|
Peru Settlement Patterns
In pre-Columbian eras, the highland population was
ensconced
on ridges, hillsides, and other locations that did not
interfere
with farming priorities. Large ceremonial buildings,
temples, or
administrative centers, were, however, located in central
locations, often apart from the residences of average
persons. By
the time of conquest, the Incas had rearranged settlements
to
suit their own vision of administrative needs in conquered
areas.
Thus, Inca planners and architects constructed special
towns and
cities, such as Huánuco Viejo, to handle their needs.
With Viceroy Francisco Toledo y Figueroa's colonial
reforms
in the late sixteenth century, however, the traditional
Andean
settlement patterns were drastically altered through the
establishment of settlements called reductions
(
reducciones--see Glossary),
which were located in the
less advantageous areas, and the founding of new Spanish
towns and cities. The reduction system forced native Americans
to settle in nucleated villages and towns, which were easily
controlled by their masters, the
encomenderos (see Glossary),
as well as clergy and regional governors
(
corregidores de indios--see Glossary). The
Spaniards also
established their own towns, which were off limits to most
native
peoples except for occasional religious celebrations or
for work
assignments. These towns eventually became home to the
dominant
mestizo. As the municipal and economic centers of each
district
and province, these mestizo towns (poblachos
mestizos)
remain the dominant settlements, constituting the district
and
provincial capitals throughout the country. Today,
virtually all
of the small towns and villages throughout the highlands
are
either the product of the reduction system of forced
relocation
or were established as Spanish colonial municipalities.
The striking similarities among settlements in terms of
design and architecture are no accident. Virtually all
settlements thus exhibit the grid pattern or model of
rectangular
blocks arranged around a town square, universally known as
the
arms plaza (plaza de armas). This design reflects
the
military dimension of the conquest culture, the central
place in
an encampment being where armaments were kept when not
deployed.
By direct analogy, it also demonstrates and symbolizes
central
authority and power. Typically, then, the most important
residents lived close to the plaza de armas, in the
most
prominent houses. Status, conferred by birth, race, and
occupation, was confirmed by a central urban residence. In
modern
practice, status has continued to be reflected in a
hierarchy of
urban residence descending from Lima to the departmental,
provincial, and district capitals. No one of importance or
power
is rural.
Data as of September 1992
|
