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Copyright of Ensayos. Historia y Teoría del Arte is the property of Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas - Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper offers new explanations on the causes of the Mapuches’ success in resisting the invasion of their land in the time of Pedro de Valdivia. It is has been accepted the Spaniards were unable to subdue the Mapuches on account of their low level of social organization. Because of such a widespread view, other factors have been neglected. The Spaniards undertook the conquest while knowing almost nothing about the natives and their country. Far from being inexperienced in warfare, the Mapuches were well organized in wartime. Their success was heavily based on their prowess in using the forest environment to fight against the Spaniards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Telos is the property of Revista Telos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The phenomenon of the Spanish Conquest of the Maya region suggests strongly that, in the process of socio-cultural transformation, ‘religion’ has no meaning as a concept with its own particular dynamic. There is no such thing as ‘religious’ change that is not also tied to other sorts of changes and indeed to continuity. One dramatic change was the adoption by whole communities, or large segments of communities, of Christian burial practice in which the body was placed in the supine position, head to the west, facing east. Christian burial is seen to represent ‘religious conversion’ but it was one of a broad sweep of changes in how power was gained and wealth appropriated, and the way in which killing was socially sanctioned through warfare. Evidence is accumulating from sites in Belize that a significant change in burial practice also took place at time of the Maya collapse in the ninth and tenth centuries. The question that remains to be answered is whether or not the new interment practices were part of a pattern which, like the burials of the Conquest period, reflected broader socio-cultural transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1697 Noj Peten Island, the capital of the Itza, was conquered by the Spaniards, thus completing the conquest of the Peten and marking the end of the last great independent Maya group. This conquest had been achieved by one of the biggest undertakings in the early colonial Yucatan Peninsula: the opening of the Camino Real between Campeche and Guatemala. This route completely changed the history of the region: it initiated profound changes in Spanish colonial organization as well as in the life of remote Maya villages. Through an analysis of colonial documents several observations on the history of the Camino Real are presented, concerning not only the history of the opening of the same, but also incidents in the surrounding area. We present the case of the mulatto Juan Thomas, who was taken prisoner at the Presidio of El Petén and days later, was killed by the independent Maya. This incident provides us with information relevant to the understanding not only of the history of the region, but also of the organization and practices of the Maya and of the problems that the Spanish conquerors fought unsuccessfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The cemetery of Puruchuco-Huaquerones in Lima, Peru, has yielded human remains dating from the Late Horizon until after Spanish conquest (circa AD 1470–1540). The analysis of 242 non-adult skeletons has documented trauma, including both common childhood injuries and injuries suggestive of the violent consequences of Spanish conquest. Additionally, an increase in perimortem trauma in the Early Post-Contact Period has been documented (Gaither and Murphy, 2012). Previous research, however, does not adequately address the question of physical child abuse, and whether or not that played a role in the changes seen after the arrival of the Spanish. This paper will address the controversial question of physical child abuse and propose new categories of violence for use in analyzing non-adults in the archeological record; categories that will hopefully give researchers more flexibility in analyzing non-adults remains. It will then test the hypothesis of what role, if any, what is referred to in this paper as ‘Likely Caregiver-Induced Violence’ played in the Late Horizon and Early Post-Contact Period populations at Puruchcuo-Huaqerones. Finally, this paper discusses the theoretical models that address cultural changes seen in populations under stress that result in an increase and change in the nature of the violence perpetrated against non-adults. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines bioarchaeological evidence of violence and traumatic injury on subadult skeletal remains from two Late Horizon (A.D. 1470–1540) cemeteries within the archaeological zone of Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. Here we present the frequency and types of traumatic lesions on the 242 subadults analyzed. We observed significant increases in the frequency of subadult trauma, particularly among the burials associated with Spanish Conquest. Specifically, we noted a statistically significant increase in the frequency of cranial trauma in a subsample of individuals from one of two cemeteries at the site, 57AS03. These perimortem cranial injuries suggest an intensification of violence and lethality that may have affected the children from this community. We then discuss the biocultural implications of this analysis within the context of Spanish invasion and conquest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over the course of the last twenty years, Nicaraguan novelists have been exemplifying what Seymour Menton has termed the 'New Historical Novel' in Latin America. Writers such as Sergio Ramírez (Margarita, está linda la mar), Gioconda Belli (El pergamino de la seducción) and Ricardo Pasos (El burdel de las Pedrarias), among others, are constructing a literary historiography of Nicaragua whose multiple discourses reflect the richness of a national history that is only now being narrated. The novel La niña blanca y los pájaros sin pies (1992), by the Nicaraguan writer Rosario Aguilar, offers a re-vision of the Spanish conquest of Central America and, specifically, Nicaragua, through the voices of women whose experiences emphasize the multifaceted consequences of the Conquest. For our purposes, we will demonstrate that the tension and complicity between these characters construct an intercultural space that facilitates dialogue between the distinct voices of the Conquest. We will contextualize the study within an intercultural framework elaborated from a Post-Colonial Latin American context that considers as its focal point the ideas of Raúl Fornet-Betancourt, analyzing the progressive development of the women's voices in the novel and how these complement each other and offer an intercultural space that takes the initial steps toward an understanding between multiple cultural traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The invocation of pre-Hispanic mythological deities contributes the necessary element for wrestlers to endow themselves with magical, supernatural powers with which they seek to mend injustice and defeat evil. The theory of cultural complexes described by Kimbles (Singer and Kimbles 2004) suggests a way of understanding how cultural traumas still reverberate in the cultural unconscious of Mexicans. Mexican wrestling fulfills one very special function going beyond sports; its theatrical performances symbolically compensate for decades of deep-rooted injustices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conquest of indigenous peoples in North America is understood primarily through ethnohistorical documents, archaeological evidence, and osteological analyses. However, in the Central Andes, the colonial enterprise and its effects are understood only from post-contact historical and ethnohistorical sources. Few archaeological and bioarchaeological studies have investigated Spanish Conquest and colonialism in the Andean region [for exceptions see Klaus and Tam: Am J Phys Anthropol 138 (2009) 356-368; Wernke, in press; and Quilter, in press]. Here we describe bioarchaeological evidence of violence from the cemeteries of Huaquerones and 57AS03 within the archaeological zone of Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru (circa A.D. 1470-1540). A total of 258 individuals greater than 15 years of age were analyzed for evidence of traumatic injuries. Individuals were examined macroscopically and evidence of traumatic injuries was analyzed according to the skeletal element involved, the location of the injury on the skeletal element, and any additional complications of the injury. This study examines and compares the evidence of perimortem injuries on skeletenized individuals from the two cemeteries and focuses specifically on the interpretation of weapon-related perimortem injuries. Evidence of perimortem trauma is present in both cemeteries (18.6%, 48/258); however, the frequency of injuries in 57AS03 is greater than that in Huaquerones (25.0% vs. 13.0%). Several injuries from 57AS03 are consistent with documented cases of injuries from firearms and 16th Century European weapons. We believe that the nature and high frequency of perimortem trauma at 57AS03 provide evidence of the violence that occurred with Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inform presented in 1539 by fray Marcos de Niza to the viceroy of the New Spain, don Antonio de Mendoza, propelled a series of expeditions towards Northern America financed by the viceroy and the emperor Carlos V, which lead to the estrangement between the conqueror of Mexico, Hernán Cortés, and the royal authorities. The search for Cibola and the golden cities was driven by the Spaniard mentality and imaginary rather than reality, but was influenced by the mercantile conception of wealth that dominated the Iberian thought. The article deals with the importance of acknowledging the imaginary as a methodological element for the explanation of historical action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Christophorus Columbus arrived at American soil in 1942, one of the saddest chapters of its history started upon the territorial conquest. Spanish conquerors were ruthless with indigenous habitants, sometimes taking them as slaves and in some other cases making them victims of genocide. Spanish conquerors carried with them smallpox, a veiled biological weapon helping them to decimate the American indigenous population. Smallpox became an acute eruptive disease that killed more people than conquerors themselves, so allowing Spanish forces easily dominate American lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tracking social and economic change in Andean societies prior to the invasion of the Spanish has always been a difficult task, especially given that these cultures failed to develop any form of written record. Here we present a new method of reconstructing socio-economic shifts in a rural setting from the analysis of the frequency of oribatid mite remains present in a sedimentary lake sequence. Oribatid mites are soil-dwelling microarthropod detritivores, some of which inhabit areas of grassland pasture. One of the primary controls governing their abundance in such habitats is the level of animal dung present. We propose that past fluctuations in mite remains can be related to the density of domestic animals using the area of pasture and, by extension, may provide a proxy for broad-scale social and economic change through time. To test this hypothesis, we analysed a high-resolution (∼6years) mite record from a sequence of well-dated sediments from Marcacocha, a climatically sensitive lake site located close to an important Inca trading route across the Andes. The timing and magnitude of mite fluctuations at Marcacocha since the 1530s show remarkable correspondence with a series of major, well-documented socio-economic shifts in the region relating to political and climatic pressures. This provided the confidence to extend the record back a further 700years and reconstruct changes in domestic herbivore densities for a period of time that lacks historical documentation and thereby infer changes in human occupation of the basin. In particular, high mite abundances appear to correspond clearly with the rapid rise and fall of the Inca Empire (c. AD 1400–1532). We argue that small lake basins such as Marcacocha may be particularly suitable for obtaining continuous oribatid mite records and providing the possibility of reconstructing large herbivore abundances in the Andes and elsewhere. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Starting by comparing practical experience with the law, Bartolomé de Las Casas subjects the ingressus and the progressus of the Spaniards in the New World to a merciless legal examination and concludes that the con quistas and encomiendas were unjust and iniquitous. In contrast to the "calumniators" of the Indian cultures who did not see a form of civilization in them, but only pure barbarism, Las Casas sketches a comparative cultural anthropology which takes the dogma of the creation of all humans in the image and likeness of God as its starting point and thus demonstrates that everyone has been endowed by the Creator with reason (intellectus) and free will (voluntas). Taking this as his basis, Las Casas discerns forms of civilization in the Indian cultures, which are either equal or indeed superior to Europe's ancient civilizations — and from which even the societas christiana could learn a few things. By seeing a perfection of human nature in the Christian faith, scholastically well thought out, Las Casas avoids slipping into the myth of the noble savage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Documentary evidence for the demographic impact of Spanish conquest and colonial rule in the Philippines suggests that the pre-Spanish population was about 1.5 million. This is higher than previous estimates and implies that the decline in the early colonial period was greater than often supposed. However, the decline was lower than that associated with Spanish conquest in the Americas. The more moderate impact of Old World diseases in the Philippines cannot be attributed to immunity that Filipinos had acquired through contacts with Asia in pre-Spanish times, but to the low population density and difficult communications between and within the islands that impeded their spread. Despite new colonial policies aimed at the more peaceful acquisition of new territories, conquest in the Philippines was accompanied by considerable bloodshed. However, in the longer term the impact of colonial rule was moderated by the limited Spanish presence that resulted from the remoteness of the islands from Spain and the limited opportunities there for wealth creation, notably in the form of precious minerals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Disputes the presumed massive and rapid depopulation of Mexico by smallpox as given in the generally received story of the Spanish `Conquest of Mexico.' Two related weak assertions of 1519 population size and smallpox incidence and casualty figures; Criticisms of sources citing high population estimates; Sourcing and analytical arguments negating the extent of smallpox-caused mortality; Conclusion.