From Ancient Rome to Colonial Mexico : Religious Globalization in the Context of Empire

From Ancient Rome to Colonial Mexico compares the Christianization of the Roman Empire with the evangelization of Mesoamerica, offering novel perspectives on the historical processes involved in the spread of Christianity. Combining concepts of empire and globalization with the notion of religion from a postcolonial perspective, the book proposes the method of analytical comparison as a point of departure to conceptualize historical affinities and differences between the ancient Roman Empire and colonial Mesoamerica. An international team of specialists in classical scholarship and Mesoamerican studies engage in an interdisciplinary discussion involving ideas from history, anthropology, archaeology, art history, iconography, and philology. Key themes include the role of religion in processes of imperial domination; religion’s use as an instrument of resistance or the imposition, appropriation, incorporation, and adaptation of various elements of religious systems by hegemonic groups and subaltern peoples; the creative misunderstandings that can arise on the “middle ground”; and Christianity’s rejection of ritual violence and its use of this rejection as a pretext for inflicting other kinds of violence against peoples classified as “barbarian,” “pagan,” or “diabolical.” From Ancient Rome to Colonial Mexico presents a sympathetic vantage point for discussing and attempting to decipher past processes of social communication in multicultural contexts of present-day realities. It will be significant for scholars and specialists in the history of religions, ethnohistory, classical antiquity, and Mesoamerican studies. Publication supported, in part, by Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Contributors: Sergio Botta,Maria Celia Fontana Calvo, Martin Devecka, György Németh, Guilhem Olivier, Francisco Marco Simón, Paolo Taviani, Greg Woolf, David Charles Wright-Carr, Lorenzo Pérez Yarza Translators: Emma Chesterman, Benjamin Adam Jerue, Layla Wright-Contreras Contents 6 List of Abbreviations 8 Introduction | Francisco Marco Simón and David Charles Wright-Carr 14 1. Ritual Mediation on the Middle Ground: Rome and New Spain Compared | Greg Woolf 38 2. A Long Way to Become Christian: Romans, Hungarians, and the Nahua | György Németh 56 3. Human Sacrifice and the Religion of the Other: Barbarians, Pagans, and Aztecs | Francisco Marco Simón 69 4. The Aztec Sun and Its Mesoamerican Milieu from a Classical Mediterranean Perspective | Lorenzo Pérez Yarza 100 5. Donkeys and Hares: The Enemy Warrior in the Early European Chronicles of the Conquest | Paolo Taviani 128 6. Cultural Persistence and Appropriation in the Huamantla Map | David Charles Wright-Carr 154 7. Comparison and the Franciscan Construction of Mesoamerican Polytheism through Augustine of Hippo’s De Civitate Dei | Sergio Botta 184 8. Bernardino de Sahagún on Nahua Astrology and Divination: Greco-Roman Traditions, Christian Disapproval and Ambiguity, and Mesoamerican Practices | Guilhem Olivier 204 9. A Version of the Millennial Kingdom in the Portería of the Franciscan Convent in Cholula, Mexico | María Celia Fontana Calvo 229 10. Smoking Stones and Smoking Mirrors: The Limits of Antiquarianism in New Spain | Martin Devecka 259 Index 282 Contributors 298 "From Ancient Rome to Colonial Mexico compares the Christianization of the Roman Empire with the evangelization of Mesoamerica. With the analysis of empire and globalization and a postcolonial perspective on religion, the book proposes the method of "analytical comparison" to conceptualize affinities and differences between geographies"-- Provided by publisher