Culture & Society.
Indigenous Communities
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Indigenous populations produced maps and pictorial documents to assert and defend their rights to water and land.”[1] Native nobility, i.e. the legitimate Indigenous governing authorities, "continued to possess great symbolic power throughout the colonial period." This was in part a result of the oral tradition.[2] Many indigenous Mexican languages (e.g. Nahuatl) are 'Adamic," meaning they name things after their essences.[3]
Map of Indigenous language groups in Oaxaca (map by Felipe H. Lopez [4]:
Map of Indigenous language groups in Oaxaca (map by Felipe H. Lopez [4]:
When the Spanish colonized and instated their regime, "sacred objects that connected [Indigenous] men to the gods were banned, along with their worship." There is evidence, however, that the objects were used and sacred Indigenous practices continued in secret through the colonial period. "One such example occurred in 1745, when Indians from the pueblo of Tenango del Valle (present-day state of México) surreptitiously made their way to a nearby cave in which they had hidden idols they continued to worship.”[5]
Creole Identity
The term “Creole” takes on a number of different meanings. For consistency, I will use it to mean (as it meant in colonial Mexico) those of European descent born in the Americas.[6]
Creole naturalists assumed natural laws were different in the Americas than in Europe, and that American phenomena could only be studied by Creole scientists.[7] Despite their European lineage, Creoles tended to oppose the Spanish regime; e.g. a Creole publication, the Gazette de Guatemala, declared that imperial policies would impoverish their lands and destroy biodiversity.[8]
Creole naturalists assumed natural laws were different in the Americas than in Europe, and that American phenomena could only be studied by Creole scientists.[7] Despite their European lineage, Creoles tended to oppose the Spanish regime; e.g. a Creole publication, the Gazette de Guatemala, declared that imperial policies would impoverish their lands and destroy biodiversity.[8]
Encounters & Intersections
Notions of the soul and human morality had existed in Indigenous communities prior to the introduction of Christianity[9] and by the 18th century, “indigenous systems of knowledge had transmuted into hybrid forms of folk Catholicism and had become marginal in Latin American societies.”[10] Medicine of the time popularly drew upon a fusion of Amerindian and African medical practices.[11]
In Europe, the Enlightenment had no patience with Spain, "for it stood for all the things the literati most hated.”[12]
In Europe, the Enlightenment had no patience with Spain, "for it stood for all the things the literati most hated.”[12]
Structures of Race & Slavery
The Spanish viceroyalties hosted a society obsessed with racial hierarchies.[13] Legislated identities "regulated who was an Indian and who was not." This was "all worked out arbitrarily (but systematically), to serve the interests of the colonizing society."[14]
1794 marked the abolition of slavery in the French colonies.[15]
1794 marked the abolition of slavery in the French colonies.[15]
Religion & Folk Magic
Astrology "was part of the obvious mental landscape of every learned individual in the Early Modern world regardless of religion or country of origin." In the Spanish Empire, Christianity ruled supreme.
The Mixtec and Zapotec people of Oaxaca believed in Nahualism: the ability of a person to transform into an animal, fire, or meteor. The held a belief in Tonalism, as well: a “companion animal” exists with which a person shares the same fate and earthly sensations. In the 16th century, it was popular belief that pregnant women were particularly susceptible to astronomical irregularities, and also should avoid looking at dying people. The Zapotec people believe that an unborn child endured what its father endured. In general, the gods were mischievous. [16]
The Mixtec and Zapotec people of Oaxaca believed in Nahualism: the ability of a person to transform into an animal, fire, or meteor. The held a belief in Tonalism, as well: a “companion animal” exists with which a person shares the same fate and earthly sensations. In the 16th century, it was popular belief that pregnant women were particularly susceptible to astronomical irregularities, and also should avoid looking at dying people. The Zapotec people believe that an unborn child endured what its father endured. In general, the gods were mischievous. [16]
Gender dynamics
African and Indigenous women in colonial Caribbean used peacock flower as an abortifacient to spare their future children from being born into bondage or an otherwise hostile and/or impoverished situation.[17] Meanwhile, men of science passing through areas often "presumed that indigenous and slave women, like other bioresources, were there for the taking."[18]
Enlightenment thought
Thiery de Menonville likely subscribed to Enlightenment thinking. Under this school of thought, views of race, particularly as they related to subhuman-ness, became more formalized into explicit systems of classification and “regimes of truth.”[19]
[1] Ruiz Medrano, 103.
[2] Ruiz Medrano, 120. [3] Canizares-Esquerra, 56. [4] https://oer.haverford.edu/cali-chiu/chapter/1-lecsyony-teiby/ [5] Ruiz Medrano, 132. [6] Schiebinger, 15. [7] Canizares-Esquerra, 63. [8] Schiebinger and Swan, 144-45. [9] Tuhiwai Smith, 51. [10] Canizares-Esquerra, 46. |
[11] Schiebinger, 14.
[12] Canizares-Esquerra, 96. [13] Canizares-Esquerra, 65. [14] Tuhiwai Smith, 23. [15] Schiebinger. [16] Lisa Sousa, 23. [17] Schiebinger, 4. [18] Schiebinger 138. [19] Tuhiwai Smith, 33. Go to full bibliography. |