Acknowledgements
This book is a revised version of my Habiliation thesis, first handed in at the University of Cologne in 2020 and later reworked for the publication at Brill. This book would never have taken its final shape without the support, comments, and criticisms by a considerable number of people and also institutions. First of all, I want to thank Barbara Potthast for accompanying the project since its beginning, for commenting on its development, and for being my mentor throughout the process, integrating me into several research environments that were extremely inspiring. In the second half of the project, I was lucky to start collaborating intensely with Raquel Gil Montero, who works on related topics in seventeenth-century Charcas (nowadays Bolivia). This collaboration as well as her reading of my work have been of immense value and I cannot thank her enough for all her useful comments on many parts of the book. I would also like to thank Romy Köhler. Her careful final reading of the Habilitation thesis and thoughtful comments have improved the structure of the text considerably.
Several institutions have contributed in funding this research project. A major share of the funding came from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) under the grant AL 1943/1-1 which funded my position as senior researcher at the University of Cologne for three years, as well as student assistants and my archival visits. Additional funding came from the University of Cologne, the “University of Cologne Forum Ethnicity as a Political Resource – Perspectives from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe”, the Global South Studies Center in Cologne and, in its very initial phase, from the “Research Network for Latin America – Ethnicity, Citizenship, Belonging” financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung).
Aside from the aforementioned academic patronage, I am deeply indebted to another set of institutions without which the research would never have been possible: historical archives. I am grateful to the staff of the following archives: in Mexico: Archivo General de la Nación, Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad de Pátzcuaro, Archivo Histórico Municipal de Morelia, Archivo Histórico Casa de Morelos, and Archivo de la Real Audiencia de Guadalajara. In Peru: Archivo General de la Nación, Archivo Arzobispal de Lima, Archivo Regional de Cajamarca, Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Cajamarca, Archivo Arzobispal de Trujillo, and Archivo Regional de la Libertad in Trujillo. In Spain: Archivo General de Indias.
Furthermore, there is a long list of colleagues who during some part of the research have shared their ideas with me or have commented on oral presentations,
I am also much indebted to my past and present student assistants, Aileen Böckmann, Carolina Kammer, Lia Helguero Kandt, Leon Meyer zu Ermgassen, Anna Plum, Katja Reuter, Elena Sandmann, Ayu Requena Fuentes and Rabea Schmecht. I would also like to thank Pax Amphlett for a thorough language proofreading.
Many colleagues from the Department for Anthropology of the Americas from the University of Bonn and also members from other German universities have contributed to this project. I appreciate comments and support offered by Carmen Ibañez Cueto, Sergio Bebín, Martin Biersack, Christian de Vito, Anne Friedrichs, Wolfgang Gabbert, Antje Gunsenheimer, Carla Jaimes Betancourt, Romy Köhler, Danitza Márquez Ramírez, Karoline Noack, Kerstin Nowack, Hinnerk Onken, Horst Pietschmann, Bettina Severin-Barboutie, Yasmin Temelli, Astrid Windus, Carlos Zegarra Moretti, and my mentor, Barbara Göbel.
From Mexico, the following colleagues have been of great help: Hans Roskamp, Cristina Monzón, Nora Jiménez, Andrew Roth-Seneff, Chantal Cramaussel, Carlos Paredes Martínez, Aaron Pollack, Felipe Castro Gutiérrez, Karla Ramírez, Alejandro Solís, Concha Gavira Márquez, Celina Becerra, Lina Cruz and Olivia Diaz. I would like to thank the following colleagues from Peru: Susana Aldana, Juan Castañeda Murga, Carlos Contreras, Renzo Honores, Cecilia Méndez, Scarlett O’Phelan Godoy, Francisco Quiroz, Julio Sarmiento, Teresa Vergara, and Marina Zuloaga Rada.
Further colleagues from Latin America to whom I am grateful are Christophe Giudicelli, Claudio Pinheiro and Ignacio Telesca, and especially Aude Argouse. Aude indicated the existence of the petitions in Cajamarca to me and her tips guided me on my first archival visit in Cajamarca. In Spain and the Netherlands, I would like to thank Catia Antunes, Antonio Fuentes Barragán,
I am also thankful for the insightful comments and recommendations both by the the members of my Habilitation thesis committee (Barbara Potthast, Raquel Gil Montero, Michaela Pelican and Michael Zeuske) and by the two anonymous reviewers who commented on a shortened version of the Habilitation thesis in the process of publication at Brill. I furthermore appreciate the kind and highly professional support by the editor George Bryan Souza and the associate editor Alessandra Giliberto as well as as account manager Savitha Jayakumar.
Much of this work would not have been possible if my grandparents, parents, parents-in-law, siblings, and siblings-in-law had not taken care of my two wonderful children and encouraged me throughout the years. Therefore, my thanks go to Helga, Elisabeth, Gustav, Andrea, Rainer, Theresia, Teresa, Simon, Uta, and Sascha. Last but not least, I would like to express the most sincere gratitude to my marvelous husband Ingo and my children Timo Luan and Jana Leia who have walked along with me, traveled with me, and missed me in my absence. Thank you.