Our ideas about colonial Latin American are often tied to urban scenes - images of towering cathedrals fronting large plazas or bullion-laden caravels anchored in ports. But this collection of eleven original essays, the first overview of rural life in colonial Latin America, shows the many, ways in which the countryside rather than the city dominated colonial life in Brazil and throughout Spanish America. Over 80 percent of the population lived in rural areas, earning their livelihood from raising crops and livestock. Most were laborers, either Indian peasants or black slaves. Land owners and church officials comprised a tiny elite which, together with a few artisans, rural traders, and local officials, enforced social control, provided capital, and linked haciendas to city markets. The racial and occupational characteristics of each of these social groups are carefully delineated in individual essays. Three essays also examine the rural economy, material culture, and ecosystem of the countryside. The colonial hierarchy often rested on the coerced labor of Indians and slaves, and another essay assesses the role of conflict, violence, and resistance.