Mirages of Transition

The Peruvian Altiplano, 1780-1930

Nils Jacobsen

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520079380
• eBook ISBN: 9780520913912
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: History

This case study of the Peruvian altiplano, the vast high-altitude plains surrounding Lake Titicaca, combines economic and social analysis with cultural and institutional history. Nils Jacobsen challenges the prevailing view that the rural Andes underwent a successful transition to capitalism between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He argues that although the political, economic, and administrative structures of colonialism were gradually dismantled by the region's advancing market economy, colonial modes of constructing power and social identity have lingered on even to this day. The result of painstaking research in remote rural archives, some of them now made inaccessible by the Shining Path, Mirages of Transition will become the definitive work on the Peruvian highlands.
This case study of the Peruvian altiplano, the vast high-altitude plains surrounding Lake Titicaca, combines economic and social analysis with cultural and institutional history. Nils Jacobsen challenges the prevailing view that the rural Andes underwent

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Introduction Why, Where, and How Many?
• 2 From the “Andean Space” to the Export Funnel
• 3 Colonialism Adrift
• 4 The Oligarchization of Liberal Visions
• 5 The Symbiosis of Exports and Regional Trade
• 6 The Avalanche of Hacienda Expansion
• 7 Communities, the State, and Peasant Solidarity
• 8 Gamonales, Colonos, and Capitalists
• 9 Conclusion Gamonales Aren’t Forever
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index