Back in Cusco we talked about indigeniety and how it is intertwined with colonialism because without colonialism you don’t have indigeniety. With this in mind while I was reading I thought that Silverblatt put it very well when she said that the Spanish “tried to make Indians out of Andeans” and that “Andean Indianness was a product of Spanish colonialism.” You need duality to make comparisons. You know what’s different because you can compare it with the familiar. So indigeniety is formed by colonialism because with the presence of the Spanish there became an other. Without this the peoples here were Andeans, each with different group names and likely wouldn’t be considered under the same umbrella like they are today as indigenous.
I was really surprised that there was a priest who actually held sermons that opposed the colonial establishment and project. Hernando Hacas Poma got in trouble for his sermon that talked about how the indigenous should worship their ancestors and only the Spanish should worship God and saints. I never would have thought that a priest would actually be saying things like this in sermons during this time period. It just seems crazy to me. But I shouldn’t be making assumptions. Just because there is a popular sentiment or belief in a group doesn’t mean the entire group conforms to that. It can get dangerous to not see the individuals in a group and only judge the group as a whole.
The Incas were an empire who took over land, displaced and killed people, and demanded resources as payment. They were similar to the Spanish in several ways that Silverblatt outlines and people hated them. No one is going to be happy about having someone else take over, take charge and demand tribute. Both got wealth from labour from peasantry, tried to “shape Andean senses of self and position – with varying degrees of success- by expanding an imperial religion” and governments of indirect rule to have local elites as mediators in imperial bureaucracies but Spanish did things that were devastating to native people. The Spanish did not have the same understanding or tolerance of differences of people, culture, society, or religion that the Inca did. The Spanish didn’t want to learn or understand, they wanted a new Spain and to get rich. The biggest issue was that the Spanish didn’t see the indigenous as proper humans, devaluing them, their cultures, societies, and ways of life. I wonder how history would have played out if they had.
Hi Anja!
Your question about how history would have turned out had the Spanish not devalued indigenous culture, values, and ways of life really got me thinking. I wonder if Christianity would still be so present if people were not forced into the religion – would it have had a similar reach in Peru if the Spaniards had only offered Christianity as a possibility?
Hi Yasmin and Anja. Anja, I really enjoyed reading your blog and your reflections on Silverblatt. I actually used the quote you used at the end as my one sentence blog prompt! I too engage in speculative/alternative history quite often, and have been especially engaged in it while here in Peru, so I really enjoyed the question you posed at the end. Alternative history is sometimes devalued, but I feel it is a great way to engage critical thinking practices in the study of history, which is sometimes difficult if you only focus on the facts versus the what-ifs. Yasmin, I really liked your response and for the same reason, your speculative question is great! I don’t know if I have a response to either of you fully formed in my brain, but thinking about what would have happened had Christianity not been forced onto Indigenous peoples, I immediately am drawn to consider whether forms of cultural and religious exchange could have gone both ways, and what Christianity would look like today if it had.
Hi Anja! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate how you highlighted the comparisons between the Incas and the Spanish to recognize the complexity of these relationships. This reminds me of the conversation I had in my group when we discussed what colonialism is and when it starts. We often characterize colonialism as a foreign entity coming in, however, as we have discussed, the Incans resembled the Spanish in many ways.
“It can get dangerous to not see the individuals in a group and only judge the group as a whole.” Thank you for leaving us this reflection. Continuing along this path, there is also the danger of considering the Spaniards who arrived in America as a homogeneous group. From the Iberian Peninsula they brought different ways of thinking, acting and feeling. There were differences of class and education, interests and heritage. Some managed to integrate into indigenous communities, where they were fully accepted (it’s not difficult for me to imagine after the warm reception we had yesterday). Others dedicated their lives to the defense of indigenous ways of life, such as Fray Toribio de Benavente, affectionately called Motolinía by them.