Drawing on the conceptualization of ethnic spaces, this article aims to characterize the daily life of women who inhabited the chiefdoms of Tarata, Tacna, and Codpa. The history of two mestizo women belonging to local chieftain families and that of the enslaved women owned by each of these women, is explored based on the wills of the former. Their situation is compared with that of two native women inhabitants of Belen town and two slaves of a priest who lived in the same doctrine, whose lives were reconstructed on the basis of parish books. Highlighting dissimilar aspects of their practical relationships allows for the differentiation of ethnic spaces.

Drawing on the conceptualization of ethnic spaces, this article aims to characterize the daily life of women who inhabited the chiefdoms of Tarata, Tacna, and Codpa. The history of two mestizo women belonging to local chieftain families and that of the enslaved women owned by each of these women, is explored based on the wills of the former. Their situation is compared with that of two native women inhabitants of Belen town and two slaves of a priest who lived in the same doctrine, whose lives were reconstructed on the basis of parish books. Highlighting dissimilar aspects of their practical relationships allows for the differentiation of ethnic spaces.

Drawing on the conceptualization of ethnic spaces, this article aims to characterize the daily life of women who inhabited the chiefdoms of Tarata, Tacna, and Codpa. The history of two mestizo women belonging to local chieftain families and that of the enslaved women owned by each of these women, is explored based on the wills of the former. Their situation is compared with that of two native women inhabitants of Belen town and two slaves of a priest who lived in the same doctrine, whose lives were reconstructed on the basis of parish books. Highlighting dissimilar aspects of their practical relationships allows for the differentiation of ethnic spaces.

Using records of marriages and marriage informations for the Doctrine of Belén, the main ecclesiastical laws that established norms for the formation of new families in the Indian villages of the highlands of Arica in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century were analyzed. Rather than attempting to adjust reality to the standard, the information contained in both types of sources coincide with the interpretations that suggest a degree of adaptation to indigenous practices, which may have caused the successful incorporation of Christian marriage to the community ritual system for the Doctrine of Bethlehem in the late colonial period.