it is important not to conflate Las Casas’s description with a modern celebration of cultural diversity. He is specifically countering Sepúlveda’s argument that the ‘Indians’ were less human than animal, and that their supposed lack of religion and culture and their cannibalism showed they had been created by God for slavery. Instead, Las Casas goes back to Aristotle’s Politics, which lays out the requirements of civilization. These include the building of adequate dwellings, the existence of trade (hence descriptions of the bustling markets of Mexico) and of craftsmen, which in the present case includes silversmiths and goldsmiths and the notable featherworks. Our extracts are from Bartolomé de Las Casas: A Selection of his Writings, translated and edited by George Sanderlin, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971, pp. 127–31 and 133–5.
If we would consider … the unmistakable evidence offered by communities large and small, living in peace, order, and concord, we must recognize clearly that the Indians … have had, and continue to have, this second kind of prudence, the domestic, in the government of their homes and families. But let us apply to them the specific rules and requirements of the Philosopher [Aristotle].
The first thing he says is incumbent upon men, in order that philosophers may be kings, is that they construct their own houses. These peoples built these houses in accord with the region they inhabited and their experience of their needs; they made them strong, suitable, and also attractive – very well fabricated. […]
But what appears without doubt to exceed all human genius … is the art which those Mexican peoples have so perfectly mastered, of making from natural feathers, fixed in position with their own natural colors, anything that they or any other first‐class painters can paint with brushes. They were accustomed to make many things out of feathers, such as animals, birds, men, capes or blankets to cover themselves, vestments for their priests, crowns or mitres, shields, flies, and a thousand other sorts of objects which they fancy.
These feathers were green, red or gold, purple, bright red, yellow, blue or pale green, black, white, and all the other colors, blended and pure, not dyed by human ingenuity but all natural, taken from various birds. Therefore they placed a high value on every species of birds, because they made use of all. They preserved the color hues of even the smallest birds that could be found on land or in the air, so that certain hues would harmonize with others, and they might adorn their work as much as, and more fittingly than, any painter in the world.
They would seat this feather on cotton cloth, or on a board, and on that would add little feathers of all colors, which they kept in small individual boxes or vessels, just as they would have taken prepared paints from shells or small saucers with paint brushes. If they wished to make a man’s face, the form of an animal, or some other object which they had decided on and for which a white feather was needed, they selected one from the whites; if a green was required, they took one from the greens; if a red, from the reds; and they attached it very delicately, with a certain paste. Thus for the eyes in the face of a man or animal, requiring black and white and the pupil, they made, and continue to make, the different parts of feathers, with the delicacy of a great painter using a very fine brush – and surely this is a marvel.
And granted that before we Christians entered there they made perfect and wonderful things by this art, such as a tree, a rose, grass, a flower, an animal, a man, a bird, a dainty butterfly, a forest and a stone or rock, so skilfully that the object appeared alive or natural …, yet after the Spaniards went there and they saw our statues and other things, they had, beyond comparison, abundant material and an excellent opportunity to show the liveliness of their intellects, the integrity and disengagement of their powers or interior and exterior senses, and their great talent. For since our statues and altar‐pieces are large and painted in divers colors, they had occasion to branch out, to practice, and to distinguish themselves in that new and delicate art of theirs, seeking to imitate our objects.
One of the great beauties they achieve in what they make – a canopy, cloak, vestment, or anything else especially large – is to place the feather in such a way that seen from one direction it appears gilded, although it lacks gold; from another, it seems iridescent; from another, it has a green luster, without being chiefly green; from another, viewed crossways, it has still another beautiful tint … and similarly from many other angles, all lustrous colors of marvelous attractiveness. Hence it is that one of their craftsmen is accustomed to go without food and drink for a whole day, arranging and removing feathers according to how in his view the hues best harmonize, and so that the work will produce greater diversity of colors and more beauty. He observes it, as I said, from one direction and then from another; one time in sunlight, other times in shade, at night, during the day or when it is almost night, under much or little light, crossways or from the opposite side.
To sum up, out of feathers they have made and still make, every day, statues, altar‐pieces, and many other things of ours; they also interpose bits of gold at suitable places, making the work more beautiful and charming so that the whole world may wonder at it. They have made trimming for chasubles and mantles, covers or silk cases for crosses, for processions and for divine service, and mitres for bishops. And certainly, with no exaggeration, if these had been of gold or silver brocade, three thicknesses on rich crimson, or embroidered richly with gold or silver thread, with rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones, they would not have been more beautiful or more pleasing to look on. […]
Although the featherwork craftsmen are unquestionably excellent and demonstrate their great talent, the silversmiths of New Spain are not unworthy of our admiration for their delicate, outstanding work. They have made, and still make, unusual pieces, of a fineness very different from that of silverwork in any part of our Europe. What makes the pieces more admirable is that the silversmiths form and shape them only by means of fire, and with stone or flint, without any iron tool or anything that can help them produce that nicety and beauty. They made birds, animals, men, idols, vessels of various shapes, arms for war, beads or rosaries, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and many other jewels worn by men and women. […]
A sight which can scarcely be exaggerated is that of the markets of Mexico City.
[…] All the crafts and products there can be, throughout New Spain, are found there. There is no lack of goods to supply the natural needs, nor of things for unusual tastes. Each craft and kind of merchandise has its separate place, which no one else dares disturb or occupy. But the people who come to the markets are so numerous that the squares, even though they are large, lack space for all the merchandise; therefore, goods which cause an obstruction and take up much room, such as stone, brick, adobe or sun‐baked brick, lime, sand, lumber, firewood, charcoal, and other cumbersome things are placed at the entrances of the nearest streets.
All the foodstuffs, raw and cooked, are found there … There are fabrics for cotton blankets and white woolen blankets, coarse pieces of cloth lightly or deeply colored, with rich colors, for shirts, for tablecloths, for handkerchiefs … and for many other things. There is an abundance of clothing and footwear of many kinds.
Various fine colors are sold to those who practice the craft of painting. There are admirable featherwork goods; there are feathers of all colors, not artificially dyed, but natural. […]
There are many jewels set in gold and silver, also pearls and stones like turquoise, and others. However, there are few precious stones, either because there are none naturally in that land or because the Indians do not show them. Montezuma and his lords did possess them, but they were consumed after we hastily entered. There are silk weavers who make and sell many delicate laces and other things of silk. […]
All these products are bought in exchange for others, for the most part by a barter system, according to their valuation of the merchandise. Inequalities between goods exchanged are made up by money consisting of the beans … called cacao. It usually suffices to pay for less valuable goods with cacao.
And with this, we conclude the fourth part of our description
