Residencia: the annual inspection of households in an andean community

Abstract

This paper provides ethnographic detail on a practice in the Andes known as residencia, the annual inspection of households by community officers in the traditional cargo system. Going house to house, newly-inaugurated officeholders look for signs of cleanliness, animal husbandry, discipline of children, ritual preparedness, religiosity, fertility, and charity. Garcilaso de la Vega reported on a similar practice carried out by Incan officials, but whether residencia is of Incan origin or arose post-Conquest remains unclear. While not as strict as it once was, residencia is still central to the celebration of the New Year.

Keywords

• Andes
• Inca
• civil-religious hierarchy
• cargo system
• peasant community
• social control