Encomienda, mujeres y patriarcalismo difuso: las encomenderas de Santafé y Tunja (1564-1636)

Abstract

This article examines the topic of encomenderas (women encom/enda-holders) in Colombian histo­riography, showing the events that evoke them, the gesture that silences them, and how history recupera­tes them. Then it analyzes the social, economic, and political participation of women in the New Kingdom of Granada during the colonial period. In the third section, which is closely tied to the previous, the article links the participation of women in colonial society to the particular way that Colombian histo­riography has developed: contrary to Latin American historiography, it has not managed to reorient the focus on the central contribution of elite Creole and Spanish women from marriage to the encom/enda. Following this reexamination of their participation, the last part of the article investigates the origins of the title of encomendera and undertakes a social-statistical analysis of the encomenderas of Santafé and Tunja between 1564 and 1636.

Keywords

• Encom/enda
• encomenderas
• patr/archy
• per/ods of entitlement
• marr/age.