Los Incas como ejemplo de sujeción. El gobierno del Perú y la escritura etnográfica del oidor de Charcas, Juan de Matienzo (1567)

Abstract

Andean studies, at large, have attributed to Juan de Matienzo -Colonial Judge of the Real Audiencia of Charcas between 1561 and 1579- the well-argued establishment of the legitimacy of Spanish rule, based on his legal consideration of branding the Incas as tyrants. As counterpart to this classic historiographic appreciation of the verdicts passed by the Colonial Judge, we argue that parallel to the construction of a pre-Hispanic Inca tyranny, he also proposes a government plan suggesting the recovery of certain aspects of this civilization which facilitated -as a matter of fact- the control of the native work force and the disciplining of their daily life. Close scrutiny of Gobierno del Perú (1567) reveals that the Colonial Judge considered the Inca policies of subjection as exemplifying, which encouraged the colonial re-articulation of some of its aspects. From the analysis of some textual fragments of his main work, we expose the fact that tyranny was a rhetorical exercise parallel to the construction of a Spanish image of the Inca Empire, used as guarantor of their modern methods to control the Inca people and ensuring the availability of their work force.