The Fabric of Resistance: Textile Workshops and the Rise of Rebellious
Landscapes in Colonial Peru documents the impact of Spanish colonial
institutions of labor on identity and social cohesion in Peru. Through
archaeological and historical lines of evidence, Di Hu examines the longterm
social conditions that enabled the large-scale rebellions in the late
Spanish colonial period in Peru. Hu argues that ordinary people from
different backgrounds pushed back against the top-down identity
categories imposed by the Spanish colonial government and in the
process created a cosmopolitan social landscape that later facilitated
broader rebellion.
Hus case study is Pomacocha, the site of an important Spanish colonial
hacienda (agricultural estate) and obraje (textile workshop). At its height,
the latter had more than one hundred working families and sold textiles
all over the Andes. Through analysis of this site, Hu explores three main
long-term causes of rebellions against Spanish oppression. First, the
Spanish colonial economy provided motivation and the social spaces for
intercaste (indigenous, African, and mestizo) mixing at textile workshops.
Second, new hybrid cultural practices and political solidarity arose there
that facilitated the creation of new rebellious identities. Third, the
maturation in the eighteenth century of popular folklore that reflected the
harsh nature of Spanish labor institutions helped workers from diverse
backgrounds gain a systemic understanding of exploitation.
This study provides a fresh archaeological and historical perspectives on
the largest and most cosmopolitan indigenous-led rebellions of the
Americas. Hu interweaves analyses of society at multiple scales including
fine-grained perspectives of social networks, demography, and intimate
details of material life in the textile workshop. She examines a wide range
of data sources including artifacts, food remains, architectural plans,
account books, censuses, court documents, contracts, maps, and land title
disputes.
The Fabric of Resistance breaks new ground in our understanding of the
revolutions that occurred throughout the Andes in the late 18th century.
With a deft and skillful interweaving of archaeology and historical
anthropology, Hu demonstrates how the so-called weapons of the weak -
the everyday acts of resistance to oppression - are not pale, ineffectual
shadows of the violent rebellions that command the attention of
historians. The author opens a window into the world of ordinary people
in one village in the colonial Andes, revealing their travails, their
resistance to colonial exploitation, and the stories that they would tell.
Lively and engaging, this insightful study will be talked about for many
years to come. Sabine Hyland, author of Gods of the Andes: An Early
Jesuit Account of Inca Religion and Andean Christianity
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