Matrilineality and Empire: Indigenous Kinship Networks and Gendered Mobility in Early Modern Colombia
Open Access
- Author:
- Godfrey, Katherine
- Graduate Program:
- History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 28, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Amara Solari, Outside Unit & Field Member
Matthew Restall, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Martha Few, Co-Chair of Committee
Amy Greenberg, Major Field Member
Ronnie Hsia, Major Field Member
Tatiana Seijas, Special Member
Michael Kulikowski, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- matrilineal
colombia
indigenous people
colonialism
women
gender
children
new kingdom of granada
mobility - Abstract:
- This dissertation examines the influence of Indigenous matrilineal kinship networks and social practices on early colonial life and ethnic identity formation in the Audiencia de Santafé jurisdiction (which covered a significant portion of the Northern Andes of South America well into the eighteenth century). By using a gendered lens to scrutinize imperial level correspondence, locally produced manuscripts, archaeological remains, and visual sources, this dissertation underscores the crucial, yet often ignored, role of matrilineality in supporting the Spanish Empire’s colonial ambitions in the Northern Andes. The research presented here privileges the staggered mobilities and lived experiences of Indigenous women and their children in the construction of early colonial life. It explores how women and children helped formulate colonial identities, as these historical figures were the sinew that permitted vast social, economic, and kinship networks to not only survive the onslaught of European colonialism, but also expand and evolve networks as the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries progressed. Ultimately, I argue that matrilineality, or the descent, inheritance, and social relationships traced through maternal lines (as opposed to paternal, for instance) allowed the Spanish Empire to survive and eventually flourish in the environmental extremes and challenging distances that Northern South America boasted. By establishing constant mobility as one of the shared norms throughout the Audiencia de Santafé’s jurisdiction, I show that vulnerable colonizers often adapted to and reflected distinct, Indigenous lifeways—in whichever place with whichever ethnic groups they depended on for survival. If an advantageous alliance could be formed, for example, Spaniards were tentatively allowed to exist and move within Indigenous jurisdictions, which often resulted in colonizers’ incorporation into extensive kinship networks through matrilineal relations and exogamous partnerships. These partnerships were significant cultural features that received support from the Spanish Crown but seldom receive serious attention in contemporary studies about Indigenous peoples and their influence on Spanish colonialism within the Audiencia de Santafé’s jurisdiction. These cultural and social interactions produced a society in which Europeans were hardly in control of the outcome of colonization. One of the most significant examples of this phenomenon was Indigenous people’s reception and direction of the malleable Spanish institution, the encomienda, which this dissertation argues functioned as a means to maintain and grow matrilineal kinship networks. Moreover, the use and control of Indigenous trading routes, the myriad ethnic groups that crisscrossed such paths to visit kin and/or join jornadas, and the cultural, legal, and economic ramifications that resulted left distinct impressions on the region. Even the role of transatlantic mestizo minors cannot be ignored, as they tethered together and defined disparate, ethnic groups and relationships throughout the region. In contrast to studies that repeatedly emphasize the Spanish “Conquest,” subjugation, and victimization of the “Muisca,” the “Pijao,” and other colonially produced ethnic groups in the Audiencia de Santafé’s jurisdiction, this dissertation instead demonstrates how in the face epidemic disease, violence, and demographic upheaval, Indigenous pueblos, or peoples, and particularly women and children directed regional and transatlantic politics and, in the process, their own and others’ ethnic identities.