Upon reading the “Becoming Indian” chapter of Irene Silverblatt’s Modern Inquisitions, I began thinking about the concept of beliefs in Indigenous Peruvian society. Mainly, I was intrigued by a line by Hernando Poma that Silverblatt quotes:
“Indians, precisely because [we] are Indians, should worship [our] malquis [ancestors, lineage] since they are the ones who look out for the fertility of fields and the well-being of Indians; and only Spaniards should worship God and the painted saints which are in the church, since they are the gods of the Spanish.”
Although this line can (and should) be inherently read as meaning that the Indigenous should continue following their traditional beliefs and not assimilate into Christianity, this line also implies that there is no religion or belief that is “right” or “wrong.” It perfectly accepts that the Indigenous should believe what they believe, and that the Spanish should believe what they believe, and that each one of those is the “right” belief for each group. This goes against what was being promoted by many Spaniards, such as Francisco de Avila and Fernando de Avendano, whose main goals were to transform the Indigenous into “civilized” Christians. They did think that being Christian was the only right way to think or live. Assuming I understood her correctly, Silverblatt mentions that this was not an issue when the Incas conquered other Peruvian Indigenous groups. Silverblatt says that:
Although the lords of Cuzco, self-proclaimed descendants of the Sun and Moon, established devotion to the empire’s ruling gods throughout the conquered Andes, their strategies of statecraft sanctioned provincial religious beliefs, including ayllu commitments to non-Inca ancestor heroes and heroines. (191)
The quote above emphasizes the Inca’s lack of necessity to have its entire empire believe the same things. They did not feel that they needed that in order to have power and control over people. At least in this regard, they seemed to believe that the people under an empire could all belong and work for that empire even if not everybody believed the same things. The idea that beliefs could coexist in a society seems to have at least stayed with some people after Spanish colonization, as evidenced by Poma’s quote. It also reveals an interesting difference between what the Incas and the Spanish believed. I assume that the Incas thought that more than one belief could be “correct,” (which one you chose depended on who you were) while the Spanish believed that only one religious belief could ever be the right one. My question is: are common beliefs and ways of thinking what makes up a cultural group? Does thinking differently automatically alienate oneself from a group?
2 replies on “Incas, Spaniards, Silverblatt, and Beliefs”
I’m glad to see you working closely with the text.
I think here, however, you go a little far: ‘I assume that the Incas thought that more than one belief could be “correct.”‘ I’m not sure this is justified by the text. It’s more that the Inca tolerated heresy (i.e. being “incorrect”) much more than the Spanish. Silverblatt’s book is, after all, mostly about the Inquisition, an institution whose aim was to root out heretical or “incorrect” beliefs. For the Incas, however, it would seem that beliefs mattered less… so long as their subjects were loyal and rendered tribute, then they could believe what they wanted. The Spaniards, however, were paranoid about the possibility that even their loyal subjects might harbour heretical views. (Hence the comparison or overlap with marranos or conversos… Christianized Jews, who I also mentioned in class a few days ago.)
Hey, Yasmin, long-time reader, first-time commenter. I really enjoyed your take on this, and I think you are right when you say that the Inca empire did not necessarily need all the people under their authority to believe the same thing. We learned about this in my archaeology class that much of the Incas’ success actually came from adapting to and incorporating other belief systems.