When the Eagle Encountered the Lion: An Exploration of Religious Syncretism after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico (original) (raw)
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In 1577 Augustinian friar Juan de la Anunciación wrote that the unofficial notebooks of sermons in native languages that were in circulation resulted in doctrine “so varied, so indigestible, so confusing” that the entire project of evangelization was at risk. The existence of both an official, sanctioned Christian discourse and an unofficial, native discourse operating at the peripheries of power highlights one of the essential tensions in early colonial Mexican society. Much has been written about how the production of native language religious texts framed and molded the Church’s message. This paper is an attempt to shift the analytical gaze from “message sent” to “message received,” from center to periphery, from official to unofficial discourse. I argue that by focusing on religious texts that can be safely said to have been produced solely by natives for natives we can gain access to this so-called “indigestible” doctrine and its role in the emergence of multiple native Christianities.
Jaime Lara, Christian Texts for Aztecs/ Art and Liturgy in Colonial Mexico (2008) -- a review
Daft review of Jaime Lara, Christian Texts for Aztecs: Art and Liturgy in Colonial Mexico. Notre Dame, (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008). Everything about the Spanish/Aztec encounters in sixteenth century Mexico has been called into question, beginning with the term "encounters" (Spanish encuentros), adopted as a temporizing locution during the promotion of the Columbian Quincentennial in 1992, a kind of euphemism intended to avoid such starker choices as ethnic holocaust, colonial invasion, spiritual conquest, or hispanization. The story of these 16th century interactions and arrangements between Spanish conquistadors, colonists, and missionaries on the one hand, and the various indigenous populations of the land that would become known first as New Spain and then as Mexico, on the other, is so richly complex precisely because we have such an abundance of primary sources and textual evidence upon which to draw for analysis and interpretation-especially when we use the term text, as Lara does, to mean not only written documentation, but monumental architecture, material artifacts, artworks, public and private spaces, and activities such as processionals, ceremonies, and rituals. Lara persuasively argues these diverse sources and texts do not neatly separate into two polarized discourses, one Spanish and the other Native or Amerindian-because the locus of enunciation is so variegated. From the side of what is often loosely referred to as the Spanish perspective (actually itself a significant mix of various other European and also African elements), what we actually have are the varied, distinctive and often divergent perspectives and discourses of such groups as adventurers, conquistadors, and foot soldiers; encomenderos (settlers, with specific rights and obligations, as mandated by the Crown, in relation to Native populations); Franciscans, and members of other missionary orders; bishops, parish priests and other secular clergy; government officials.
(The following essay was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Campuswide Honors Program of the University of California, Irvine, upon my graduation in 2011) This essay will seek to answer the question of how, if at all, the widespread adoption of Catholicism, at least in practice, also served to maintain elements of indigenous religious identity in post-Columbian Mexico. An extensive study of relevant historical literature, fiction writings, and religious writings was undertaken. A systematic, doctrine-by-doctrine and ritual-by-ritual comparison was made between the traditional Catholic religion and the religion of pre-Columbian Mexicans at the time of the conquest. Upon examining both the historical and current nature of popular Catholic religion in Mexico, and determining where elements of both religious systems fit in, it can be said that Catholicism served to preserve aspects of native religious practice, and did so for the following reasons: First of all, a number of similarities between some beliefs and rituals existed, allowing for some semblance of pagan religion to exist even within the orthodox Catholic system. Secondly, failure to enforce proper Catholic doctrine allowed native practices to have a significant influence on Mexican Catholic ceremony. This was not only a product of neglect, but was also done by Catholic authorities in order to increase the number of converts, thereby legitimizing seemingly unchristian worship. Such historical factors as this, when examined alongside the surprising similarities between the two religious systems, help to explain how Catholicism, rather than eliminating everything Indian, actually helped to preserve some aspects of native religious identity.