Analogy or Erasure? Dialectics of Religious Transformation in the Early Doctrinas of the Colca Valley, Peru
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Analogy or Erasure? Dialectics of Religious Transformation in the Early Doctrinas of the Colca Valley, Peru Steven A. Wernke1 Published online: 19 April 2007
This paper examines the tension between the Spanish evangelical ideal of religious conversion (erasure and replacement of “idolatrous” praxis) and the exigencies of its enactment (inter-cultural communication via analogy) among a series of sixteenth century Franciscan doctrinal settlements (doctrinas) in the Colca valley of southern Peru. I suggest that the necessity and outcomes of inter-cultural communication during initial evangelization made conversion impossible, despite increasing institutionalization of coercive doctrinal measures through time. Combined archaeological and historical analysis explores how these tensions were locally negotiated. Written texts describe early extirpation campaigns, while archaeological evidence documents the remains of early doctrinas in the form of rustic chapels at local settlements which were previously centers of Inka power. Associations between these chapels and Inka ritual spaces hint at an analogical approach to conversion that is not as evident in the documentary record. Analogies linking Inka and Christian religious symbols were later “re-written” onto the surfaces and spaces of Spanish-style reducci´on villages established in the 1570 s. KEY WORDS: religion; conversion; colonialism; Andes.
INTRODUCTION In the early years following the Spanish invasion of the Americas, realization of the ideological drive to instill a unified Christian faith by church clerics was complicated not only by the immensely complex and diverse indigenous religious terrain of the conquered territories, but also by the lack of consensus regarding the principles and means of evangelization. Debates within the colonial church 1 Department
of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B #356050, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235, USA; e-mail: [email protected]. 152 C 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 1092-7697/07/0600-0152/1
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oscillated between Lascasian discourses that emphasized the imperfection of human knowledge concerning divinity and the importance of voluntary assent to conversion, and those advocating a more forceful eradication and replacement of idolatrous practices. Such ecclesiastical debates were mirrored by those among civil administrators. In the Andes, the noted rivalry between the prominent colonial jurist Juan de Matienzo and lawyer Juan Polo de Ondegardo, for example, similarly cleaved over the question of the degree to which the colonial state should be built anew or on indigenous Andean foundations (Matienzo, 1910 [1567]; Polo de Ondegardo, 1917 [1571]). In reality, however, the colonial project was never as coherent as either of these sides would have it, but instead was shaped by a series of improvised responses to the demands of colonists and royal mandates on the one hand, and to a dizzying array of indigenous interests and responses on the other. Faced with a
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