Ceramics and the Spanish Conquest pdf download

Ceramics and the Spanish Conquest – Response and Continuity of Indigenous Pottery Technology in Central Mexico

By Gilda Hernández Sánchez

CERAMICS AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST – RESPONSE AND CONTINUITY OF INDIGENOUS POTTERY TECHNOLOGY IN CENTRAL MEXICO

Book introduction

The Spanish colonization dramatically interrupted the autonomous development of the ancient and diverse Mesoamerican civilization Aztecs, Mixtecs, Mayas and numerous other indigenous peoples were abruptly transformed into “the colonized” an of foreign, distant and exploitative state

The colonial rule imposed a new language, new religion and new legal system, and all this had a profound impact on the native cultures nevertheless, the Mesoamerican world learnt to live with the conquest

 The colonization was not only a time of crisis, but also a creative process in which indigenous peoples were looking for new ways to survive, and therefore they reacted and adapted in a variety  of manners to the changing circumstances 

Thus, the colonization resulted in a complex and enduring interaction between the indigenous and European worlds, and this gave way to new social systems, technologies and artistic expressions In this process both worlds were active and influenced each other over centuries till today

The active role of Mesoamerican peoples in the creation of the colonial society has been evidenced in recent historical reconstructions of that period, for example, we know that they appropriated Spanish-based writing for their own purposes (Hanks 2010; Lockhart 1991:2-22)

They became willing participants in the new religious practice but interpreted and incorporated the catholic faith into their own culture in a way that obligated colonizers to interact with the new etic code (Burkhart 1989; Grudzinski 1993; Jansen and Pérez Jiménez 2009:477; klor de Alva 1993)

They constructed and decorated an impressive amount of churches, convents and other religious buildings, creating their own regional version of the European Renaissance (Edgerton 2001)

They maintained pre-conquest forms of organization in colonial times, in particular, the altepetl in central Mexico, in a way that they became basic units of the Spanish colonial administration (Lockhart 1992:14, 1999:98-119; Restall 1997:306-319)

In few words, as James Lockhart (1992:434) convincingly shows, the indigenous culture was as important as the Spanish culture in determining the form and development of colonial society

Without neglecting the dramatic effects of the conquest, all these studies show that the colonial period cannot be characterized as a time