The Effects of Potosi on the Indigenous Population of Alto Peru: Pacajes at Mid-Seventeenth Century

Abstract

The present province of Pacajes (Bolivia) is the empirical basis for the study of the Potosi mita. The main points examined are: the system of work, the different forms of labour obligations, which were not always subject to official control through the mita, as well as the repercussions that such irregularities had on the native elites and on the communities themselves, whose members initiated (in response to this pressure) a movement of flight, seeking refuge in rural settlements of other regions. The article also analyzes the changes that ocurred in the demographic and social structure of these communities as a consequence of this process.