ABSTRACT
This chapter pinpoints actual experiences through a review of the documentation that Salasacas have had most contact with, from the colonial period to the present. From the start of the colonial period in the 1530s to the present, records of tribute and taxes have figured prominently in Salasaca experiences with literacy, as in other Andean societies. Tribute to the state was largely exacted through the encomienda system during the colonial period. While Salasacas have increasing contact with literacy through education, the major sources for magical beliefs remain the church and state documentation. The San Gonzalo case is particularly interesting, from a theoretical perspective, because it shows that this native group shares recent researchers' views of state documentation. Like the native Andean understanding of Marxist theory analyzed by Michael Taussig, the San Gonzalo beliefs reveal how much one indigenous group has understood and taken to heart documentation's power, particularly its capacity to define identity.
