Unit name | Aztecs, Incas and Evangelisers |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST20036 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Cervantes |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
NONE |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
It used to be believed that the spread of Christianity in Spanish America involved a straightforward imposition of a ‘superior’ type of world religion upon the various ‘disjointed’ beliefs of indigenous societies. Instead, recent research has been focusing on the more informal and haphazard interactions between the different social groups that were brought into contact, not only through conquest and domination, but also through trade and miscegenation. What has emerged is a much more complex and creative process of gradual adaptation where, despite evidence of persistent official opposition, many elements of the indigenous religious systems were willingly incorporated into the Christian rituals and vice versa. The unit aims to draw on recent work in this area to examine the different theories that have been advanced to explain the spread of Christianity in order to revisit a number of familiar themes in European history from a fresh perspective.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
Classes will involve a combination of class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.
1 x 3500-word Essay (50%) [ILOs 1-5]; 1 x Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-5]
Nicholas Griffiths, Sacred Dialogues: Christianity and Native Religions in the Colonial Americas 1492-1700 (2007).
Nicholas Griffiths and Fernando Cervantes (eds), Spiritual Encounters: Interactions between Christianity and Native Religions in Colonial America (1999).
Fernando Cervantes and Andrew Redden (eds), Angels, Demons and the New World (2013).
Louise Burkhart, The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (1989).
Sabine MacCormack, Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru (1991).