« Je le dis pour mémoire ». Testaments d’Indiens, lieux d’une justice ordinaire. Cajamarca, Pérou, XVIIe siècle

Abstract

By the end of the 16th century, Cajamarca is a “town of Indians” destined to the natives. Many of them fled, disappeared or died, whereas the Spaniards settled down in the head town of the province Cajamarca becomes in the 17th century, which population rises up to 10 000 inhabitants. We are interested in the way the non-Indians undertook actions to legitimize their “right to be there”. In order to evade the prohibitions ruling over the relations with Indians — that restricted the acquisition of real estate — they persisted in their efforts to legitimize their presence and managed to control all the spheres of local government, including those of ordinary justice concerning the Indians. In this process, the public legal writings (constituted mainly by wills) represent both a mean and an aim of government. We are interested in this “taking over of the writing” by the Indians, who, as they respond to the legal and religious requirements, find in that practice a place of expression of their feelings and affections. We propose an analysis of the individual’s will and of the voluntary aspiration of justice by means of the Indian written words, which played a testimonial roll with a judicial vocation. Thus, the Indian public notary submits a report of the present state of things. He does this aiming to enforce the surviving members of the family to reimburse the debts of the deceased, to guarantee the realization of funerals, and to state “for the record” (“para que conste”) so that this act has validity in the future. Hence, the testament, available hereafter at the public registry for anyone to see, becomes a place of justice which inverts the time of those who spoke.

Keywords

• justice
• Peru
• writing
• indian
• wills
• vice-royalty