Cacical succession and political strategies in Santa Isabel de Pucará (Cabana and Cabanilla province), Audiencia de Charcas, 16th and 17th centuries

Abstract

This paper recovers Martha Bechis’ proposals on the cacical succession among the rankülchen of the south of current Córdoba province (Argentina) in mid-19th century to consider the same problem in the southern Andean pueblos de reducción between late 16th and early 17th centuries. We evaluate the hermeneuticoperativity of the concept of “adelphic succession”, referred to a collateral or “fraternal” hereditary pattern, to analyze the transformations carried out by the Hispanic colonial domination on native groups and on the criteria of legitimacy of the pre-Hispanic kuraka, who became caciques principales. Nourished by this exploration over discontinuous spatialities and temporalities, we focus on the pueblo of Santa Isabel de Pucará -Cabana y Cabanilla province, current Puno department, Peru- to examine the changes in the inheritance patterns through the prism of an inheritance lawsuit of 1591-1606.