Indigenous mining workers in Cerro Rico de Potosí: following the traces of their labor practices (16th and 17th centuries)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-9222.2014v6n12p55Keywords:
Potosí, mining labour, indigenous peopleAbstract
In the colonial context of the 16th to 17th centuries, the silver and gold mining was a key economic sector of the European domination. During the period one of the main worldwide centers of silver production was the Cerro Rico of Po-tosí (present-day Bolivia). From 1573 it was fed with indigenous labour force, under a system that mixed compulsory labour (mita) and voluntary one. The rules of this system were lucidly analyzed by the historiography. This article proposes to trace the faint documentary trails of the everyday working practice developed by the in-digenous mining labour force in Potosi. The aim of the analysis is to become visible the plasticity of the indigenous mining labour world in Potosi which was not static for the long century that followed the establishment of the mita.
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