A puzzle of motivation: Greco-Roman echoes in Sahagún’s Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España
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Hendrik Lorenz
Abstract
The Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España was written in what is now Mexico in the second half of the 16th century by a team of researchers, most of them Nahua, under the directorship of the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590). It is an encyclopedia of Nahua belief and knowledge concerning religion, astronomy, morality, commerce, the fauna and flora of Nahua lands, and much else. It is an important source of knowledge about Nahua culture and history. But the work also presents a puzzle of motivation: on the one hand, Sahagún treats pre-Hispanic Nahua culture as a moral and spiritual disease, which it is the task of Catholic preachers and confessors to cure with the aid of the record that he himself provides in the Historia. On the other hand, much of the Historia offers a sympathetic, even at times strikingly respectful record of Nahua culture and knowledge. Greco-Roman echoes and comparisons abound on both sides of this puzzle: in describing indigenous Americans as barbarians and as morally and spiritually primitive, Sahagún draws on the Aristotelian tradition of dehumanizing and infantilizing non-Greeks; at the same time, he constructs an elaborate comparison that likens pre-Hispanic Americans to populations of the Greco-Roman world, namely Trojans, Romans and Carthaginians, and in so doing, he ascribes various highly prestigious cultural achievements to pre-conquest American populations. In the paper, I propose both an interpretation of the complex function of these comparisons in Sahagún’s colonialist agenda, and a solution to the puzzle of what that agenda actually consists in.
Abstract
The Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España was written in what is now Mexico in the second half of the 16th century by a team of researchers, most of them Nahua, under the directorship of the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590). It is an encyclopedia of Nahua belief and knowledge concerning religion, astronomy, morality, commerce, the fauna and flora of Nahua lands, and much else. It is an important source of knowledge about Nahua culture and history. But the work also presents a puzzle of motivation: on the one hand, Sahagún treats pre-Hispanic Nahua culture as a moral and spiritual disease, which it is the task of Catholic preachers and confessors to cure with the aid of the record that he himself provides in the Historia. On the other hand, much of the Historia offers a sympathetic, even at times strikingly respectful record of Nahua culture and knowledge. Greco-Roman echoes and comparisons abound on both sides of this puzzle: in describing indigenous Americans as barbarians and as morally and spiritually primitive, Sahagún draws on the Aristotelian tradition of dehumanizing and infantilizing non-Greeks; at the same time, he constructs an elaborate comparison that likens pre-Hispanic Americans to populations of the Greco-Roman world, namely Trojans, Romans and Carthaginians, and in so doing, he ascribes various highly prestigious cultural achievements to pre-conquest American populations. In the paper, I propose both an interpretation of the complex function of these comparisons in Sahagún’s colonialist agenda, and a solution to the puzzle of what that agenda actually consists in.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Voices and Echoes of Early Greek Philosophy 1
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Part I: Archaic Voices: Reconstructing and Interpreting Ancient Greek Thought
- The 'Sentence' of Anaximander 11
- La supposta identificazione di un Nilo2 33
- Phérécyde astronome 45
- La prose de Phérécyde de Syros comme pratique signifiante 77
- Héraclite et la satire de ses prédécesseurs : le cas de Pythagore 99
- Vérité et référence 125
- ‘Paying heed to the deceitful order of words’ 141
- Les limites du politique selon Les Sept contre Thèbes d’Eschyle 173
- Verso una rivalutazione di Diogene di Apollonia, filosofo e fisiologo monista 199
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Part II: Altered Echoes : Archaic Greek Thought in Different Times and Lands
- Aristotle on Parmenides’ Changeless Being and the Foundations of Physics 225
- L’usage de la théorie de l’intellect d’Anaxagore dans le commentaire de Simplicius à la Physique 261
- Revisiting the Greek Origins of Islamic Atomism 275
- A puzzle of motivation: Greco-Roman echoes in Sahagún’s Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España 303
- The Deficit of Balance between Power and Justice since Plato 327
- Les paroles de la pensée 337
- Orphée juif lisant sa main 355
- Cavafy antiquisant 369
- Index Auctorum Recentiorum 377
- Index Fontium 383
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Voices and Echoes of Early Greek Philosophy 1
-
Part I: Archaic Voices: Reconstructing and Interpreting Ancient Greek Thought
- The 'Sentence' of Anaximander 11
- La supposta identificazione di un Nilo2 33
- Phérécyde astronome 45
- La prose de Phérécyde de Syros comme pratique signifiante 77
- Héraclite et la satire de ses prédécesseurs : le cas de Pythagore 99
- Vérité et référence 125
- ‘Paying heed to the deceitful order of words’ 141
- Les limites du politique selon Les Sept contre Thèbes d’Eschyle 173
- Verso una rivalutazione di Diogene di Apollonia, filosofo e fisiologo monista 199
-
Part II: Altered Echoes : Archaic Greek Thought in Different Times and Lands
- Aristotle on Parmenides’ Changeless Being and the Foundations of Physics 225
- L’usage de la théorie de l’intellect d’Anaxagore dans le commentaire de Simplicius à la Physique 261
- Revisiting the Greek Origins of Islamic Atomism 275
- A puzzle of motivation: Greco-Roman echoes in Sahagún’s Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España 303
- The Deficit of Balance between Power and Justice since Plato 327
- Les paroles de la pensée 337
- Orphée juif lisant sa main 355
- Cavafy antiquisant 369
- Index Auctorum Recentiorum 377
- Index Fontium 383
