THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF LATIN AMERICA BEFORE THE CRISIS OF 1808

This article presents a comparative overview of the situation of the Indigenous societies of the Americas in 1808 around three main lines of analysis: their degree of ecological autonomy, their capacity for cultural control, and their capacity for ethnogenesis. The comparison extends beyond the sedentary, stratified societies of Mesoamerica and the Andes to include non-State groups in Lowland South America and Northern New Spain, and tries to explain their contrasting reactions to the crisis of the Iberian empires that started that year.