Pobleros, mayordomos y administradores en el mundo rural cordobés (1580-1650)

Abstract

Studies devoted to the system of “encomiendas” in colonial Tucumán have always dealt, in one way or another, with the situation of “pobleros”, “mayordomos”, “sayapayas” or administrators, pointing them out as key components in the management of the early “encomiendas”. Even if they did not have the same leading role and significance in all the cities of Tucumán, historians have agreed in characterizing them as the right-hand men of “encomenderos” and as subjects particularly cruel in the treatment toward aborigines. In this article we go deeper into particular aspects of these social agents in the old Córdoba del Tucumán jurisdiction, government of Tucumán, and we examine others, for instance their character as cultural mediators, which was hardly investigated. The period covers the beginning of the configuration process of the productive unities in the region of Córdoba (approximately from the 1580’s decade) and half of the XVII century, which covers previous and succeeding moments to the enactment of Alfaro’s bylaws.