Religion in the Andes

Sabine MacCormak, in Religion in the Andes, seeks to correct the historical record with respect to the European interpretation of the religion of the people in the new World. She wants to show that the Europeans suffered under profound prejudices favoring Christianity and denigrating the worth of the religion of the people of early colonial Peru.

With respect to the historical record of the religion of the people of that time and region, the author wants to show that what we know of that religion comes to us primarily from the European Christians who saw the Andean religious beliefs and practices as not worthy of the term "religious." Clearly, in order to morally justify their Christianization of the Andeans, the Europeans first had to believe---or at least pretend to believe---that the religion of the Andeans was inferior to Christianity. And this is precisely what they did.

Even more specifically, the author points out that we cannot trust the accounts of the Christianizing Europoeans with respect to the details and nature of Andean religion. Because they wanted to denigrate and discount the worth of Andean religious beliefs and practices, the Europeans were wont to distort those beliefs and practices in order to show their purported inferiority to Christian beliefs and practices.

To correct these deliberate errors and distortions, the author goes to other sources which more accurately and fairly describe Andean religion. Even this noble goal, however, has its pitfalls,

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rate and objective a desription as possible, and perhaps as importantly tries to show as fairly as possible not only the Andean position but also the admittedly biased perspective of the Europeans in this regard: "What I have sought to do is construct a framework in which Spanish and Christian ideas on this subject are rendered intelligible and can engage our sympathy, a framework also where the voices of those Andean people of so long ago can be heard speaking about the divine powers of their majestic land" (14). For those who seek in this book a definitive picture of the Andean religion as it existed at the time of the coming of the Spanish Christians, there will be disappointment. Similarly, those who seek a polemical indictment of the conquering, imperialistic Spaniards will not have their expectations fulfilled. However, the book is moving and successful precisely because the author accepts, honors and works diligently with the confusions, contradictions and uncertainties of the material at hand. After an analysis of the fundamental "conceptual framework" of the religion and politics which composed the Spanish-Andean relationship, the author writes Yet if this had been all, the story of Spanish perceptions of Inca and

Category: History - R