The natives couples.

Before the war, the region was a compact society of about 20,000 natives living across a dense patchwork of villages and orchards, with balanced gender roles, shared agricultural labor, and a steady birth rate that sustained the population. The conquest around 1620 shattered that equilibrium: roughly three-quarters of the native male population was killed, leaving only a few thousand men among a much larger number of women and causing an immediate demographic collapse. Instead of ruling through constant violence, the occupiers then rebuilt the society according to a highly structured system. They took exclusive control of land, heavy agriculture, and infrastructure, while confining natives to domestic work and, above all, large-scale fruit picking for export. At the same time, they imposed a set of visible social norms designed to make hierarchy unmistakable: natives were required to keep long hair, maintain smooth, groomed bodies, and go without clothing, while occupiers remained clothed and clearly marked as a distinct group. Subtle differences in food distribution kept native men lean and less physically imposing, while native women remained relatively stronger and more capable, reinforcing a shift in everyday roles. Public humiliation—being corrected, exposed, or shamed in front of others—became the main form of discipline, ensuring that people adjusted their behavior constantly without the need for frequent physical punishment.

As these norms took hold, the society stabilized and began to function smoothly within this framework. Native women became the practical backbone of daily life, carrying much of the routine labor and maintaining households, while native men, though still present and functional, lost central roles in authority, production, and social definition. Occupier men stood at the center of the system, directing work, embodying power, and shaping interactions across the entire population. Over time, even relationships reflected this structure: reproduction among natives alone nearly disappeared, while overall birth rates recovered and then rose sharply through unions involving occupiers, producing a rapidly growing mixed population. For the seco