Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Ecclesiastical Texts and Local Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan
Open Access
- Author:
- Christensen, Mark Zinn
- Graduate Program:
- History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- November 30, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Matthew Bennett Restall, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Matthew Bennett Restall, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Anthony Roeber, Committee Member
Solsiree Del Moral, Committee Member
Kenneth Gale Hirth, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Nahua
Maya
Aztec
Religion
Mesoamerica - Abstract:
- For years the spread of Christianity has interested scholars. In recent years, scholars have increasingly examined how non-Western cultures make Christianity their own through existing linguistic, social, and cultural practices. For scholars of colonial Latin America, this interest has chiefly settled on Central Mexico and the evangelization of the Nahuas (Aztecs). Recent advances in the translation of the written language of the Nahuas (Nahuatl) have allowed for a better understanding of how the Nahuas and their culture contributed to the formation of a unique brand of Catholicism—a Nahua version of Christianity sometimes referred to as “Mexican Catholicism.” Yet despite the excellence of such studies, their intimate focus on Central Mexico unintentionally creates a uniform, Nahua portrait of religion that encompasses all the diverse cultures of Mesoamerica. Such studies also generally limit their examination to a particular set of Nahuatl sources, thus restricting their ability to appreciate the variation and evolution of the Catholic message that indigenous-language religious texts conveyed. Nor do existing studies comparatively examine the cross-cultural similarities and differences in the messages such texts presented to the natives. This dissertation challenges the traditional, monolithic portrait of “Mexican Catholicism” in colonial Mesoamerica. Employing a variety of colonial Nahuatl and Maya religious texts, this dissertation explores their role in the diversification of Catholicism. Upon examination, these texts present an image of variegated Catholicisms throughout Central Mexico and Yucatan that recognizes local, regional, and cultural variations of belief and practice. In addition, this study demonstrates how published and unpublished religious texts produced “official” and “unofficial” versions of Catholicism, and how these versions changed throughout the colonial period according to indigenous culture, local situations, and broader early modern events. Furthermore, this work highlights the role natives played in the evangelization of Mesoamerica and the formation of Nahua and Maya Catholicisms. Overall, this study compares religious texts written in Nahuatl and Maya to illustrate how Christianity’s continual negotiation with linguistic, cultural, and everyday barriers produced various Catholic messages—and thus Catholicisms—tailored to the local demands of a colonial New World.