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Religion in the Andes
Addressing problems of objectivity and authenticity, Sabine MacCormack reconstructs how Andean religion was understood by the Spanish in light of seventeenth-century European theological and philosophical movements, and by Andean writers trying to find in it antecedents to their new Christian faith.
- GenresReligionSpainNonfiction
516 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1991
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August 5, 2023
This an absolutely remarkable book which is not truly about Andean religion. Rather it shows how the writings of Aristotle as filtered through St. Thomas Aquinas dominated the thinking of Europe until the end of the 17th Century. While the discovery of America by Columbus is today generally regarded as an event of the Renaissance, MacCormack demonstrates that the men who conquered and ruled the Spanish colonies for the first two hundred years belonged intellectually to the scholastic middle ages.
MacCormack makes her point through an analysis of the writings of Spaniards on the religion of the Incas and Andean people. In addition she makes brilliant use of contemporary paintings and drawings to buttress her argument.
In the eyes of the first Spaniards who conquered Peru, the people of the Andes were absolutely barbaric. Children were sacrificed at important festivals. Widows and servants were buried alive with their masters. Mummies of ancestors not only attended but participated in family councils. The education of theSpanish conquerors invaders provided a simple explanation: the Devil had taken control of the leaders of the Andeans. Demons directed the Andeans through their idols and mummies.
Very simply in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Devil was believed to play an active role in human events not only in the New World but in the Old World. Jews and Muslims were also believed to be highly susceptible to demonic illusions. Christians also frequently fell under the influence of the Devil.
Scholasticism (i.e. the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas based primarily on Aristotle) had a model of cognition to explain this active role of the Devil in human affairs. Humans possessed a divine intellect and divine sense to perceive the world. Imagination came between the intellect and the senses making it possible for the intellect to think. However, the Devil had the power to intervene in the imagination thus causing the individual to act in error.
Nothing that the Spaniards saw surprised them. Human sacrifice and mummies had existed in the pagan era of the Mediterranean world. Christian scholars thought that demons had used the idols the Greco-Roman pantheon to direct the activities of those who believed in them. The challenge then was to determine exactly what level of pagan civilization in the Andes and to select the appropriate conversion.
There existed a faction amongst the Spanish who wrote on the topic who felt that Andean religion was close to Christianity. They perceived that the Andeans saw a unity in nature which meant that the Andeans were close to those Ancient Greeks who believed in Aristotle's prime mover, the direct predecessor of the Christian God. Others noted that the Incans had tried to unify a myriad of local deities or spirits known as huacas under a single Solar God that they all were obliged to pay homage and tribute to. Garcilaso de la Vega was so enthusiastic about Andean religion that he described it as being "suavidad y dulzura" (gentleness and sweetness). Those Spanish writers like Garcilaso who believed that Andean religion was close to Christianity felt that conversion could proceed through dialogue.
The faction that ultimately triumphed, however, was of the opinion that Andean religion was quite different and that coercion was the best strategy. The name that they applied to their method was "extirpation". Accordingly roughly 60 years after Pizarro's conquest, the Spanish colonial authorities conducted a vigrous campaign to locate and destroy pagan idols as well as ancestral mummies.
As MacCormack closes her narrative at the end of the 17th century, most of the relics of Andean religion have been destroyed. The Spaniards continued to see the Devil as an active agent in human affairs. European civilization was according to MacCormack still waiting for Spinoza who would provide a model of human cognition in which the Devil was not an active agent.
MacCormack's interpretation of the events in Peru is not the strength of the book. It is rather the remarkable erudition that she uses to show the influence of Scholasticism on the mentality of those who wrote about Andean religion during the first 200 years of the Spanish regime. She mentions St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle and Plato most often. However, number of classical writers that she is able to identify as being influencers is very long. Included in the list are Sallust, Virgil, Diodorus, St. Augustine, Eusebius, and Josephus. She also shows a very thorough knowledge of the old testament. Finally, she uses the paintings to reinforce the points that she wants to make about the mentality of the era. Works by Hieronymus Bosch, Juan de Flandes, Francisco Zurbaran and Domenico El Greco are analyzed.
I personally do not think that MacCormack's book will ever be supplanted. She was a professor of Classics at the University of Michigan. The number of students taking classics and the number of specialists in the area is shrinking not growing. All that we know about the religion, legends and folklore of the Andean people was recorded by men trained in the Scholastic tradition. It does not seem likely to me that there will be another scholar in the future with MacCormack's credentials able to reproduce her research and challenge her conclusions. With is more likely is that her work will simply be ignored by those who do not like it.
MacCormack makes her point through an analysis of the writings of Spaniards on the religion of the Incas and Andean people. In addition she makes brilliant use of contemporary paintings and drawings to buttress her argument.
In the eyes of the first Spaniards who conquered Peru, the people of the Andes were absolutely barbaric. Children were sacrificed at important festivals. Widows and servants were buried alive with their masters. Mummies of ancestors not only attended but participated in family councils. The education of theSpanish conquerors invaders provided a simple explanation: the Devil had taken control of the leaders of the Andeans. Demons directed the Andeans through their idols and mummies.
Very simply in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Devil was believed to play an active role in human events not only in the New World but in the Old World. Jews and Muslims were also believed to be highly susceptible to demonic illusions. Christians also frequently fell under the influence of the Devil.
Scholasticism (i.e. the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas based primarily on Aristotle) had a model of cognition to explain this active role of the Devil in human affairs. Humans possessed a divine intellect and divine sense to perceive the world. Imagination came between the intellect and the senses making it possible for the intellect to think. However, the Devil had the power to intervene in the imagination thus causing the individual to act in error.
Nothing that the Spaniards saw surprised them. Human sacrifice and mummies had existed in the pagan era of the Mediterranean world. Christian scholars thought that demons had used the idols the Greco-Roman pantheon to direct the activities of those who believed in them. The challenge then was to determine exactly what level of pagan civilization in the Andes and to select the appropriate conversion.
There existed a faction amongst the Spanish who wrote on the topic who felt that Andean religion was close to Christianity. They perceived that the Andeans saw a unity in nature which meant that the Andeans were close to those Ancient Greeks who believed in Aristotle's prime mover, the direct predecessor of the Christian God. Others noted that the Incans had tried to unify a myriad of local deities or spirits known as huacas under a single Solar God that they all were obliged to pay homage and tribute to. Garcilaso de la Vega was so enthusiastic about Andean religion that he described it as being "suavidad y dulzura" (gentleness and sweetness). Those Spanish writers like Garcilaso who believed that Andean religion was close to Christianity felt that conversion could proceed through dialogue.
The faction that ultimately triumphed, however, was of the opinion that Andean religion was quite different and that coercion was the best strategy. The name that they applied to their method was "extirpation". Accordingly roughly 60 years after Pizarro's conquest, the Spanish colonial authorities conducted a vigrous campaign to locate and destroy pagan idols as well as ancestral mummies.
As MacCormack closes her narrative at the end of the 17th century, most of the relics of Andean religion have been destroyed. The Spaniards continued to see the Devil as an active agent in human affairs. European civilization was according to MacCormack still waiting for Spinoza who would provide a model of human cognition in which the Devil was not an active agent.
MacCormack's interpretation of the events in Peru is not the strength of the book. It is rather the remarkable erudition that she uses to show the influence of Scholasticism on the mentality of those who wrote about Andean religion during the first 200 years of the Spanish regime. She mentions St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle and Plato most often. However, number of classical writers that she is able to identify as being influencers is very long. Included in the list are Sallust, Virgil, Diodorus, St. Augustine, Eusebius, and Josephus. She also shows a very thorough knowledge of the old testament. Finally, she uses the paintings to reinforce the points that she wants to make about the mentality of the era. Works by Hieronymus Bosch, Juan de Flandes, Francisco Zurbaran and Domenico El Greco are analyzed.
I personally do not think that MacCormack's book will ever be supplanted. She was a professor of Classics at the University of Michigan. The number of students taking classics and the number of specialists in the area is shrinking not growing. All that we know about the religion, legends and folklore of the Andean people was recorded by men trained in the Scholastic tradition. It does not seem likely to me that there will be another scholar in the future with MacCormack's credentials able to reproduce her research and challenge her conclusions. With is more likely is that her work will simply be ignored by those who do not like it.
December 20, 2010
Noting that extant sources on Andean religion are all filtered through European perceptions, MacCormak attempts to understand how the Spaniards' ideas of religion and the world influenced their encounters with New World cultures, which in turn influenced relations between the two groups.
The books opens with a discussion of the ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas as understood in sixteenth-century Spain. Key is the concept of phantasm, mental images formed by imagination based on observations from the five senses. This concept shaped the way in which Andean supernatural experiences were interpreted in comparison with Christian visions or apparitions, and changed over time.
MacCormak nuances her study by recognizing that both Spanish and Andean religion and religious practice changed over time. Local religions blended with the imperial cult of the Incan empire; when the Spanish arrived the Andeans were already accustomed to incorporating new aspects into their religions.
This book also has an excellent section on the sources materials from this period and earlier historical studies, including various interpretive lenses such as Classical thought and natural law. A must for anyone with a strong interest in this period.
The books opens with a discussion of the ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas as understood in sixteenth-century Spain. Key is the concept of phantasm, mental images formed by imagination based on observations from the five senses. This concept shaped the way in which Andean supernatural experiences were interpreted in comparison with Christian visions or apparitions, and changed over time.
MacCormak nuances her study by recognizing that both Spanish and Andean religion and religious practice changed over time. Local religions blended with the imperial cult of the Incan empire; when the Spanish arrived the Andeans were already accustomed to incorporating new aspects into their religions.
This book also has an excellent section on the sources materials from this period and earlier historical studies, including various interpretive lenses such as Classical thought and natural law. A must for anyone with a strong interest in this period.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews