Lecture
The Inca Nobles of the Spanish Empire: A Gendered Approach
- Sara Guengerich (Texas Tech University)
- Date
- Monday 26 November 2018
- Time
- Location
-
Van Steenis
Einsteinweg 2
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- A2.02a
This talk explores the transformations of the native nobility in the colonial Andes with an eye on the importance of noble Inca women, and the genealogical claims their descendants made at key moments between 1532 and 1780. An analysis of several case studies linked to major events in the history of colonial Peru suggests that the transformations of the Indian nobility were not solely based on conceptions from a pre-Columbian past, nor simply a mimesis of Hispanic ways. Rather, these transformative processes within the Indian nobility rested upon a habitus that endured and was adapted from one historical context to another. I argue that the Spanish notions of the aristocracy triggered, but did not completely destroy the Indians' understanding of nobility, particularly among those who claimed Inca descent. A focus on the role of Inca women in this process allows and a new understanding of the vicissitudes of the wider colonial indigenous society.
About the speaker
Sara Guengerich is associate professor of Spanish at Texas Tech University. Her research centers on the analysis of the often-ignored discursive production of colonial subaltern subjects (women, Indians and Blacks) in colonial manuscripts in the context of the Spanish conquest and colonization of Peru and its connections to the Early Modern Atlantic World. She has published articles in Colonial Latin American Review, The Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Hispania,The Journal of the Southwest, Revista Hispánica Modernaand Monographic Reviewamong others. This talk comes from her book in progress, Daughters of the Inca Conquest: Inca Women Under Spanish Rule.