Class
Article
College
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty Mentor
Susan Cogan
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
The author of our book was the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Incan woman of royal heritage. He was educated in Western thought from his childhood, but lived in Peru until he became an adult. There he decided to offer an account of Incan heritage and the Spanish conquest, based on historical records, personal experience, and stories he learned from his family. His heritage and sources allowed him to straddle both the Western Catholic world and the vanishing Incan tradition. In his book, his accounts of Incan culture and traditions are colored by both a Catholic mpresentation view and an intimate understanding of the value of traditional Incan culture, which he attempts to defend to his Spanish audience. Through our research we will evaluate which traditions he views as defensible and noble, and which he rejects in favor of Christian values. To properly illustrate this tension between Western and Incan values, we will research several different aspects discussed by the author. These include land and wildlife management practices, distribution of goods to the poor, maintenance of public infrastructure, and practices of human sacrifice. The author uses the first two to convince the Spanish that Incan culture was more advanced than previously suggested, rejecting the label of savage. He highlights the role that Incan rulers played in maintaining land and infrastructure over a vast empire, and their success in doing so before the arrival of the Spanish. He then uses the case of infrastructure to point out neglect on the part of the Spanish as rulers at the expense of the quality of life of the Incan people. The last example he admits is not in alignment with Christian values, but points out that the practice ceased long before the Spanish conquest.
Location
The South Atrium
Start Date
4-12-2018 12:00 PM
End Date
4-12-2018 1:15 PM
Garcilasso de la Vega’s Defense and Criticism of his Inca Heritage and Culture to the Spanish
The South Atrium
The author of our book was the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Incan woman of royal heritage. He was educated in Western thought from his childhood, but lived in Peru until he became an adult. There he decided to offer an account of Incan heritage and the Spanish conquest, based on historical records, personal experience, and stories he learned from his family. His heritage and sources allowed him to straddle both the Western Catholic world and the vanishing Incan tradition. In his book, his accounts of Incan culture and traditions are colored by both a Catholic mpresentation view and an intimate understanding of the value of traditional Incan culture, which he attempts to defend to his Spanish audience. Through our research we will evaluate which traditions he views as defensible and noble, and which he rejects in favor of Christian values. To properly illustrate this tension between Western and Incan values, we will research several different aspects discussed by the author. These include land and wildlife management practices, distribution of goods to the poor, maintenance of public infrastructure, and practices of human sacrifice. The author uses the first two to convince the Spanish that Incan culture was more advanced than previously suggested, rejecting the label of savage. He highlights the role that Incan rulers played in maintaining land and infrastructure over a vast empire, and their success in doing so before the arrival of the Spanish. He then uses the case of infrastructure to point out neglect on the part of the Spanish as rulers at the expense of the quality of life of the Incan people. The last example he admits is not in alignment with Christian values, but points out that the practice ceased long before the Spanish conquest.