Sin and Confession in Colonial Peru

Spanish-Quechua Penitential Texts, 1560-1650

Bibliographic Data

ID2813872
AuthorsJan Szemiñski (0000-0002-4159-5974, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume95
Issue3
Pages512-514
Publication date2015-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-3088692
OpenAlexW2768711135
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The author presents the Catholic doctrine of confession, restitution, and sin during the conquest of America and Peru, as well as changes made to this doctrine among intellectuals and in the Peruvian church. First she defines “sin (hucha) and flesh (aycha),” and she follows this with three chapters, each centered on a group of Andean words with meanings important for church teaching on sins: huchallicu- (to sin, fornicate) and huauça- (to have “improper” sex, specifically between men); ranti- (to exchange or substitute), catu- (to exchange goods in a market), and manu- (debt, to be in debt); and llamca- (to work), mit'a- (to work by shifts), and mink'a- (to work for someone). Her conclusion takes up a new topic and studies wills as a kind of written confession.The author starts each chapter with a description of how Catholic doctrines were shaped before and then during the conquest of America. A detailed analysis of ecclesiastical opinions and practice in reference to Andean New Christians follows each description. Conscious that each idea needed to be expressed in an Andean language, she chose Spanish-Quechua penitential texts (1560–1650), comparing Spanish declarations with Quechua translations. Thus she takes up new subjects of study, in search of the following answers: Was there a Quechua word that could be used to express the Spanish idea? What was the Quechua word preferred by the church authorities and translators, and why? How did the church's use of the word change the meaning of the Quechua word, nominal phrases, or even the entire sentence? All along she uses her very ample knowledge of Andean anthropology and history. She uses the same knowledge to fill in for the research that the linguists and historians alike have not done on colonial Quechua.She discovers how the church expressed its doctrines in Quechua in everyday teaching and practice. In this way she contributes to the developments started by other researchers such as Alan Durston (a linguist), Juan Carlos Estenssoro Fuchs (a historian), and Manuel Marzal (an anthropologist) whose research explains why by 1650, the Peruvian church decided that all Peruvian Indians should be considered Christians. The author's next goal, to reconstruct how the church doctrines expressed in Quechua were understood by Quechua Christians, is much more difficult to achieve. She used the accessible sources: texts written by Indians in Quechua (very few) and in Spanish (also not so many) and even very biased documents such as judicial proceedings against idolaters. Her research helps us to understand somewhat the Indian elite's thinking but not general convictions, always modified by local tradition.Her investigation suffers from the fact that historians and linguists have not built models of Andean and Inca religion, ethics, and understandings of economy. Moreover, we have no model of the world implied by Quechua grammar and vocabulary in colonial times. These models are necessary as a basis for discussion and revision of ideas. A model integrating local and imperial religion under Inca rule is necessary to understand how Quechua speakers understood what the Spaniards told them about the Spanish religion and world. A model of Andean ethics is necessary for studying how Quechua speakers understood church teachings on sin and redemption. Understanding Quechua speakers' image of the world is necessary for grasping the evolution of the meanings imposed by the church on Quechua words and their reinterpretation by users. A model of Quechua thinking about economy is equally important because the simplicity of Spanish agriculture in comparison to the multicyclical agriculture of the Andes influences our understanding of how a market could work in sixteenth-century Peru. The researcher is not guilty of negligence. She uses what is known — for example, that the Indians did not consider thinking of something as a sin. Her investigation obliges us to research new problems and answer new questions. For instance, the author investigated the Quechua word for “confessor,” ichuri, which derived from counting ichu straws to check the penitent's truthfulness, and explained why the clergy did not use the word. But the difference between Andean confession and Catholic Andean confession has not been investigated, since we do not know the Andean ethics of the time or Andean sins. Thus the book opens a new chapter in serious investigation on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century changes in Quechua religion, ethics, and language, to highlight its most important contribution.Yet despite these merits, the book contains some flaws. Its Quechua orthography is often incorrect, quotes contain errors, and many translations are simply wrong. For example, she translates huaça as “to have improper sex.” Yet in doing so, she mixes two words, huauça and huaça. Huauça referred to sex between males, perhaps also between females. Huaça means “back”; as a verb, it refers to acts done secretly. Sex between females is yanaza-. Nonetheless, the mistakes in Quechua do not influence her analysis, which stays valid, precious, and a point of departure for new research. All researchers of religion, European visions of local people, local elites, language contact, and economy in fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Inca and colonial Peru should read the book

Art · Colonialism · Confession (law · Doctrine · Literature · Meaning (existential · Penitential · Sociology · Theology · Early Modern Women Writers · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Latin American history and culture · Philosophy

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