New World

1. New World

2. Atlantic territories of Europe early 18th c. Cartier erects cross in Gaspe, taking possession of the land for France

3. New World Preface • A brief excursion – Paradise and Suffering

4. San Giovanni, Rome. Apse mosaic

6. St. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, Italy, 6th c. mosaic

9. Gero Cross, 10th c. Cologne

10. The Tension • On one hand: “New” – renewal, return, redemption, regeneration, revival • On the other hand: Religion and Conquest • "When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Gir'gashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb'usites, seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves, [2] and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them; then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them.  [3] You shall not make marriages with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. [4] For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. [5] But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Ashe'rim, and burn their graven images with fire. [6] "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. Deut.7:1

11. Bartolome Las CasasBrevíssimaRelación de la destruyción de lasIndias, 1522 • It was upon these gentle lambs, imbued by the Creator with all the qualities we have mentioned, that from the very first day they clapped eyes on them the Spanish fell like ravening wolves upon the fold, or like tigers and savage lions who have not eaten meat for days. The pattern established at the outset has remained unchanged to this day, and the Spaniards still do nothing save tear the natives to shreds, murder them and inflict upon them untold misery, suffering and distress, tormenting, harrying and persecuting them mercilessly. We shall in due course describe some of the many ingenious methods of torture they have invented and refined for this purpose, but one can get some idea of the effectiveness of their methods from the figures alone. When the Spanish first journeyed there, the indigenous population of the island of Hispaniola stood at some three million; today only two hundred survive. The island of Cuba, which extends for a distance almost as great as that separating Valladolid from Rome, is now to all intents and purposes uninhabited;" and two other large, beautiful and fertile islands, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, have been similarly devastated. Not a living soul remains today on any of the islands of the Bahamas, which lie to the north of Hispaniola and Cuba, even though every single one of the sixty or so islands in the group, as well as those known as the Isles of Giants and others in the area, both large and small, is more fertile and more beautiful than the Royal Gardens in Seville and the climate is as healthy as anywhere on earth. The native population, which once numbered some five hundred thousand, was wiped out by forcible expatriation to the island of Hispaniola, a policy adopted by the Spaniards in an endeavour to make up losses among the indigenous population of that island.

12. Genocide • United Nations General Assembly resolution, 1946: • Genocide is the denial of the right of existence to entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, results in great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and other contributions represented by these groups, and is contrary to moral law and to the spirit and aims of the United Nations. Many instances of such crimes of genocide is a matter of international concern. The General Assembly Therefore, Affirms that genocide is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns, and for the commission of which principals and accomplices-whether private individuals, public officials or statesmen, and whether the crime is committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds-are punishable. • ...Article II- In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group, (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (1948)

13. Missions • Dominicans, Jesuits, Franciscans • Protestants Treatment Fray Toribio Motolinia (Franciscan), Historia, 1524 – ten plagues Bartolome de Las Casas, Brevíssima Relación de la destruyción de las Indias, 1522 It was upon these gentle lambs, imbued by the Creator with all the qualities we have mentioned, that from the very first day they clapped eyes on them the Spanish fell like ravening wolves upon the fold, or like tigers and savage lions who have not eaten meat for days. The pattern established at the outset has remained unchanged to this day, and the Spaniards still do nothing save tear the natives to shreds, murder them and inflict upon them untold misery, suffering and distress, tormenting, harrying and persecuting them mercilessly. We shall in due course describe some of the many ingenious methods of torture they have invented and refined for this purpose, but one can get some idea of the effectiveness of their methods from the figures alone. When the Spanish first journeyed there, the indigenous population of the island of Hispaniola stood at some three million; today only two hundred survive. – Las Casas Agent • Spectrum of Native Religion • Neo-traditional • Christian • Bi-religiosity • Secular Clergy Missionaries Teacher

14. An example: Columbus The letter to Ferdinand and Isabella that Christopher Columbus intended to serve as the preface to the Libro de lasprofecíasbegan with a remarkable observation about his own career and the particular temperament it had shaped in him: “From a very young age I began to navigate the seas, and I have continued to do so until today. This art inclines those who follow it to desire to know the secrets of this world…. I wish to see and discover the most that I can.” “The monument is placed at the site where Christoffel Columbus arrived in 1493 after his discovery of America the year before.” - tourism website Link to Columbus Monuments

15. An example: Columbus • Gold; slavery – cf. fish • Gold as resource – reconquest • Conversion - souls The letter to Ferdinand and Isabella that Christopher Columbus intended to serve as the preface to the Libro de las profecías began with a remarkable observation about his own career and the particular temperament it had shaped in him: “From a very young age I began to navigate the seas, and I have continued to do so until today. This art inclines those who follow it to desire to know the secrets of this world…. “I wish to see and discover the most that I can.” “The monument is placed at the site where Christoffel Columbus arrived in 1493 after his discovery of America the year before.” - tourism website Link to Columbus Monuments

16. ‘Contact’ Scenarios • Extinction/genocide • Conquest; colonization • Contact/diffusion • Integration: pluralism - assimilation • Syncretism; adaptation • Revitalization, renewal, neo-traditionalism • ‘decolonization?’; ‘postcolonial?’ Receptivity - • Conquest • Conquistadors/explorers/adventurers – Cabeza de Vaca • Frontier • captives, soldiers, adventures, traders – liminal zone • Post-frontier • Anthros, artists, ‘friends,’new age

17. Worldview • Objects • Beliefs • Practices • Space • Time • Doctrine • Ethics • Etc. – ‘dominion’ – ‘heathen’ as inheritance’ – universal; de-territorialization of ethnic space; ‘Father’s house; ‘in spirit’ – requerimento

18. “Christianity does not claim ties to any particular territory. But that only begs the question. What was it about early Christian interpretations of space that made it seem so universal and transplantable? That question is important for moral reflection on the colonial expansion of Christianity into the Americas, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere. Why have Christians though it permissible and even morally imperative to carry their message across all boundaries, invading the homelands of other communities?” - Tod Swanson, ‘To Prepare a Place,’ JAAR 62(2) • Mark 16:15 • He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. • 16 • Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.

19. Cartier, erecting a cross Taking Possession Saint Boniface, Thor’s Oak, 723 On the part of the King, Don Fernando, and of Doña Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castile and León, subduers of the barbarous nations, we their servants notify and make known to you, as best we can, that the Lord our God, living and eternal, created the heaven and the earth, and one man and one woman, of whom you and we, and all the men of the world, were and are all descendants, and all those who come after us. Of all these nations God our Lord gave charge to one man, called St. Peter, that he should be lord and superior of all the men in the world, that all should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole human race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. One of these pontiffs, who succeeded St. Peter as lord of the world in the dignity and seat which I have before mentioned, made donation of these isles and Terra-firma to the aforesaid King and Queen and to their successors, our lords, with all that there are in these territories, Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world, But if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him: and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us. - Spanish Requirement of 1513

20. Colonial Era • 1519-1521 Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztec empire. • 1524 Arrival of the twelve Franciscan "apostles" in New Spain. • 1527-36 Cabeza de Vaca's wanderings in the southern and southwestern United States and northern Mexico. • 1531 Our Lady of Guadalupe, an indigenous version of the Virgin Mary, appears to Juan Diego. • 1539 Fray Marcos de Niza, Father Provincial of the Franciscans of New Spain, explores Pueblo country in New Mexico. • 1540-1542 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's expedition to the Southwest in search of gold and the Seven Cities of Cibola. Battle with Zunis at Hawikuh on July 7, 1540. • 1542-1543 Promulgation of New Laws of the Indies by the King of Spain to regulate exploration and conquest, especially the encomienda system; written largely by the Dominican, Bartolomé de Las Casas, O.P., first Christian priest ordained in the New World. • 1542 Publication of Cabeza de Vaca's La Relación. • 1550-1551 The Valladolid debate between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda on the use of coersion in New World missionizing and on the "natural" slavery of Indians • 1572 Arrival of Jesuits in New Spain. • 1598 Juan de Oñate's colonizing expedition into New Mexico establishes headquarters near Tewa-speaking San Juan Pueblo. • 1599 Spaniards conquer Acoma Pueblo, killing 800 Acomas and cutting off one foot of every man over the age of 25 • 1610 New capital established at Santa Fe by Pedro de Peralta. • 1680 Led by Popé, a holy man from San Juan Pueblo, the Pueblo Revolt drives Spaniards down the Rio Grande to near El Paso. • 1682 Otermín attempts reconquest by trying to suppress the Kachina cult. • 1692 Diego de Vargas's so-called "peaceful" reconquest of Santa Fe. • 1693 Diego de Varga's second, bloody reconquest of Santa Fe. • 1696 A second Pueblo revolt followed by further Spanish reconquest. Some Pueblo people (from Jemez, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, and Cochiti) flee to join Navajos. • 1696 Another Pueblo rebellion; Tanos (southern Tewa) refuse to submit and flee to Hopi land, where they remained. • 1696-1775(c) = the Gobernador Phase, a time intense intermarriage and inter-tribal acculturation, in which Navajos adopt many aspects of Pueblo religion.

21. Fiestas; pilgrimage • 1692 – the ‘peaceful’ re-conquest of New Mexico by Coronado • Basis for Santa Fe Fiesta • Entrada - pageant 1925

22. Four Theses on White-Native relations • NATIVE-WHITE RELATIONS ARE MEDIATED, PERHAPS EVEN DETERMINED BY CULTURE (language, symbol, myth, image) • "WE" AND "THEY" (SELF AND OTHER) ARE DIALECTICALLY RELATED. (In North America, in colonial context, this we-they has been strongly influenced by white-native relations and encounter) • WHITE COLONIALISM AND RACISM HAVE HISTORICALLY OPPRESSED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES GLOBALLY, AND THEY CONTINUE TO OBSTRUCT A JUST MULTICULTURALISM • INDIGENOUS RELIGION AND LITERATURE ARE AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT MEANS OF MAINTAINING AND CONSTRUCTING NATIVE IDENTITY