Dresser les corps des Indiens dans les Andes au XVIe siècle: du mariage à l'apparence corporelle

• Autores: Jérôme Thomas
• Localización: Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas = Anuario de Historia de América Latina ( JbLA ), ISSN-e 2194-3680, Nº. 46, 2009, págs. 177-201
• Idioma: francés
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• Resumen

  • From the very beginning of evangelization in America, the dilemma of human or bestial nature of the Indians was posed, which involved either their incorporation to the Christian values and civilization or their destruction or enslavement. As soon as 1492 there was an obvious will to impose the European Christian precepts and to save "the savage" from ignorance and barbarism. Two methods were used to achieve this conversion - firstly, the natives were forced to live in small villages and secondly, once they were organized socially, they had to comply with the congruous laws of the human nature such as hygiene, adequate clothing and moral code. Spanish were willing to transmit such essential and fundamental values as good manners and social order. To resume, converting Indians passed through altering their bodies and appearance, as well as their souls. The Spanish looked into imposing a new behaviour model and a new consideration of the body since the beginning of their conquest of the New World. This policy was part of a global project to deeply transform the indigenous society and mentality. The Spanish monarchy, supported by the religious authority, paid the greatest attention to the body of the Other in order to integrate it into the Spanish mould. Thus, manipulating parental relationships and the Indian body, Europeans did not only transform a native physical appearance but also, and mostly, a whole value system - a relationship with the body that received a new codification. This upheaval took place essentially throughout the 16th and in the beginning of the 17th century.