History, Genealogy, and Cacical Authority in Colonial Cusco and the Titicaca Basin

This paper examines the inter-relation of history (particularly indigenous histories) and indigenous political authority in the colonial Andes, highlighting the relation between Spanish expectations of hereditary possession of indigenous nobility and bias in favor of Inca authority, and Indian nobles’ written performance of ancestry and status.  Drawing from legal probanzas, genealogies, and histories, I argue that genealogy enabled a personalization of history, allowing individuals to offer both natural law and positive human law (colonial) justifications of their possession of communal authority.  Turning to material history, I then examine buildings, wardrobe, and art to discuss how caciques in the region sought to perform historical justifications of their privilege and authority within their communities, stressing ancestral claims to authority and in so doing producing both colonial Spanish authority, and a space for Indian noble politics.