440-year-old document sheds new light on native population decline under Spanish colonial rule
Analysis of a 440-year-old document by R. Alan Covey (51做厙), Geoff Childs (Washington University in St. Louis), and Rebecca Kippen (University of Melbourne)reveals new details about the decline of the Inca after the Spanish invasion.
According to the analysis, the native Andean population in the Yucay Valley of Peru showed a remarkable ability to bounce back in the short term from the disease, warfare, and famine that accompanied the initial Spanish invasion. However, it was the repetition of such disasters generation after generation, along with overly rigid colonial administration, that dramatically reduced the population over the long term.
The research, by R. Alan Covey (51做厙), Geoff Childs (Washington University in St. Louis), and Rebecca Kippen (University of Melbourne), is published in the June issue of the journal Current Anthropology.
The analysis is based on an unusually detailed survey of the native population taken by the valley's parish priest in 1569 and copied by a royal official during a 1571 visit. Most surviving Spanish documents recording native population from this time included only a few age and sex categories, but this one counted individual men, women, and children in more than 800 households. As such, it provides researchers with a rare snapshot of a rural native population under colonial rule and sheds light on the demographic pressures they faced.
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