Transformations in Andean Society

A Book Review of Irene Silverblatt's Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru

Deborah E. Blom

Submitted for Anth 363 Andean Prehistory, Autumn 1992, A. Kolata

History and its reconstructions are generally written by those who are politically dominant. In the Andes, ethnohistorical accounts of the conquest era were presented exclusively by Inca noblemen, Spanish conquerors, explorers, and missionaries (Kolata 1992, MacCormack 1991, Silverblatt 1988). Because of Western, elite, and male biases, "others," are largely under- or misrepresented in these accounts (Hahner 1980, Matthiasson 1974, Silverblatt 1978, 1983). In the last decade scholars have tried to make amends by studying, often under the rubric of gender studies, the history of these long-ignored groups. Unfortunately many of these approaches have been ethnocentric, uni-dimensional, or have simple involved ". . . tacking women's history and the anthropology of women onto a list of conventional studies" (Hahner 1980; Matthiasson 1974; Silverblatt 1983: 215). In Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru, Irene Silverblatt writes a new history of the Andes that includes women and peasants alongside those in positions of power. In developing her version of life in the Andes, she creatively uses ethnohistorical sources by reading between the biases inherent in them. While focusing on the roles of women, sometimes to the exclusion of males, Silverblatt discusses the means by which the Spanish and Inca hegemonies cemented their control over the native Andean people and the transformations in Andean social structure which resulted from their conquests. Throughout her dynamic, temporally-organized narrative of Andean prehistory and history she incorporates a discussion of changes in leadership and control over the means of production. Silverblatt (1987:xxvii) refers to her book as "Engel's child," because she builds on Engel's view that ". . . changes in the position of women are inseparable from the profound transformations in political economy spurred by the formation of social class." She follows changing status of women as Andean social structure shifted from an emphasis on kin and gender ties to one of institutionalized class hierarchies. Relying on the Andean concept of dualism, Silverblatt effectively entwines the lives and ideologies of women into former narratives of other Andean scholars, such as MacCormack, Murra, Spaulding and Zuidema. Unfortunately, Silverblatt's interpretations are sometimes biased. At times, she idealizes the role of women in society or focuses on the world of women to the exclusion of males and children, creating the misrepresentation that women were affected most by a specific event. Because Silverblatt attempts to apply a single model to the Andes as a whole, her account is sometimes overly simplistic. Regardless of its shortcomings, Silverblatt's technique allows for an insightful interpretation of the changing Andean power structure and the emerging hierarchies. Her book is an excellent contribution to the field and will undoubtedly inspire new perspectives in Andean studies.

A pivotal theme in Silverblatt's book is the dualistic nature of the Andean universe. She builds upon the received view that the Andean people divided their world into two complementary, gender-linked spheres. Silverblatt argues that gender was a metaphor for structuring social relations, and that social reproduction was possible only when the male and female spheres united. Each sphere was essentially a mirror image of the other, as illustrated by the bilateral system of descent and parallel transmission of inheritance. Gender parallelism resulted in strong gender and kin ties which allowed members to depend on same-sex relatives for their existence. In general, females were linked with the "forces of fertility" while males were coupled with the "implements of force" (Silverblatt 1978:46), but these divisions were relativistic, flexible and context specific. Sometimes tasks overlapped, the linkages were inverted, or males were symbolically females and vice versa (Zuidema 1990). While the system ". . .played with values of [gender] equality . . ." (Silverblatt 1987:67), Silverblatt (1978:46) argues that the ideology ". . . embodied a latent inequality. . ." in that males were symbolically connected with power and leadership.

In constructing her model, Silverblatt relies extensively on the work of Zuidema regarding another gender system, "the conquest hierarchy." The conquest hierarchy is a means of ranking individual kin groups within some ayllus, especially those in the north-central region. Groups that descended from the ayllu's founding ancestor/conqueror (lluacuás) enjoyed greater prestige than groups who descended from the local/conquered people (llactas). Intermediary descent groups resulted from secondary marriages of the male "conquerors" with the "conquered" females. Silverblatt claims that in pre-Inca times the prestige of the lluacuás was largely symbolic and did not translate into true power over other ayllu members. As "first among equals," they were simply given priority during rituals and ceremonies. In addition, the conquerors' gods could represent the ayllu as a whole. The dualistic nature of Andean society linked llactas with females and llacuáses with males. In other words, even conquered males were symbolically considered females. Silverblatt believes that this "latent inequality" had little effect on gender relations in pre-Inca times but set the stage for transformations after the Inca conquest.

Incorporating a discussion of these gender systems, Silverblatt constructs a model of pre-Inca society as a point of departure. Here she draws heavily on the work of Spaulding. In Silverblatt's model, the basic unit of Andean social organization was the household. Households whose members descended from an apical ancestor composed an ayllu. Those that fulfilled the obligations of the ayllu, such as supporting the ayllu deity, enjoyed rights as an ayllu member. Ayllus were grouped into larger ayllus, or communities. Within a community, the ayllus competed for prestige and status and were rank ordered by various means such as position in the conquest hierarchy or degree of wealth as measured in amount of labor controlled. Despite this competition, ayllus' resources were communal. However, access was not necessarily equal for all. The degree of stratification within ayllus is uncertain, and is likely to have varied.

Silverblatt states that the most common means to pre-Inca ayllu leadership were inheritance-based or cargo-like systems. The leader's (curaca's) rights to rule were based on reciprocity, generosity, persuasion, mediation, and the consent of the ayllu members, rather than on imposed authority. The curaca, was responsible for the well-being of the community. This involved such duties as distribution of community lands in sufficient amounts for each household's subsistence, holding festivals, maintaining the agriculture calendar, and providing for the worship of the ayllu's deities. In return for the services of the curacas, ayllu members tended their lands. The curacas also had greater access to the ayllu's resources. Ethnohistorical evidence suggests that curacas were usually male. However, Silverblatt argues that the role of women in ayllu leadership was underemphasized by the "andromyopic" chroniclers, and that authority within kinship groups was not based on gender, but on birth order. She feels that the status and power of pre-Inca women was nearly equal to that of men .

Silverblatt presents an in-depth discussion of gender parallelisms in pre-Inca religious institutions. She claims that ancestor deities were often classified as male or female. Women and men each had control over their own complementary religious organizations which revolved around the worship of same-sex deities. Women maintained the shrines and led the festivals for the female deity cults. In return for their loyalty, the female deities reciprocated in Andean tradition by addressing concerns specific to women. Silverblatt notes that, according to ethnohistorical accounts, the majority of ayllu-wide ancestral cults center around male deities and that the few female founding ancestors gave rise to patrilineages. She feels that these statements may reflect the male biases of the chroniclers. However, she concedes that the conquest hierarchy, coupled with the linking of conqueror with male, may explain the preponderance of male ayllu-wide deities.

Silverblatt's model of pre-Inca society has been criticized for being too simplistic and idealistic (Lockhart 1989). She defends her simplifications by arguing that she is only constructing a generalized model of pan-Andean institutions. Obviously she is not able to incorporate all variations found within the nearly 200 ethnic groups, with organization ranging from gathering-hunting bands to states (Kolata 1992), that the Inca empire conquered. Silverblatt's model allows her to examine general transformations of social structure in the Andes, but she encounters difficulties with temporal and spatial context. Whether the discrepancies between the ethnohistorical accounts are due to biases, misinformation, or simply regional variation is unknown. Silverblatt's argument might have been more effective had she focused on a specific region of the Andes, such as the central region, which is the subject of many of her sources. Researchers in specific Andean regions will find it necessary to reconsider, and possibly modify, the specifics in her model.

Silverblatt's often uncritical use of and heavy reliance on Guaman Poma's writings, especially his glorified depiction of Andean females, lends credence to the claim that her model is overly idealized. In addition to painting an ideal picture of pre-Inca Andean women in general, Silverblatt may have overestimated the degree of equality between men and women in pre-Inca times. Although she notes that pre-Inca land distribution allowed 1 tupu for a son and 1/2 for a daughter, she claims that females had independent access to the factors of production, including land use, labor access, and "material resources." Consistent with Silverblatt's claim, Hastorf's (1988, 1991) stable isotope analysis on late pre-Inca skeletons from the central highlands indicates no differential access to food for consumption between males and females. But, stable isotope analyses provide no information about the actual control of food resources only about consumption. Mortuary data on pre-Inca state leadership does not support Silverblatt's claim. Tombs containing male central figures and females in retainer and dedicatory burials are prevalent in pre-Inca contexts (Verano 1991). In addition, there is evidence that females were exchanged during times of warfare in order to effect peace (MacCormack 1991). Burkett (1978:103) states that in Andean society lineages were traced through the women but ". . . political positions . . ., the only major type of inheritance . . ." were only passed to men. Hastorf (1991:138) suggests that only occasionally ". . . the choosing of local leaders (curacas) from certain lineages resulted in . . . a woman [being] the next person in line." Similarly, Silverblatt notes that, during the colonial era, a female was chosen for ayllu leadership if no appropriate male heir was available. More research is necessary before a definitive statement can be made about the power of women in the pre-Inca and Inca Andes.

Silverblatt devotes the last two sections of her book to a discussion of the erosion and transformation of Andean norms as the Inca and Spanish hegemonies imposed themselves upon the indigenous inhabitants. Unlike the Spanish, the Incas held the same general world view as the other native populations, and so were able to gain control by incorporating and manipulating existing ideologies. This resulted in subtle changes in gender relations, leadership and religious ideologies of the Andes.

Silverblatt claims that internal ayllu social organization remained basically unchanged during Inca rule. The previously autonomous curacas became partly accountable to Inca government. The Inca had to approve the selection of the curacas. Before the children of curacas could succeed as new leaders, they were required to attend Inca schools, probably to indoctrinate them to Inca beliefs. Under the Incas, the curacas were responsible for paying tribute based on the number of married men in the ayllu. Thus the Incas considered tribute to be an obligation of the household, which consisted of the complementary labors of men and women. This tribute was exacted from land that the Incas claimed for the state and church. The remaining land was returned to the ayllu, and was administered, as in pre-Inca times, by the curaca . Curacas who held the favor of the Inca were rewarded with gifts of status and material wealth. Because the right to rule was not based solely on consent of the ayllu members but also on the approval of the Inca, the loyalty of the curacas shifted subtlety toward the Inca.

After conquest, the Incas incorporated their deities into the local belief systems. Manipulating local origin myths, the Incas claimed that their ancestors deities, the Sun and the Moon, were the earliest creations of Viracocha. The Inca and his queen, the Coya, were considered to be "children," or direct descendants, of the Sun and Moon, and thus were symbolically equivalent to the Venus-Morning and Venus-Evening stars respectively. Coupled with their status as conquerors, this position legitimized the rule of the Incas and their place as a privileged noble class. Local ayllu leaders held the position of the children of the Venus morning and evening stars. The lower levels of the hierarchy were composed of the common people. Through this reconstruction of Andean kinship relations, a rigid class hierarchy, however masked, was institutionalized by the Incas.

The Inca practices of bringing local huacas to Cuzco and sending imperial huacas to the provinces further consolidated the empire's rule and its control over local belief systems. By transporting important huacas of each conquered ayllu to Cuzco, the Incas took responsibility for the worship of each ayllus important deities. Only by paying tribute to the Incas would the ayllus insure that their huacas would be served and their communities thrive. The Inca also insured their importance to their subjects by sending them imperial deities. The Inca deities of the Sun (male) and Moon (female) were worshipped by all. Because kin relationships were constructed between local and imperial deities, the Incas were able to further entwine themselves into the local ideologies. As MacCormick (1991) points out, the Incas needed to maintain the cooperation of the ayllu priests and priestesses. As intermediaries between the deity and the living, these people held considerable power in manipulating public opinion. The Incas rewarded their cooperation with material gifts and sacrifices.

Silverblatt argues that some changes in the position of women in society took place with the Inca conquest. Gender ideologies of complementarity and parallelism were still strong. Women held very important positions in the cult of the Moon. Now a strict hierarchy existed. The Queen held power over all women. Due to the emphasis on conquest and expansion in Inca culture, the inequality implicit in the conquest hierarchy led to the gradual erosion of women's status. Silverblatt speculates that during this period men received a greater share of the productive resources than women due to the practice of rewarding them for the activities as warriors. Stable isotope analysis revealed that, while the amount of maize that females were consuming was consistent with the botanical product data, males had higher levels of maize consumption than expected. Hastorf's (1988, 1991) explanation for this is that men were consuming additional maize outside of the household, probably in the form of chicha during corporate work, gatherings and rituals. In addition, she states that a "bold" interpretation of her paleoethnobotanical spatial analysis would indicate that there might have been an ". . . increased circumscription of female activities in the Inka phase of Sausa life" (1991:148). Inequalities between men and women were certainly arising in some aspects of life.

Although the status and lives of most women did not change dramatically with the Inca conquest, the Inca, as the most elite conqueror, held symbolic and real power over all women. This dominance was dramatically illustrated through the institution of the aclla. Acllas were young women of moral and physical perfection, often of noble birth, who were selected by a representative of the Inca and placed in acllawasis. These were convent-like places where the acllas were sheltered and instructed in the ideological and practical roles of womanhood such as preparing the chicha and weaving luxury cloth. The acllas were internally ranked. Zuidema (1991) states that the ranking was based on the aclla's beauty, birth order, position and the rank of her mother. The ultimate fate of the acllas was decided by the Inca. They could hold various roles within Inca society. The higher status acllas usually became keepers of the shrines of principal Inca deities or secondary wives to the Inca himself while the rest became priestesses of secondary deities or the secondary wives of men loyal to the regime. Those that were ". . . considered to be the embodiment of physical and moral perfection . . ." (p. 82-3) were chosen to be capac huchas.

Silverblatt's careful analysis of the acllas is original in several respects. Previous accounts of the acllas describe them primarily as a form of specialized labor, or as another mitimae (e.g. Burkett 1978, Murra cited by Silverblatt, Spaulding 1984, MacCormack 1991). Burkett (1978:104,125), for example, describes the acllawasis as "houses of withdrawal or seclusion" where women "lived controlled and isolated lives, dedicating themselves to domestic chores and food preparation for themselves and members of the royal family." This view may derive from the interpretation of their function by the Spanish chroniclers. MacCormack (1991:170 citing Molina and Cobo) describes a ritual of the Inca: "With the Inca came the men of royal lineages, but no women, for aside from the mamacona who prepared the chicha, women were barred from attending." Evidently, the Spanish chroniclers saw the acllas as performing only a peripheral and secular role in these rituals. Silverblatt concedes that the aclla played a very important economic function.

Silverblatt argues that the acllas served several secular and sacred roles in society and should be regarded as distinct from mitimae. Firstly, she claims that others have glossed over the "institutionalized virginity" imposed on the aclla. This was strictly adhered to. The penalty for adultery with "chosen women" was severe (MacCormack 1991). Silverblatt notes that the institutionalized virginity of the acllas is especially striking because premarital sex was not only the norm in Andean society but was encouraged. Another characteristic distinguishing acllas from other laborers was the holy, venerated position acllas enjoyed in Inca society. Selection into the ranks of the acllas was seen as a great honor for a woman and her family. Acllas held very important positions in the shrines of Cuzco and beyond. They played sacred roles in important rituals. In addition, as MacCormack (1991) notes, the women of a dead Inca emperor remained in his palace and maintained his ancestor cult. These priestesses no doubt held power as intercessors between the humans and the deities (MacCormack 1991, Silverblatt 1978). Lastly, unlike common mitimae, the acllas had a luxurious lifestyle. Because of their positions as the keepers of shrines and secondary wives of noble men the acllas held an elite status. Therefore, acllas are distinct from mitimae in several important respects.

Silverblatt follows others (e.g. Burkett 1978, Kolata 1992) in discussing the role of the acllas in reinforcing social alliances within the Inca empire. By cooperatively giving daughters as acllas, the families were rewarded by stronger alliances with the empire. Curacas often received their positions in this way. More importantly, the acllas were used as tools of diplomacy (Kolata 1992) in that the Inca could present acllas as secondary wives to his loyal followers. Because the acllas were "endowed with the prestige of the state" (Kolata 1992:235) and, through their labor, were an economic asset, they made very desirable marriage partners. For the Inca's benefit, the presence of the aclla in these households would have quelled anti-Inca sentiments. Some acllas would have assisted in spreading Inca doctrine throughout the empire. Silverblatt sees acllawasis as performing an analogous function to the Cuzco schools for the male children of curacas. Acllas were indoctrinated with an ideology that reinforced the legitimacy of Inca rule. Their subsequent dispersal to distant shrines and as secondary wives disseminated this ideology.

Silverblatt feels that the institution of the acllas was a constant reminder of the conquest hierarchy. Acllas were the embodiment of the "conquered." The marriage of the aclla to Inca noblemen was a metaphor for conquest. Acllas were not maintain rights as members of their natal ayllus. However, they were never fully adopted into Inca society. Despite their privileged status, Burkett (1978) points out, the acllas had no control over their selection or their lives afterwards. Silverblatt claims that the control over the acllas" sexuality "deprived the ayllu of control over its own temporal continuity" (p. 107). The domination of the acllas by the empire is symbolized in the burial rites of the secondary wives. They were buried in imported soil from their native province, yet an imperial marker was placed upon their graves. Silverblatt feels that the acllas symbolically represent the Inca's control over all women/conquered.

According to Silverblatt, acllas that fit the Inca view of perfection participated in the capac hucha, a ritual in which they were sacrificed to the gods and often became the subject of their own shrine in their local province. Silverblatt's depiction of the capac hucha is perhaps the best illustration of her selectivity. Although she never states outright that only acllas were victims of the capac hucha, the context in which she presents a description of the ritual and the accompanying quotes regarding the ceremonies surrounding the sacrifice of the "aclla-capacocha," Tanta Carhua, may lead the reader to assume that the ritual sacrifice was exclusive to acllas. In addition, Silverblatt claims that the capac hucha served the purpose of creating alliances between the province or father of the aclla and the Inca as well as to symbolize Cuzco's dominance.

Other researchers present a much different description and analysis of the capac hucha. Zuidema (1982) describes capac hucha as beautiful children who were sent to Cuzco and sacrificed without the shedding of blood by burial in shaft tombs either in Cuzco, their natal community, or elsewhere in the empire. Zuidema also describes a capac hucha as a physical object of an old huaca (e.g. dress, water) used to initiate a new huaca. The aclla traveling to Cuzco represented the huaca and the ayllu members. Zuidema (1977/78:141) cites Hernandez Principe in stating that the capac hucha was the guardian and custodian of the whole province. In addition, Zuidema (1977/78) considers that archaeological evidence supports his speculation that the capac hucha may be associated with Chichaysuyu and that the chroniclers generalized to the whole empire. McEwan and Van de Guchte (1992) depict the capac hucha as children between 6 and 10 years of age taken on a journey to Cuzco along the royal Inca roads. When the capac hucha reached Cuzco, pairs of boys and girls were symbolically married then sent away from Cuzco along ceque lines to carefully selected sites where they were sacrificed. Miniature silver and gold votive offerings in the form of household goods were left with the bodies of the capac huchas.

Researchers have suggested many possible meanings of the capac hucha. Several of these follow. The sacrifices were often carried out to mark important events such as the beginning and end of the agricultural cycle (McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Zuidema 1977/78), during the initiation of young men (MacCormack 1991), or at the inauguration or death of Inca (MacCormack 1991, McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Verano 1991). The capac hucha were also a form of tribute to the Inca as they were collected for taxation (Verano 1991), and upon conquest (Zuidema 1982). The capac hucha was also to insure the health of the Inca (MacCormack 1991, McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Verano 1991). In addition, McEwan and Van de Guchte (1992:369-70) claim that the capac hucha was a "device for bonding sacred space and ancestral time." Boundaries of the empire and the individual regions were often marked with the shrines of capac huchas (MacCormack 1991). Capac huchas were likely given to the provinces through reciprocity for huacas that made correct prophesies (MacCormack 1991). In another reciprocal exchange, fathers that gave their children as capac huchas were rewarded with a place in the state hierarchy, commonly as curacas (MacCormack 1991, McEwan and Van de Guchte 1992, Zuidema 1982). MacCormack (1991) notes that the capac huchas were always non-Incas. This supports the conquest hierarchy models of Silverblatt. In addition, the aclla-capacocha traveling to and from Cuzco could have symbolically linked the Inca and Cuzco with the people and the four quarters (MacCormack 1991). McEwan and Van de Guchte (1992) claim that the miniature votives further symbolized the Incas' fascination with an ideal, invisible world while the "marriage" symbolized kin relations, alliances and a union of the feminine and masculine dualistic forces. Unfortunately, Silverblatt's focus on the capac hucha is too narrow. Silverblatt's insights regarding dualism would have made for a rich discussion of McEwan and Van de Guchte's (1992) ideas regarding the marriage of capac huchas.

Although Silverblatt's argument runs smoothly from pre-Inca to Inca social organization with clear divisions between the two, reality is not as neat. Clendinnen (1988:182) writes: "As Dr. Silverblatt indicates, she is essentially dependent on minimally differentiated colonial materials for her oppositions between the Inca and pre-Inca periods, which could make some of her readings and claimed distinctions appear willful." Many of changes that Silverblatt associates with the Inca conquest developed earlier in many regions of the Andes. The Andean people had been exposed to military expansionism long before the Incas, for example, Chimor and Tiwanaku (Kolata 1990). These conquering groups were fully familiar with huaca capture. The transition from kin ties to institutionalized class hierarchies also occurred earlier in many regions. Archaeological research at Chan Chan provides obvious evidence for status differentiation with an upper ruling class (Kolata 1990). In addition, Tiwanaku had a centralization of power, mobilized labor, and a class hierarchy with peasants and a ruling elite (Kolata 1991; in press). Retainer burials and sacrifice was practiced in the Andes as early as the Early Intermediate Period (Verano 1991). Although Silverblatt footnotes her acknowledgment of the variety found in the Andes, her model is enhanced by her selective examples. Perhaps future research in these topics should focus on the changes which occurred with state formation throughout the Andes instead of focusing only on the changes that occurred with the Incas.

The final chapters of Silverblatt's book deal with her interpretation of the Spanish conquest. Although the Andean people were accustomed to conquest, their contact with the Spanish differed markedly from what they had experienced in the past. The Spanish brought a totally foreign world view to the Andes. They had little respect for ayllu institutions, "safety nets," and principles, such as reciprocity, duality, common property, rule by consent, kinship ties and membership rights. A market economy was imposed. For the Spanish, value was measured by ones contribution in commodities, and later cash, to the market economy. The central colonial government, organized by Spanish traditions of power, exacted heavy tributes on the curacas who struggled to maintain traditional institutions. Inca nobles were granted elite class status in Spanish society. The ruling class now received its power and legitimacy from the Spanish and was under no legal obligation towards the indigenous peasants. The result was exploitation and abuses of the lower class natives out of greed, and often desperation. Further, unlike the Incas, the Spanish had no tolerance for indigenous religious beliefs. Stereotypes imported from Spain resulted in accusations of devil worship and witchcraft.

Silverblatt's focus is primarily on peasant women. Sometimes this leads her to see the plight of the peasant woman as the worst in colonial society and to gloss over the changing lives of others including nobles and peasant males. However, Silverblatt fully admits that these are her biases from the onset.

Silverblatt argues that many of the laws imposed by the Spanish altered Andean society, resulting in abuses of the natives. The most disruptive of Spanish laws were those regarding private property, a novel concept in the Andes. According to Silverblatt, former Inca nobles, as elites in Spanish society, were given the privilege to own and inherit property. Inspired by greed, these elites claimed much of the lands formerly belonging to the ayllus and their religious cults. These laws allowed much land to be taken from the peasants and concentrated in the hands of the elite. The establishment of encomiendas provided an efficient means of plundering. Although Silverblatt claims that Inca nobles played a significant part in exploiting the natives, Spaulding (1984:138) states that "by 1556 the only men eligible to receive encomiendas were nobles who had served the crown in the civil wars, the first conquerors or men in Peru before 1540."

Silverblatt claims that Inca noblewomen also participated in the fight for lands. Because Spanish law labeled married women, as well as peasants, "legal minors" who needed a "tutor" to "help" them with their lands, their husbands took control of their lands and its Indian residents. Noblewomen were greatly valued by Spanish men because of their value in the market economy. By marrying a noblewoman one could gain control of rich resources. The native noblewomen often married the Spanish men for the increase in status they would enjoy as a Spaniard's wife. Initially the women and their families took Spanish as relatives expecting reciprocity and respect. This was not forthcoming. Silverblatt states that since husbands controlled the family land, it could no longer be passed down to women descendants, and parallel descent within the female sphere was dissolved.

Many Spanish laws demonstrated the lack of knowledge or respect for the Andean concept of duality in sex roles and leadership. Silverblatt claims that residence patterns and inheritance were made patrilineal and patrilocal by decree of the Spanish. Women were largely viewed as invisible property of their husbands and leaders. They lost their former privileges to collect inheritance from their female ancestors and to maintain their rights in their natal ayllus. However, the transformation to a patrilineal form of descent was not complete. Women fought against their declining position in society. Accounts of cases filed by women can be found in the colonial court records. These women claimed that their male relatives had no rights to their lands or that their land had been illegally confiscated. When it became apparent that women could not keep control of their lands, the laws were manipulated by women willing their property to, for example, sons-in-law with the hopes that they could be trusted to hold the property for the women in name only. Nevertheless, Silverblatt argues that these new laws resulted in an erosion of gender relations between women.

Women's ties may not have deteriorated as much as Silverblatt thinks. Silverblatt (1980) mentions that natives males wanted to abandon parallel transmission of usufruct rights to land. This is evidence that parallel transmission was not completely abandoned. In fact, Cook (1990 citing Lima Church Councils records) claims that "the church did recognize the validity of Andean patterns of parallel descent and allowed the practice to continue into the colonial era." In contrast to Silverblatt's conclusions, Burkett (1978) has a more balanced perspective on the role of women in the colonial era. She claims that post conquest ties were indeed largely along sex lines. Women were making loans and willing objects primarily to other women. Instead she sees a distancing of links between Andean men and women because of demographic inequalities, exclusive opportunities for women, and marriage to Hispanic men. Although both Silverblatt and Burkett are female biased, their conclusions are quite different.

Spanish tribute demands placed an additional burden on the eroding native institutions. The nature of tribute was very different with the Spanish. The emphasis shifted from labor and goods for use to commodities. The Spanish accepted the curaca as a ruler of the ayllu. As long as tribute demands were met the Spanish government continued to support the curacas as colonial ayllu leaders. Several circumstances prevented curacas from meeting their full obligations established in pre-Columbian times. Unlike the Inca censuses for tribute, the Spanish counted all able-bodied men between 18 and 50 in calculating tribute. Once these figures were established they were not often adjusted. Several factors such as disease, warfare, and labor related deaths, caused a severe demographic imbalance. In addition, Silverblatt states that many males fled from the ayllus to avoid heavy tribute payments while females remained behind. On the other hand, Burkett (1978:109) states that "at least as many indigenous women as men, if not more, entered the Hispanic urban world." Burkett reasoned that this was because of heavy tribute demand, lack of marriageable men in the ayllus, forced moves and enslavement by Spanish men, and dreams of betterment Silverblatt extensively mentions women fleeing to the puna to live a traditional way of life. As a whole there were at least twice as many females as males in the post-conquest period. As the tribute demands were not adjusted to reflect changing demography, those remaining in the ayllus were heavily burdened.

Silverblatt notes that the curacas were thrust into a bad position between the natives, expecting them to follow indigenous ayllu rules, and the Spanish, demanding tribute payments. Because the curacas received their positions from the Spanish, the indigenous people suffered. The heavy tribute demands required that they now ask for tribute payments from single males. In order to meet the unrealistic requirements of the Spanish, they were also forced to disobey Spanish law and demand goods and labor from single women and widows . Burkett (1978) agrees that in rural areas women were more affected by the Spanish than the men, mainly because of heavy tribute burdens. Silverblatt and Andreas (1985) also note that male relatives gave females to Spanish in exchange for tribute exemptions. In a method similar to secondary marriages to acllas, generally upper class male relatives arranged marriages between females and Spanish men. The priests also demanded women. They kept them in their houses to weave for them. These women were often sexually abused. Much of the abuse of women was an attempt by the males to lessen the impact of Spanish tribute demands.

The Spanish set out to completely extirpate native Andean religions. Silverblatt argues that as women became invisible in the political and religious (Catholic) realms of the Spanish, their importance in the practice of the now outlawed native religions increased dramatically. Silverblatt (1987) states that females were prohibited from holding Catholic offices, and Burkett (1978) notes that indigenous women were culturally excluded from acceptable women's roles in the church (e.g. convents). Because the degree of public worship of native deities declined, and clandestine worship increased (MacCormack 1991), the Andean women became the keepers of the native religious traditions. Silverblatt argues that men were in the public eye and unable to safely participate in the native religion. Women took over a majority of the leadership positions in the native religious organizations, even those that were formerly restricted to males. Andeans developed many means of holding onto their native religions in spite of Spanish brutalities. They incorporated the Spanish into their religion or secretly rebelled. For example, huacas were hid behind Catholic altars so that they could be worshipped even under the eyes of the Spanish (MacCormack 1991). The curacas, noting the devastation of Andean society and desiring to rebel, assigned women to feed the neglected, "hungry" huacas who had begun "eating" the Indians. The priestesses, as upholder of native tradition, were respected by the Andeans and sought out in times of trouble and illness. These women risked being labeled a witch.

Silverblatt presents an extensive discussion on the history of the European witch hunts. She then goes on to explain how the native religions and priestesses fit into imported Spanish stereotypes of devil worship and witches. The Spanish believed that women, like nature were "capricious, emotional, unpredictable, something that had to be dominated conquered and controlled" (Leacock and Nash 1977 in Silverblatt 1980." They were potential enemies of the church. Some women escaped persecution by moving to the puna where they could live a native Andean life, uncontaminated by the foreign institutions of the Spanish. The exodus of women to the puna led to the modern linking of the highlands with females (Silverblatt 1980). Despite the risks involved, Andean woman have remained the keepers of tradition in the colonial until today.

Silverblatt argues that peasant women were the most persecuted group under Spanish rule. Evidence against this argument is plentiful. Elite women were restricted from many aspects of their former life. Unlike peasant women, elite women were probably not able to participate in their native religion. As Silverblatt points out, marriages joined many of the elite women to Spanish husbands. While this may have been advantageous economically they, like the male leaders, would have been in the public eye and had a higher risk of getting caught. Retreating to the puna may have not been an option for these women. In addition, because of contact with the Spanish men and their religion, they would have been viewed as contaminated and unsuitable for officiating during sacred rituals. Although the elite women were able to prosper economically because of their position in colonial society they would have been under the yoke of their husbands, Deere's ( 1982 ) ethnographic research in the modern Andes showed that while the power structure and control over agricultural land in peasant society is more egalitarian, the elite strata is more male-controlled and patriarchal. Deere focuses on the heterogeneous participation of women in agriculture.

Clearly the status of women in Andean society was modified and lowered through contact with the Inca and Spanish. However, the story is not simply one of the oppression. Burkett (1978) presents a picture that is a striking contrast to Silverblatt's "invisible" women. Burkett portrays women, especially those living in urban areas, as the "major actors on the stage of colonial Peru." She argues that peasant women held an active and essential role in the economic realm and were often better off than the native males. Burkett (1978) concedes that men were superior in the ideal but not in practice. She even argues that the Spanish conquest was an emasculating experience for Andean males. Contact with the Spanish was largely between males and females while Andean males "were [in most cases] sought out only as pack animals."(Burkett 2978:119). Women had more options. Men could only obey or flee. Because of the scarcity of white women and the fear of Indian males, Indian women held a higher status in Colonial society. Women had intimate contact with Spanish men and women which allowed them to have more information and material resources. They were more knowledgeable about colonial laws and proficient in Spanish even though they received no formal education. These women were very visible in colonial society, "defending themselves, making contracts, fighting in court, and disposing of considerable property..." (Burkett 1978:117.) Finally, when it became necessary, women did not shy away from actual battle. This was especially true in the case of Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua who joined her husband, José Gabriel Tupac Amaru in a fierce rebellion against the Spanish (Hahner 1980). She was highly respected in colonial times and continues to be a role model for women in the Andes today.

The major shortcoming of Silverblatt's book is her overly simplistic division of Andean history and prehistory into three well characterized periods. This leads her to explain all cultural transformations in terms of symbolic transitions from pre-Inca to Inca society, or from the Inca to the Spanish periods. For instance, the decline in the status of women that resulted from the transition from kin ties to institutionalized class hierarchies that accompanied the Inca conquest may have much more to do with the establishment of an expansionist empire than with the interplay of symbolic aspects of Inca and local ideologies. The fact that similar changes accompany earlier conquests supports this view. A second major fault of Silverblatt's account is her tendency to overemphasize the plight of women, especially those of the lower classes. Men and children also suffered horribly from the Spanish conquest. In most other respects, the book is very commendable. Her insights into dualism, acclas and gender parallelisms are often original and well thought-out. In spite of its problems, this book provides an excellent point of departure for future studies of power in the Andes and throughout the world.

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