The transfer and reduction of the Chicoana Valley along the Camino Real al Peru. 16th to 18th centuries, Salta, Argentina

Abstract

This study identifies the mechanisms that actively created a landscape of colonial domination in the Lerma Valley, in Salta, Argentina, during a long-term process that began with the first Spanish incursions and lasted until the consolidation of Hispanic-Creole power (16^th-18^th centuries). From a spatial perspective, an analysis is made of the transfer of Indian villages from the densely populated Calchaquí Valley, which rebelled against colonial power, to the adjacent Lerma Valley. This approach allows us to propose that the Indian reservations that were created from the denaturalizations of the 17th century with the populations defeated in the pacification wars, sought to recreate the Calchaquí landscape such as it had been perceived by the conquistadors since the moment of their first presence in the region. A critical reading of the historical documentation offers a neat picture of the mechanisms through which a 250 km long valley could be fit into one square league, by way of war and dismemberments over the course of 150 years of colonial domination, while nonetheless maintaining similar landscape markers and ethnic dispositions, albeit distorted by the perceptions, representations and practices of Spanish power in Tucumán.