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Abstract

Since the early colonial era Spanish and creole writers from across Spanish America have alleged that drunkenness was a defining characteristic of indigenous culture. This essay offers an interpretation of that torrent of discourse. Through a comparison of nineteenthcentury and colonial discussions of indigenous drinking the essay excavates the changing contours of the elite understanding of the 'drunken Indian', and considers the reasons for that figure's persistent vitality within the creole imagination.

Keywords

• Alcohol
• Indians
• drunkenness
• creoles
• discourse.