relat
tration and local-level administration throug
recruitment. Craig Morris, from an archaeolo
and imperial functions of centers located along
Pease, through a variety of examples, emphasi

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314 BOOK REVIEWS

variation.
variation.Nathan
Nathan
Wachtel
Wachtel
differentiates
differentiates
different types
different
of mitimas
typesandofthemitimas
ways
waysthey
theyarticulated
articulated
with the
withstate.
the John
state.
Murra
John
considers
Murra theconsiders
varying mit'a
the vary
obligations
obligationsof different
of different
ethnic ethnic
groups, stressing
groups, ethnic
stressing
persistence
ethnicunder
persistence
Inca un
rule. Part IV covers "The Imposition of Spanish Government." Woodrow
Borah presents a lucid discussion of the interrelationships between Spanish and
Indian law in New Spain. Steve J. Stern focuses on the social significance of
juridical institutions in colonial Peru. Karen Spalding offers the useful
approach of viewing the Peruvian colonial economy as an integrated system,
not as a dual economy. Part V, "Indigenous Culture and Consciousness," con-
tains four chapters. J. Jorge Klor de Alva proposes that in New Spain the
Catholic Church enjoyed only limited success in Indian conversions. James
Lockhart, delving into "primordial titles," focuses on indigenous views of "cor-
porate self and history" in the 17th and 18th centuries. Frances Karttunen tra-
ces the life and death of Nahuatl literacy. R. Tom Zuidema takes us back to
the Andes to probe indigenous conceptual systems, especially means of measur-
ing space through sightlines radiating from Cuzco.
The challenge of comparison is met implicitly in the volume with six articles
on Mexico and nine on the Inca realm; Carrasco's article offers an explicit
comparative analysis. The matter of continuity is again implicitly considered by
the very organization of the volume, and in several cases the authors explicitly
trace continuity and change over considerable time periods. All of the articles
seek to unravel the thread of life in sub-imperial regions, and several decipher
new genres of ethnohistorical sources. Individually, each article meets some
segment(s) of these challenges; the greater challenge of devising theoretical con-
structs to interlock them remains. Importantly, however, each article makes a
significant contribution to our empirical understanding of these great civiliza-
tions.

Frances F. Berdan California State University, San Bernardino

Nee Hemish: A History of Jemez Pueblo. By Joe S. Sando. (Albuquerque: University of

New Mexico Press, 1983. vii + 258 pp., epilogue, appendices, notes, bibliography,
index, illustrations. $19.95 cloth.)

Sando's second book is a welcome addition to the sparse literature on the

only Towa-speaking Pueblo. As the book's introducer, Alfonso Ortiz, notes,
there is no grand design or methodology. Rather, the book consists of several
detailed discussions of particular topics arranged chronologically: land, mis-
sionaries, artists, education, Pecos Pueblo.
The book's primary strength lies in some excellent oral and documentary his-
tory. A treatise on land losses, restorations, and claims extends over several
chapters. The story of the final disposition of Pecos Pueblo as a legal entitiy
and of its persistence for nearly a century after abandonment presents a little-
known historical aspect of the much-fabled Pueblo so erringly romanticized by
Willa Cather and her fellow Santa Fesano, Edward S. Curtis. Sando's biogra-
phies of two Jemez potters reveal the influence of one particular teacher at the
BIA day school in one case, and the contribution of an eclectic artistic educa-
tion, including a stint in Japan, in another case. The list of college graduates

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