Los Llanos of La Rioja in the 18th century. Problems, actors and methods of an interdisciplinary investigation

Abstract

This article focuses on the methodology and the interdisciplinary articulation -between history and anthropology- leading an ongoing investigation about Los Llanos de La Rioja, Argentina. Censusesand registers of late colonial population addressed mainly through qualitative methodology were the basic sources of the present research. Other documents, such as mercedes (rights to land), civil conflicts andvisitas (inquiries) to the indigenous population, have also been used. The combined approach of ethnohistory, anthropology and social history kindled the interaction between diverse scales of analysis-the theoretical axis of the investigation-, and the dialogue with the prehispanic past and the agrarian political problems, key to both the regional historiography of the 19th century and our present.