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Jesuit-Indigenous Encounters - Coggle Diagram
Jesuit-Indigenous Encounters
European Jesuit encounters with indigenous artefacts inspire them to marvel and think about the nature of those who created them
Albercht Duer, 28th August, 1520
notes the 'ingenia' of these 'men in foreign lands'
Astonishment
Modes of Encounter
'Shock of the New'
Stephen Greenblatt's
Marvellous Possessions
(1991)
'Bunted Impact
J H Elliot's
The Old World and the New, 1492-1650
'Entanglement'
Connected histories, with power and coercion kept in view
Catastrophe and dispossession
Polycentric empires
Contact zones
Cultural translation
Jose de Acosta (1540-1600)
From a banking town, north of Madrid, Spain
Grew up in a merchant family (potentially Jewish ancestry), who were fairly well-off
Brilliant speaker, teacher, and administrator
1552: joins the Jesuits
1572: sent to Hispaniola, until 1587
The Jesuits
Founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540
Do not have a monastery, because they are always sent out, constantly moving
'Monastery of paper walls'
Communication and administration through letters
Independent work of the Jesuits, joined together through these letters
The 4th vow - papal obedience
Ignatius
Soldier background
Chivalric romances
Crusades become the backdrop
Although he moves away froths, they are seen attached to the Jesuits
Jesuit 'way of proceedings'
Heroic self-denial
Preaching missions
Confession
Teaching and founding (free) colleges
Pero Menendez de Aviles (1519-1574)
Like Acosta, part of a generation of 'New Man' (making his own wealth)
Started out as a Mediterranean raider
Had been governor in Florida in 1560s
By the time Acosta will meet him in 1572, he was the admiral of Philip II's transatlantic Armada
Ships ferrying silver to Seville, and wine, flour, and oil back to the Caribbean
Due to French and English corsairs, and disease, he lost ships and a fifth of his men by the time he reached Hispaniola
Fransisco Alvarez de Toledo (1515-1582)
Court favourite most of his life
Had been playing inside politics in Spain for most of his life
1569: appointed Viceroy of Peru by Philip II of Spain
To be Philip II's voice in the Americas
'Toledan Reforms'
Take their start from concepts and practices that are already embedded in Indian life
Notes the differences between those living in the high lands and the low lands
Mit'ma: a means by which Indians developed trading relations and movement of people in the case of crop failure in the lowlands/ issues in the highlands to the other
Programme of resettlements
Surprising (and brutal) effectiveness, after inheriting chaos
Began a massive programme of resettlements
Forcibly removes natives and moves them into different parts in order to extract more of the Mit'ma (transforms it into a slave system), and imports his European vision of towns into the Peruvian world in a way which had previously not existed
Resulted in resistance, as well as a demand for administrators and teachers
Also a capable leader of the scholars who have been brought with him
Tensions with the Jesuits
E.g. removes the right to give degrees from College of San Pablo, founded by Jesuits, leaving only the University of San Marcos
The
Lascasistas
movement and the problem of Confession
The problem of Confession
Issues with confession
Corrupt priests
Good priests were finding reviving confessions from the cruel conquistadors too hard and were wishing to leave the Americas
Bartolome de las Casas (1484-1566)
Advocated restitution, or even Spanish leaving the Americas
Followers often tied in with apocalyptic activism
Memorial de Charcas
(1582) - resistance/ reuse of Spanish administration structures
Drafted by 24 ethnic lords representing the Qaraqara, Chicha, Chuy, and Charka nations
Indicated Viceroy Fransisco de Toledo for the forced imposition of the Mita
Protested the dispossession of traditional native lands and hereditary authority
Challenged unfair quotas and arbitrary resettlements
The Third Council of Lima (1582-1583)
Acosta was a major player
Another form of resistance
Effects were both top-down and bottom-up
Standardised catechisms (to both discipline and enable resistance), indigenous participation, and language learning