Indigenous Elites, Liberalism And Communal Land Right. The Peruvian Sub-Andean Space During The 19 Th Century

Abstract

This article deals with the Peruvian South Andean space during the 19th century, as a laboratory to examine the actions of the indigenous population in the defense of property and communal land rights, particularly the role of the so-called indigenous elite in this process. This social, cultural and economic space was considered peripheral for the Peruvian State, which is why a series of institutional and normative changes were promoted in the context of the formation of the national State. With the intention of incorporating the country into the capitalist economic circuits, the area was narratively desertified and the cultural specificities of the native population that inhabited this territory were made invisible. Thus, this space was erected as a sphere of articulation between the diverse socio-ethnic sectors present in it. After a brief analysis of the process of the formation of the Peruvian State, we will address the liberal economic principles that directly affected the communal property rights over the land and with it, the ethnic, economic and cultural traditions of the natural inhabitants of the territory who reacted/adapted to them. Specifically, we will delve into the praxis deployed by the indigenous elite to interact with the legislation and republican authorities as legitimate defenders of the communal rights of the native communities, but also how, in the context of the establishment of the liberal order, they took advantage of their networks to preserve properties and obtain private benefits, even to the detriment of the natives they were supposed to protect.

Keywords: Indigenous elites, communities, land, liberalism, Peru.