Purpose: As discussed in the lecture, the establishment of Spanish colonial rule in Mesoamerica was uneven. Even with the widespread destruction caused by disease and forced labor, Indigenous people never disappeared and the Spanish never entirely replaced Indigenous forms of social and political life (and it was rarely advantageous for them to try). Our readings this week discuss these trends of continuity and change at different scales: the repblica de indios and the household. In this discussion, we’ll use these broad trends to read these texts in different ways.
Task: In these readings, Martnez discusses the transformations of Indigenous leadership with colonial rule, and Sousa explores the resilience of certain Indigenous concepts of household, community, and gender. In this discussion, we’ll read these texts the other way arouns.
In your post, choose one reading and answer: where does Martnez explore the continuity of precolonial political, social, economic, cultural, and other forms? Or, where does Sousa note changes to precolonial political, social, economic, cultural, and other forms?
