- I found this work fun, but disorienting. Given that this work, unlike the Popol Vuh is written for a non-Indigenous audience, I feel Poma de Ayala does a good job of contextualizing a lot of the information he presents, correlating them temporally to events his Spanish audience would have understood. Speaking o audience, however, Poma de Ayala employs a very interesting narrative technique. He first establishes the supremacy of God, the Church, and the King, reiterating his dedication to their authority and presenting himself as a humble servean. While this move is likely to be anticipated in any work from the colonized to the colonizer, its his next move that confuses me. He goes on to attempt to disprove the primacy and idolatry of the Incas, the foundation on which the stripping of Inca power was predicated. His notion that the Incas were descendants of Noah’s and that, although they might have lost the word of GOd, they still worshipped him in their own way. Importantly, Poma de Ayala regularly repeats this claim in the first hundred or so pages, really emphasizing this as the grounding for his request to be granted some of his patrilineal authority back. What’s so confusing to me about this move, is that if he doesn’t get his implied audience, the King, to agree to this premise, his entire argument falls apart. No matter how well-ordered or Christian centric the society is at the time of writing, if he can’t prove a decendance from a Christian origin and that those beliefs were retained he gets nowhere. This, paired with his regular disparaging of Spanish customs and peoples doesn’t seem to pair well with his message. And its not only this, he documents the idolatry and loss of faith quite extensively. While he insists that they still worshiped GOd in their own way, he seems to shoot himself in the foot, as any claim to idolatry would discredit any Inca claim to personal autonomy.
- On the other hand, Ayala does a good job of drawing or creating connections between Inca and Spanish society, establishing a different, but parallel civility that makes it difficult for the Spanish to level claims of Inca primacy as a foundation for stripping them of their land and power.
- I was also wondering about gendered power dynamics and how much Ayala may have embellished gender roles in INca society to reflect those of their SPanish colonizers. The systems just seem too similar to me for it to be coincidence
Hi Anthony
Yeah, a lot of how he seemed to be arguing for the Incas but at the beginning of the book he was like “no, Mr. Lovely Sexy Beautiful King Sir, I promise they are absolutely fools and need to be Catholic… um… however…. may I present the idea that your people are even bigger fools?” It’s kind of a hilarious take to be so bad at being impartial to either side. I think it makes for an even more interesting comparison between religious practices, because he marks so clearly the loss of faith, as you discuss. I would like to know why he does a lot of things, but understanding why exactly he reflects his disparagement of Incas culturally back into the Spaniards spiritually, when trying to please his Catholic Majesty, is at the top of my list.
You raise an interesting critique on Guaman Poma’s argument as it tends to rely on a somewhat weak premise. Claiming that the Incas are sort of “lost descendants” of Noah may be a bit of a stretch. Catholicism is fairly stringent in how flexible one can be with the religion. Therefore, as you say, it is bit difficult to justify the idolatry to a society (the Spanish) that is adamant about worshiping the God of the Bible.
However, it is worth considering whether or not this was something he had to do. In using the language and belief system of the oppressor, Guaman Poma is able to actually get the attention of the Spanish. While he himself is a proclaimed Christian, it is still quite impressive that he uses this belief system shared by his oppressors to critique them.
You also mention gender dynamics which has me curious as well. I have always wondered if indigenous societies were very different in how they viewed women and their roles within society. Perhaps this is something we can explore a bit more next class.
I was also wondering is Guaman Poma changed the gender roles of the Inca when I was reading his descriptions about women. It seem very christian to me with very set gender roles and behaviours that are acceptable for women. I would not be surprised if Guaman Poma changed these to make them more christian like so that to the christian Spanish would be more sympathetic and to make the Inca seem more like the Spanish. That would make sense, especially considering how much Guaman Poma argues that the Incas are christians and not so different from the Spanish.
Interesting last point. Can I be so honest, at times I feel as though that I would like to believe that the Indigenous are not super patriarchal, of course it differs between different indigenous societies, as there are societies that are matriarchal. However, yes, parts even in the Popol Vuh too, the lacking mention of women, beyond their role as a creator/birther, is astounding. Although, in this piece as well, Guaman regards that women are respected, or at least do not have to fear the ravenousness of men, and he does describe the different roles of women during their life, a part of me would like to hear more of the stories of woman. I feel like they probably had an important role of providing these oral histories and passing them on. And of course, in my hopes that Guaman is more multifaceted than he portrays, making the Inca peoples closer to the Spaniards was a must for his voice to be heard; including their gender roles.