prompt week 12

 In the introduction, Stern also clearly identifies the act of Christopher Columbus sailing to the Americas as an agent of change.  It is important to distinguish between the act of Columbus sailing to the Americas and Columbus himself because it had been historically made clear that someone else would have achieved the same feat shortly thereafter.  However, the act of colonization set off an important debate that remains relevant in today’s society as someone’s perspective can heavily affect their opinion of the colonization.  Out of this came concepts such as the black legend, debates on morality of the Spanish and the natives alike, and on the meaning of what the year 1492 actually holds to human history.  The debate itself carries an important meaning into historical context that chapter 1 delves into as it deals with the means of survival for those affected by the Spanish conquest.   

Stern's work embodies the definition of ideology in a similar way that Conrad and Demarest did as it defined the way in which the Andean communities were able to survive as " bonds of community tied together dispersed producers into a pattern of cooperation which provided self-sufficiency to everyone in the collective family" (6).  Therefore, the concept of kinship was fundamental because it provided them with a means of survival but it also extended beyond actual kinship and gave them a sense of unity and identity among people who may not have been actually related.  Furthermore, as Stern explained, the fundamental unit of kinship of Andean structure was the allyu; members of the aforementioned familial unit believed their descendants to be of a single ancestor.  Therefore, that ideology allowed for the “family” to extend well beyond what the modern understanding of kinship is.