Description
Book SynopsisThis comparative frontier history explores the role that natural environments played in shaping the contours of European-indigenous encounters and processes of colonization
Trade Review“There has been much talk about comparative history but precious little of it in the Spanish colonial period. Cynthia Radding has led the way.”— David J. Weber, Director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University
“This is a beautifully written comparative frontier history that balances in-depth historical analysis of two relatively unexplored regions on the edge of the Spanish empire against broader insights into the active role that ecologies played in shaping the contours of European-indigenous encounters and processes of colonization over long periods of time. With this book, Cynthia Radding takes the ‘new environmental history’ of conquest and colonization to a new level.”—Brooke Larson, author of
Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810-1910“Carefully researched and clearly written,
Landscapes of Power and Identity provides an illuminating comparison of the environmental history of Spanish colonialism. . . .
Landscapes of Power and Identity will be an illuminating read for specialists in a variety of fields including environmental history, borderlands history, and Spanish colonial history and a model for all those scholars interested in pursuing comparative history.” -- Rachel St. John * Western Historical Quarterly *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix
Abbreviations xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction. Savannas and Deserts: Two Histories of Cultural Landscapes 1
1. Ecological and Cultural Frontiers in Sonora and Chiquitos 19
2. Political Economy: Communities, Missions, and Colonial Markets 55
3. Territory: Community and Conflicting Claims to Property 89
4. Ethnic Mosaics and Gendered Identities 117
5. Power Negotiated, Power Defied: Politial Culture, Governance, and
Mobilization 162
6. Priests and Shamans: Spiritual Power, Ritual, and Knowledge 196
7. Postcolonial Landscapes: Transitions from Colony to Republic 240
8. Contested Landscapes in Continental Borderlands 295
Notes 327
Glossary 375
Bibliography 385
Index 423
