James Seager's article The Mission and Historical Missions: Film and the Writing of History and Jesuit Ruiz de Montoya's The Spiritual Conquest journal entries allows us as historians to gain insight of the actuality of event that occurred in Guarani’s community with the Spanish and Portuguese occupiers; which the the movie The Mission loosely portrays. Seager’s work makes consistent point on how the movie misrepresent the Guarani people, by taking action to point-out actual historical events versus that fictitious events in the movie. Montoya’s entries demonstrates some historically accurate, but it is not a credible source itself; as it is shrouded in the Jesuits own bias. The purpose of this journal entry is to elaborate on how these two …show more content…
A clear point against the movies portrayal of spirituality is made early on in his article, “Film Jesuits imagine that Guaranis who joined missions immediately accepted Christianity, a historically inaccurate supposition. Most Guaranis rejected Christianity for decades, often generations.” (Seager, 400). The quote suggest that the movie places the Jesuits in a Eurocentric manner, that the ideals of Europeans would be so easily accepted and the logical discussion to these people. The movie assumed that these people either had no religious views or Christianity was just so impressive and persuasive to them they immediately converted. Not only does the rejection of the religion, as historically mention by Seager, occurred it also implies and later expands that the Guaranis had their own religion. They were more able to think for themselves in history; rather than, the native drones that are presented in the movie. The Guaranis had their own culture and the movie misrepresent this fact, creating this idea of Eurocentrism. The “spiritual conquest” was present but it was not as strong as the movie protrays it in the Guarani society. Whether the movie purposely chooses to misrepresent the native peoples as plain and uncluttered is unclear, however it is found easily in Montoya's …show more content…
After, the Jesuits “enlightening” the Guaranis that the dead corpse that the people worshiped are false beliefs, the following is said, “This was carried out in my presence, so that not a single bone could be carried off and the lie thereby perpetuated.” (Montaya, 89). Monataya account off the whole event seems suspicious. Yes, he does acknowledge that this people did in fact have a sense of their own spirituality, more than the movie demonstrates, but the radicalization to Christianity and the destruction of their own culture seems a little too fast for the Guarani - liked mention with Seager’s article earlier talking about a often strong Guarani resistance to Christianity. It seems all rather convenient for the priests, they heroically fought the devil prior to this and then they burn a few more corpse and suddenly the all the people of the village are on the side of Christ. I believe this and other accounts by Montaya are to play on this idea of Eurocentrism that was previously elaborated on. Montaya accounts hold historically credibility but it is important to keep in mind the bias he may hold when he is accounting his order’s conquest. The idea of a “spiritual conquest” is strong in his account in his account, but is an
The Huichol Indians are an indigenous group that lives “in the Sierra Madre Mountains of northwestern Mexico” (Woolcott). The Huichol religion is an animistic religion. According to Dr. Pamela Lindell, animistic religions are “religions that believe that all of nature – humans, animals, plants, rocks, the ocean, etc. - is animated by spirits and souls” (“Professor’s Notes 2” 3). To better understand the Huichol Indians and their religion, this paper examines Huichol myth, symbolism, rituals, religious specialists, and deities from various anthropological perspectives.
Matthew Restall, a Professor of Latin American History, Women’s Studies, and Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the Director of the university’s Latin Studies. Throughout “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest,” he discusses many false truths that have been passed down through history. For instance, he discusses, “The Myth of Exceptional Men.” “The Myth of Spanish Army,” and “The Myth of Completion.” For the sake of time, I will discuss three myths that correlate with class lectures and serve as the topic of this paper, “The Myth of Exceptional Men,” “The Myth of the King’s Army,” and the “Myth of the White Conquistador.” It should be noted that Restall speaks to his audience assuring us that his “...his purpose is not to degenerate this technique of historical writing completely...Nor do I mean to create a narrative in which individual action is utterly subordinated to the larger structural forces and causes of social change.” (4). He states that his intentions are to react to more than just the works of Columbus, Pizzaro, and Cortez.
The legacy and impact of the Spanish conquest is continually discussed and analyzed. The struggle in finding native identities while also acknowledging Spanish heritage is a continuing process in Latin America. Modern film and art, such as Salvador Carrasco’s La Otra Conquista and Diego Rivera’s mural the arrival of Cortés speak about the conquest and its effects on Mexico identity. The film challenges myths about the conquest by arguing against the greatness of Cortés, showing power in native agency, and Spanish dependency on interpreters. The mural upholds myths of the conquest like the black legend, minimizes
The film “The Mission” (1986) was written by Robert Bolt and directed by Roland Joffe. It explores the various relationships distinguished between Spanish Jesuits and Indian (Guarani) civilization situated along the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil around 1750. Although, as stated in the beginning of the movie that “The Mission” is “based on true historical events”, Bolt and Joffe distort the portrayal of the Guarani and Jesuit relationships. This essay will examine the distortions of the Guarani tribe and the inaccurate “historical” events that took place within the movie.
Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.
For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.
In A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas vividly describes the brutality wrought on the natives in the Americas by the Europeans primarily for the purpose of proclaiming and spreading the Christian faith. Las Casas originally intended this account to reach the royal administration of Spain; however, it soon found its way into the hands of many international readers, especially after translation. Bartolomé de Las Casas illustrates an extremely graphic and grim reality to his readers using literary methods such as characterization, imagery, amplification, authorial intrusion and the invocation of providence while trying to appeal to the sympathies of his audience about such atrocities.
Leon-Portilla based the stories told in this book upon old writings of actual Aztec people who survived the Spanish massacres. The actual authors of the stories told in this book are priests, wise men and regular people who survived the killings. These stories represent the more realistic view of what really happened during the Spanish conquest. Most of the history about the Aztec Empire was based on Spanish accounts of events, but Leon-Portilla used writings from actual survivors to illustrate the true history from the Indians’ point of view.
“Victors and Vanquished,” through excerpts of Bernal Diaz del Castillo The True History of the Conquest of New Spain and indigenous testimonies from the Florentine Codex, represents the clash between European and indigenous cultures and how there was no simple “European” or “indigenous” view. Rather, there were a variety of European and indigenous opinions and interpretations that were influenced by personal interests, social hierarchy and classes, ethnic biases and political considerations.
For this essay I will be talking about the book “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolomé de Las Casas. Whom wrote this to the King of Spain, Prince Philip II, in 1542 to protest what was happening in the New World to the native people. I will be explaining many things during this essay. The first thing I will go over is what the books tells us about the relationship between Christianity and the colonialism. The second thing I will talk about is if it was enough to denounce the atrocities against indigenous people. Next, if it is possible to
Elialde author of The Sacred and the Profane introduces a new model of the sacred and the profane. Elialde’s model is meant to be universal, therefore meant to be appropriate for any recognized religion. David Carrasco author of Religions of Mesoamerica and Kay Almere Read and Jason J. González authors of Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America, discuss their interpretation of the Mesoamerican religion although their views on the Mesoamerican religion differs in some aspects when compared to Eliade’s model of the sacred and the profane there are a few noticeable similarities between both views.
In the first five days after the Jesuit Missionaries came to the Yaqui country, they had converted five thousand Yaqui natives. The Yaqui’s have taken this convergence and now have what is considered to be a complex syncretism of their native and Catholic beliefs. One does not have a superiority over the other, there is no confusing one over the other and yet they are the same. Itom Aye (Our mother) is the Virgin Mary, Itom Achai (Our Father) is Jesus Christ. In Yaqui myths Jesus appears as a culture hero. In this myth the Pascola (Old man of the ceremony), deer and
In the second conflict, we see the Jesuits, a religious order recently created fight for the rights of the Guaraní in the film The Mission. The film shows it viewers how this religious order worked in the New World along with the Portuguese and the Spanish, both of whom had almost opposite agendas from the Jesuits. In Memory of Fire, readers see Galeano’s take on this major conflict with both sides being addressed. Ultimately the expulsion of the Jesuits ordered by King Charles III might show just how and why this era of Religious Conquest in the New World ended.
Religion has had a profound effect on human culture; unfortunately, the trouble with it is faith, which creates skepticism in many individuals. In order to accommodate the issue of faith, religions have regulations, values, and ceremonies, making religion a belief system, hence creating clarity to support faith. Catholicism has become a belief system that feeds its follower with answers; however, these answers are only assumptions. There are no factual answers, and as a result, religious leaders have created an expectation in which religion is supposed to fit; nonetheless, its accuracy is unknown. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” the values of religion are the center of
The film, Silence, has a myriad of characters that are on a spectrum of religious belief. There are certain characters that show an immense devotion to their faith, willing to risk their life and the lives of others to profess their fidelity to God. Although this film highlights two Jesuit priests, Father Sebastian Rodrigues and Father Francisco Garupe, there is an interesting contrasting devotion from the Inquisition to Buddhism. They have no tolerance for Christianity and believe it to be a cancer that must be cut from Japan. The priests go to great lengths to find a third priest, Father Cristovao Ferreira, who has gone missing while operating as a missionary. Father Ferreira ends up getting captured, recants his faith, and sides with the Inquisition, helping them investigate objects hidden as Christian relics. There are many applicable ideas relating to religious fundamentalism within the film.