HILA 2001 Lecture 14: Lecture 14

• School: University of Virginia
• Department: History-Latin American History
• Course: HILA 2001
• Professor: Thomas Klubock

Document Summary

Juan gin s de sepulveda vs. bartolom de las casas: subtext is debate about indian slavery and the encomienda. Distinction between indians and europeans = not that clear cut: took sometime for that notion to determine indians to emerge, what an indian is = still undecided. Spanish don"t see the people of the indies as one undifferentiated racial mass: spanish understand the different linguistic, political, racial, ethnic backgrounds of the area which they rule over. For the first generation of rule, the spanish respect the power and nobility of indigenous people: sepulveda argues for aristotelian natural hierarchy. Argument is based upon philosophy and science: las casas argues for universality of christianity. All natives destined to become christians (assimilationist: embodies a colonial assumption, also universal and surprisingly egalitarian compared to sepulveda"s aristotelian hierarchal view. Mentions need to import african slaves to avoid the destruction of the indian race.