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Philosophische FakultätErich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies

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Forschungsprojekt

Modernizing Economic and Social Practices. The Spanish Colonial Regime and Indigenous Agency in Peru

In the context of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, the Spanish colonial regime in Peru tried to change the economic and social practices of the Indigenous population to increase economic production and financial revenues. Spanish officials, priests, and missionaries implemented an educational and political program to introduce new agricultural practices, the use of mules, and iron tools. Two historians of Latin America – one from Peru, one from Germany – will work on this topic with a praxeological perspective. First, they aim to reconstruct how the Indigenous population reacted to the forced alteration of their agricultural practices. Did they accept the Spanish intents of modernization, did they maintain their own methods, or did they hybridize both forms? The analysis of practices, so goes the argument, can help to uncover Indigenous agency and the complex modes of colonialism. Second, a praxeological standpoint also requires a critical self-reflection of historiographical work. The analysis of written documents produced by the colonial regime is a practice of its own kind, facing questions of access, materiality, and positionality. As decolonial theories currently have underscored, it is important to acknowledge the historicity of knowledge production, the silencing of Indigenous voices, and the privileged access to archives and universities.

Sergio Bebin Cúneo