IB5 Toribio de Benavente (‘Motolinía’) (1482–1568) from History of the Indians of New Spain
‘Motolinía’ was the Nahuatl name given to the Franciscan friar Toribio de Benavente. He was involved in the training of native artists in European styles in both painting and metalwork. In the present extract, however, he reports on the destruction of indigenous religious art, mentioning both the appearance of some of the ‘idols’ and some of the religious practices surrounding them. The extract is taken from Motolinía’s History of the Indians of New Spain (1536) as reprinted in Kelly Donahue‐Wallace, Art and Architecture of Viceregal Latin America, 1521–1821, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008, p. 36.
It was then that the natives soon came and told the friars how the Indians were hiding the idols, how they were placing them at the foot of the crosses or beneath the stones of the altar‐steps, pretending they were venerating the cross, whereas they were actually adoring the demon. In this way they sought to keep their idolatry alive. The idols, of which the Indians had very many, were set up in many places, in the temples of the demons, in the patios, and in conspicuous places, as in groves and on prominent hills and especially on the mountain passes and summits … Those who passed by drew blood from their ears or tongue or offered a little of the incense, called copalli, which is found in this land; others offered roses which they gathered on the road … They had idols of stone, of wood and of terra cotta. They made them also of dough and of seed mixed with dough … some of them looked like bishops with miter and crosier; of these some were gilded and others made of various kinds of turquoise stone. Other idols resembled men; but these had on their head a mortar instead of a miter, and into this they poured wine because it was the god of wine … Others looked like women and were likewise in different forms. Others looked like wild beasts such as lions, tigers, dogs, stags, and whatever animals were found on the mountains and in the field.
Having finished destroying the public idols, the missionaries went after those that were hidden at the foot of the crosses, being in prison, as it were, because the devil could not be near the cross without suffering great torment. All of these were destroyed. […]
IB6 First Provincial Council in Lima (1551–2) On the destruction of Indian sacred sites
The following selection is taken from the report of a Roman Catholic Council working in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. The overall purpose of the council was the conversion of the indigenous population to Christianity. Their text marks the fierce ideological struggle for hegemony which went hand in hand with achieving political and military dominance. The extract, which complements that of Motolinía (Ib5), notes the destruction of native temples and ‘idols’ and the erection of Christian churches in ‘Indian’ towns. Our source is the translation by Kelly Donahue‐Wallace, reprinted in her Art and Architecture of Viceregal Latin America, 1521–1821, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008, p. 24.
Second Constitution – That churches shall be constructed in Indian towns, and the manner in which to do so.
Furthermore, because, for the goodness and mercy of God our Father, in most Indian towns and provinces there are many Christians, and each day there will be more; and for this reason there shall be temples and churches where God our Father will be honored, and they will celebrate the divine offices and administer the sacraments, and the Indians will attend to hear the preaching and doctrine: Sancta Sínodo aprobante we order that the priests in the Indian doctrinas in the Indian towns give and procure with diligence as in each repartimiento, in the principal town where the principal cacique lives … to make a church, according to the number of people in the town, in which shall be administered all the sacraments, except in cases of necessity. And said priest shall procure to adorn it with the art needed for the site’s dignity and so that it is done, helping the people understand that that place is dedicated to God and to the faith and divine offices, and where we attend to ask God to forgive our sins. […]
Third Constitution – That the huacas shall be torn down, and in their place, if it is decent, shall be made churches.
Furthermore, because [the priests] are not just to make houses and buildings where our Father shall be honored, but to tear down those that are made in honor of and devotion to the devil, for being counter to natural law, it [the indigenous temple] is a great prejudice and incentive for the Christianized [Indians] to return to ancient rites because they are together with infidel fathers and brothers, and to the same infidels it is a great obstacle to their Christianization: As such, Sancta Sínodo aprobante we order that all the idols and shrines that are in towns where there are Christian Indians be burned and torn down; and if the place is decent for them, that churches be built there, or at least put a cross there.
IB7 Jean de Léry (1534–1613) from History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil
De Léry was a Protestant missionary who was part of a short‐lived French mission to establish a colony in Brazil from 1555 to 1560, when it fell to the Portuguese. Along with Harriot’s description of Virginia (cf. IB8), De Léry’s account of the Tupinamba of Brazil is one of the most important proto‐anthropological texts to have come down from the sixteenth century. It was directly influential on Montaigne (cf. IC4), and nearly four hundred years later a copy of it was in the possession of Claude Lévi‐Strauss when he arrived in Brazil to begin the research that led to Tristes Tropiques (cf. VIIA2). De Léry’s text is, however, not easy to extract for purposes of the present anthology. Needless to say, there is nothing relevant to ‘art theory’ in a European sense; much of what he writes concerns the animals and plants of the region, and much of what he writes about the people concerns issues such as religion, sexual relations and cannibalism. However, at various points in his account he does address topics of relevance to material culture, and does so in a remarkably open‐minded way for the period. For reasons of space, we have had to omit his descriptions of ceremonial dancing and music, and of craft work. Instead we have selected his observations on body painting and personal adornment. First drafted in 1563, De Léry’s History was lost in the confusion of the religious wars in France – which, as with Montaigne, became a point of comparison for his account of the ‘savages’ of Brazil – then subsequently found again and rewritten in the 1570s. It was first published in 1578, then again in an expanded second edition in 1580. That edition is the source of the modern translation from which the present extracts are taken: History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, Otherwise Called America, translation and introduction by Janet Whatley, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. The extracts are from pp. 56 and 58–61.
In the first place then (so that I begin with the chief subject, and take things in order), the savages of America who live in Brazil, called the Tupinamba, whom I lived among and came to know for about a year, are not taller, fatter, or smaller in stature than we Europeans are; their bodies are neither monstrous nor prodigious with respect to ours. In fact, they are stronger, more robust and well filled‐out, more nimble, less subject to disease; there are almost none among them who are lame, one‐eyed, deformed, or disfigured. […]
They have the custom, which begins in the childhood of all the boys, of piercing the lower lip just above the chin; each of them usually wears in the hole a certain well‐polished bone, as white as ivory, shaped like one of those little pegs that we play with over here, that we use as tops to spin on a table. The pointed end sticks out about an inch, or two fingers’ width, and is held in place by a stop between the gums and the lip; they can remove it and put it back whenever they please. But they only wear this bodkin of white bone during their adolescence; when they are grown, and are called conomi‐ouassou (that is, big or tall boy), they replace it by mounting in the lip‐hole a green stone (a kind of false emerald), also held in place inside by a stop, which appears on the outside to be of the roundness and width
