CRASSH

Indigenous Intellectuals: Knowledge, Power, and Colonial Culture in New Spain and the Andes

(a) Summary Abstract

This conference gathered fourteen specialists in the history of colonial Latin America from the UK, the US, Mexico and Peru to discuss the role indigenous people played in the production and dissemination of knowledge under  Spanish colonial rule (16th-18th centuries). Participants approached the conference theme from a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective: from social and political history, to linguistics, to art history, gender studies, textual analysis, and anthropology. Papers presented included studies of the reception and use of European objects and themes by Mexican artists, the uses of writing among Oaxacan and Andean scribes, the political behaviour of Jesuit-educated indigenous leaders, the role of indigenous interpreters in multilingual contexts, historical writing and interpretation, and indigenous cartography and astronomy, among other topics. Panel discussions drew comparisons between Mexico and the Andes, revealing the great diversity of experiences existing behind the assumed social, political and cultural uniformity of colonial Spanish America.

b)  Conference Review

The purpose of this conference was to examine critically the concepts of intellectual and knowledge within the study of colonial Latin America. The historiography has usually portrayed the indigenous people of colonial Latin America (and beyond) as mere receivers and reproducers of knowledge and culture brought from elsewhere, usually Europe. That indigenous people under Spanish colonial rule are seldom presented as active producers of knowledge is explained, among other aspects, by the multiplicity of languages spoken in the New World, different religious worldview, the absence of writing and recording systems similar to those existing in Europe in the late 15th century, and a legislation and political culture that did their most to block indigenous access to formal education. The organisers of this conference asked a selected number of scholars of colonial Latin America, both senior and of younger generations, to reflect upon knowledge as a contested field, and to examine different manifestations of knowledge production, appropriation, and dissemination and their respective agents in Mexico and Peru. Participants approached the conference theme from different disciplines, which allowed for the rich array of cases presented and discussed: Mexican indigenous artists and their use of objects and symbols; historical narratives blending indigenous and Spanish themes; indigenous cartography; the significance of litigation in multilingual contexts; the regular clergy and indigenous education, among other topics.

Although scholars of colonial Spanish America frequently gather in international conferences, comparisons between subregions are rare. Besides the main theme studied, this conference has been innovative at asking the participants to engage in comparisons between Mexico and the Andes. This was no easy exercise because of the great diversity of experiences existing under the assumed uniformity of Spanish colonial legislation and administration. We agreed in the discussions that further renewal of our field will involve more frequent exchanges as the one we had in Cambridge between specialists of different areas of Latin America. Dr. Yannakakis and myself will edit a volume with the papers presented at the conference, and expect to discuss the book proposal with an academic editor in the United States in January 2011 at the meeting of the American Historical Association in Boston. Given the success this conference has had, we also expect to hold similar conferences in the future.

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