La escritura en el archivo: mecanismos de dominio y control en el Nuevo Reino de Granada

Abstract

A study which explores the way in which the colonial archive is constructed through judicial-administrative mechanisms, dedicated to exercising control over the subordinated populations and the maintenance of colonial power. The passage from oral native testimony to written document, characteristic of Spanish lettered culture, represented a cultural challenge. At the same time, the natives gradually learnt how to use written documents and to undertake judicial disputes. The bureaucratic control of the Spanish monarchy essentially depended on the use and file of written documentation and on the role that the lettered elite played.