RHETOR 151 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Mass Arrest, Diego De Landa, Antonio De Mendoza
22 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Similarities between cultural systems of the europeans and the nahuas (mesoamericans) Well developed religious apparatus of pantheon, priesthood, ritual calendar associated with those polities. Nahuas had reasonably close analogues of concepts structuring nearly. Similarities were exploited by the spanish (think they know the other all facets of european life because they are similar) But at the same time the view that there were recognizable analogues in the political, social and religious behavior of others disguised a much more profound incommensurability. Lockhart calls this the double mistaken identity . Assumptions about translatability of culture allowed people to pursue own interested by allowing them to avoid close examination of the unfamiliar > created conditions of a possible truce. There was no overarching indigenous identity - no reason to imagine a matching overarching alien identity. Altepeti (city-state) identity - others are relativized against this.
