Communicating faith: language and extirpation in the seventeenth-century Archdiocese of Lima
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Amy Huras [1]
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[1] New York University
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- Localización: Colonial Latin American Review, ISSN 1060-9164, Vol. 28, Nº. 2, 2019, págs. 197-228
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
This essay examines the extent to which official fears about the failure of Christianization became projected onto language during periods of extirpatory zeal in the seventeenth-century Archdiocese of Lima. Quechua and Spanish, as ‘languages of conversion’ and ‘languages of the converted’ became, simultaneously, tools of extirpation and sources of missionary anxiety. I first explore seventeenth-century understandings of language as a transformative force that simultaneously enabled and threatened to undermine the project of conversion in the colonial Andes. Next, I examine the distinct but complementary roles allotted to Quechua and Castilian as instruments of education and reform. While officials intended to strengthen Andeans’ commitment to orthodox Catholicism through indoctrination in a Christianized register of Quechua, attempts to teach Spanish to Andean children were connected to the belief that the language itself would ‘naturally’ transfer Spanish Catholic beliefs and customs to neophytes. Finally, I explore little-traversed records to examine the ways Andeans employed Spanish in their own lives and for their own purposes, often outside the purview of colonial officialdom. Situated at the intersection between official aims and intents regarding languages in the Archdiocese of Lima and the decisions made by Andeans themselves, this study opens up new avenues for understanding the relationship between Spanish and Quechua and the roles assigned to each in peoples’ lives
