* Professor Ramirez has a long and distinguished record of scholarship on the colonial period * Well-balanced narrative covering all major themes of the subject in an appropriate level of detail * Concise and accessible writing style * Illustrated with maps and images to bring the history to life * Incorporates the latest research advances from the fields of colonial history, social history, and ethnohistory

* Professor Ramirez has a long and distinguished record of scholarship on the colonial period * Well-balanced narrative covering all major themes of the subject in an appropriate level of detail * Concise and accessible writing style * Illustrated with maps and images to bring the history to life * Incorporates the latest research advances from the fields of colonial history, social history, and ethnohistory

The old saying that "history is written by the victors" certainly applies to most of the history of European colonialism in Spanish America. However, in recent decades scholars have begun to study the Spanish conquest and early colonialization of America from the point of view of native Americans in an attempt to right this imbalance. Taking the perspective of the vanquished, the present author aims to determine and explain some of the general principles on which the pre-Hispanic Andeans' lives were based. The book describes how the imposed Spanish colonial system altered the organization and belief systems of the native inhabitants of northern Peru during the first fifty years or so after the Spanish conquest. By centering on an area that was incorporated into the Inca empire relatively late (1460's-70's), the book offsets the Cuzco focus of much of the existing literature on Inca history and culture. It explores the impact of expanding colonialism on indigenous ideas about leadership and legitimacy, the supernatural and morality, land and tenure, service and allegiance, and wealth. This history is based on many types of early historical accounts, local-level primary documents, and archaeological and anthropological findings. Although the writings of Spanish chroniclers are used cautiously, administrative records often contain petitions from Indians who express their concerns in their own, albeit translated, words, and judicial records include valuable testimony from native witnesses. These native American statements give us an intimate glimpse into Amerindean society, showing how indigenous people actively sought opportunities to defend the principles on which their community lifedepended. That these attempts to explain their beliefs and conception of the world were ignored or dismissed, discredited and ridiculed, and certainly largely misunderstood has resulted in a lasting distortion of the historical record.

This book reexamines the structure of Inca society on the eve of the Spanish conquest. The author argues that native Andean cosmology, which centered on the idea of divine rulership, principally organized the indigenous political economy as well as spatial and socio-kinship systems. Ramirez begins by establishing that the phrase "el Cuzco," picked up from the native peoples by the Spanish invaders, referred not only to a place but also to the Inca leader. This leader acted as the center of the Inca universe, connecting the people to their ancestors, nature, and each other. From this starting point, the author revisits the Inca cosmology and looks at the way in which the ruler and other authorities connected the people to the gods and bound a diverse polity together under divine protection. Next, the book shows how rituals immortalized these leaders and connected the people to past generations. Finally, the author examines how a cosmology, centered on the divine nature of the king, defined the community and identity of the Andean people.

This book reexamines the structure of Inca society on the eve of the Spanish conquest. The author argues that native Andean cosmology, which centered on the idea of divine rulership, principally organized the indigenous political economy as well as spatial and socio-kinship systems. Ramirez begins by establishing that the phrase "el Cuzco," picked up from the native peoples by the Spanish invaders, referred not only to a place but also to the Inca leader. This leader acted as the center of the Inca universe, connecting the people to their ancestors, nature, and each other. From this starting point, the author revisits the Inca cosmology and looks at the way in which the ruler and other authorities connected the people to the gods and bound a diverse polity together under divine protection. Next, the book shows how rituals immortalized these leaders and connected the people to past generations. Finally, the author examines how a cosmology, centered on the divine nature of the king, defined the community and identity of the Andean people.

Apart from collective memories of lived experiences, much of the modern world's historical sense comes from written sources stored in the archives of the world, and some scholars in the not-so-distant past have described unlettered civilizations as "peoples without history." In Praise of the Ancestors is a revisionist interpretation of early colonial accounts that reveal incongruities in accepted knowledge about three Native groups. Susan Elizabeth Ramirez reevaluates three case studies of oral traditions using positional inheritance-a system in which names and titles are inherited from one generation by another and thereby contribute to the formation of collective memories and a group identity. Ramirez begins by examining positional inheritance and perpetual kinship among the Kazembes in central Africa from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Next, her analysis moves to the Native groups of the Iroquois Confederation and their practice of using names to memorialize remarkable leaders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, Ramirez surveys naming practices of the Andeans, based on sixteenth-century manuscript sources and later testimonies found in Spanish and Andean archives, questioning colonial narratives by documenting the use of this alternative system of memory perpetuation, which was initially unrecognized by the Spaniards. In the process of reexamining the histories of Native peoples on three continents, Ramirez broaches a wider issue: namely, understanding of the nature of knowledge as fundamental to understanding and evaluating the knowledge itself.

Apart from collective memories of lived experiences, much of the modern world's historical sense comes from written sources stored in the archives of the world, and some scholars in the not-so-distant past have described unlettered civilizations as "peoples without history." In Praise of the Ancestors is a revisionist interpretation of early colonial accounts that reveal incongruities in accepted knowledge about three Native groups. Susan Elizabeth Ramirez reevaluates three case studies of oral traditions using positional inheritance-a system in which names and titles are inherited from one generation by another and thereby contribute to the formation of collective memories and a group identity. Ramirez begins by examining positional inheritance and perpetual kinship among the Kazembes in central Africa from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Next, her analysis moves to the Native groups of the Iroquois Confederation and their practice of using names to memorialize remarkable leaders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, Ramirez surveys naming practices of the Andeans, based on sixteenth-century manuscript sources and later testimonies found in Spanish and Andean archives, questioning colonial narratives by documenting the use of this alternative system of memory perpetuation, which was initially unrecognized by the Spaniards. In the process of reexamining the histories of Native peoples on three continents, Ramirez broaches a wider issue: namely, understanding of the nature of knowledge as fundamental to understanding and evaluating the knowledge itself.