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Reed College history professor publishes new book on the Indian nobility in South America
David Garrett releases Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of Cusco, 1750-1825.
PORTLAND, OR (December 1, 2005) – David Garrett,
associate professor of history and humanities at Reed College, has
released a new book entitled
Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of Cusco, 1750-1825
[Cambridge University Press, 2005]. Focusing on the descendants of
the former Inca nobility and their relation to the Spanish
government and local Indian communities of the period,
Garrett's new book explores the indigenous elite's
social, economic, cultural, and political positions in the Americas
after the Spanish conquest.
"The people chronicled in my book comprised the top few
percent of wealth and social class in their society,"
Garrett notes. "In writing the book, I was interested in
exploring how those Incas and other indigenous elites, whom the
Spanish considered legally noble, interacted with Spain and their
communities."
Garrett found the research especially fascinating, in part because
the topic of the relationship between the Inca nobility and the
Spanish government after conquest has not been significantly
studied.
"I wanted to explore the relationship of the Spanish
government and the Inca nobility beyond the standard
colonizer/colonized dichotomy," he says.
Beyond the Inca nobility, Garrett also focuses heavily on the
internal organization and the diversity of cultures within the
colonial Indian communities of the bishopric of Cusco and how the
nobility and these communities interacted.
For his next book project, Garrett plans to continue his
exploration of Cusco by studying the bishopric's economy in
the 17th century.
"In the future, I plan to explore the conceptual spaces,
the networks within the societies of Cusco," Garrett says.
"My next project will explore the tensions between the
social, economic, and political structures within the society and
how the new colonial administration and government performed their
role."
As a professor who often teaches classes on Latin American
history, Garrett believes that his teaching and curriculum benefit
from his research.
"Since I teach classes on Latin American history,
pre-columbian civilizations, conquest, colonialism, and the golden
age of Spain, working on projects like this allows me to stay in
tune with the current historical debates and present interesting,
relevant historical discussion to my students."
David Garrett
Garrett, a member of Reed's faculty since 1998, is an
associate professor of history and humanities. He earned a Ph.D.
from Columbia University, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a
B.A. from Yale University. His main area of interest and research
is the colonial Andes – particularly indigenous
societies. He is the author of articles in the journals Revista
Andina and Hispanic American Historical Review. At Reed, he teaches
courses on colonial and modern Latin American history, early modern
Spanish history, and Humanities 110 and 210. He has traveled
extensively in the Andes, particularly in Peru and Bolivia.