Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T03:57:46.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Hispanic Horizon in Yucatan: A model of Franciscan missionization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2010

Craig A. Hanson
Craig A. Hanson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following the military campaigns of conquest in sixteenth-century Yucatan, the Order of Friars Minor Observant assumed the task of controlling, by culture conversion, the indigenous Yucatec Maya. The fundamental vehicle for this program of social engineering was the built environment of the mission, composed of the chapel, atrium, and friary, and the associated village. Archaeological remains of mission sites are horizon markers for the earliest phases of permanent Hispanic presence on the peninsula, ca. 1545–1572. Mission villages specify locations where the friars reorganized pre-Hispanic Maya settlements according to Spanish sociopolitical norms. Increasing complexity in mission-chapel architecture marks the stages of this reorganization. In this article, I discuss the historical origin of the friars' policies and the context of their implementation in Yucatan; model the spatial, temporal, architectural, and behavioral variables the Franciscans employed to extend and maintain Hispanic hegemony; provide comparative data from seventeenth-century New Mexico and La Florida; and outline a general theory of Franciscan activity in the New World.

Resumen

A continuación de las campañas militares de conquista en Yucatán durante el siglo XVI, la Orden de los Frailes Observantes Menores asumió la tarea de controlar, por medio de la conversión cultural, a los indígenas mayas yucatecas. En este artículo, yo postulo que la manipulación franciscana de un medio ambiente construido fue el método fundamental del proceso civiiizatorio. El medio ambiente creado en las misiones constituyó el vehículo para el proceso de conversión; este medio ambiente estuvo compuesto de la capilla, el atrio, el claustro y el poblado asociado. Los restos arqueológicos de las misiones son marcadores de horizonte de las fases más tempranas de la presencia hispánica permanente en la península hacia los años 1545–1572. Los poblados misioneros especifican las localidades donde los frailes reorganizaron los asentamientos prehispánicos mayas de acuerdo a las normas sociopoliticas españolas. Puesto que el propósito de la misión fue fundar y organizar la iglesia, el postulado que yo utilizo aqui es equivalente a una hipóte sis que integra la arquitectura de las capillas del siglo XVI dentro de un marco interpretative coherente, el cual refleja el desarrollo espacial y temporal de esta organización. Las implicaciones conductuales de este modelo se originan en las teorías socioculturales del medio ambiente construido. Estas teorías mantienen que los grupos humanos crean medio ambientes y a la vez encuentran que su conducta está creada por el medio ambiente construido. En otras palabras, los frailes crearon una serie de medio ambientes para modelar progresivamente la conducta de los mayas yucatecas. La secuencia del desarrollo de la construcción de capillas sirve como metáfora para este proceso. Empiezo esta discusión con la evangelización de Nueva España descrita por Motolinia. A continuación presento el contexto histórico del avance misionero franciscano en la península de Yucatán. Luego presento un modeio en el que ejemplos especificos de la arquitectura de las capillas del siglo XVI son correlacionados con etapas sucesivas espaciales, temporales y conductuales de la reducción hispánica de la frontera indígena. La primera etapa del modelo está basada en documentos etnohistóricos. Las capiilas de Xcaret, Dzibalchaltun y Mani representan las tres etapas finales. Para concluir, discuto la relevancia de este modelo para comprender el avance misionero en Norte America durante el siglo XVII y para estudiar ios procesos de colonizatión española en el Nuevo Mundo.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 6 , Spring 1995 , pp. 15 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andrews, Anthony P. 1991 The Rural Chapels and Churches of Early Colonial Yucatan and Belize: An Archaeological Perspective. In The Spanish Borderlands in Pan-American Perspective, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 355–374. Columbian Consequences, vol. III. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Andrews, Anthony P. 1993 Late Postclassic Lowland Maya Archaeology. Journal of World Prehistory 7:35–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, E. Wyllys IV, and Andrews, Anthony P. 1975 A Preliminary Study of the Ruins of Xcaret, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Publication No. 40. Middle American Research Institute, Tuiane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Benavides C, Antonio, and Andrews, Anthony P. 1979 Ecab: Poblado y provincia del siglo XVI en Yucátan. Cua-dernos de los Centres Regionales. Instituto Nacional de Antropolo-gia e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Bolton, Herbert E. 1917 The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies. American Historical Review 23(1):42–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, Herbert E. 1949 Coronado on the Turquoise Trail. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Borges, Pedro 1960 Metodos misionales en la cristianizacion de America, siglo XVI. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Depar-tamento de Misionología Españiola, Madrid.Google Scholar
Bretos, Miguel A. 1983 Yucatan: Franciscan Architecture and the Spiritual Conquest. In Franciscan Presence in the Americas: Essays on the Activities of the Franciscan Friars in the Americas, 1492-1900, edited by Morales, Francisco, pp. 393–420. Academy of American Franciscan History, Potomac, MD.Google Scholar
Carson, Cary, Barka, Norman F., Kelso, William M., Stone, Garry Wheeler, and Upton, Dell 1981 Impermanent Architecture in the Southern American Colonies. Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture 16:135–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, Robert S. 1948 The Conquest and Colonization of Yucatan, 1517-1550. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 582. Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ciudad Real, Antonio de 1873 [1588] Relacion breve y verdadera de algunas cosas de las muchas que sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce en las provin-cias de la Nueva España. 2 vols. Madrid.Google Scholar
Ciudad Real, Antonio de 1932 [1588] Fray Alonso de Ponce in Yucatan, 1588. Translated and annotated by Noyes, E.. Publication No. 4. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Cohen-Williams, Anita G. 1992 New Spain and the Caribbean: Contrasting Interaction Spheres Within the Spanish Empire. Paper presented at the 25th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, Kingston, Jamaica.Google Scholar
Collins, Anne C. 1977 The Maestros Cantores in Yucatan. In Anthropology and History in Yucatan, edited by Jones, Grant D., pp. 233–247. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Cordell, Linda S. 1989 Durango to Durango: An Overview of the Southwest Heartland. In Archaeological and Historical Perspectives on the Spanish Borderlands West, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 17–40. Columbian Consequences, vol. I. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Davis, Dave D. 1974 The Strategy of Early Spanish Ecosystem Management in Cuba. Journal of Anthropological Research 30:294–314.Google Scholar
Farris, Nancy M. 1978 Nucleation vs. Dispersal: The Dynamics of Population Movement in Colonial Yucátan. Hispanic American Historical Review 58:187–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farris, Nancy M. 1984 Maya Society Under Colonial Rule, the Collective Enterprise of Survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Justino, Fernández (editor) 1945 Catdlogo de construcciones religiosas del estado de Yucatan. 2 vols. Texts by J.I. Rubio Mañé, L.Preciat, Vega Bolanos J. Garcia, and Vasquez, A. Barrera. Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, Mexico.Google Scholar
Folan, William J. 1961 Completion of Excavations at Structures 33, 36, 39, and 50. In Preliminary Report on the 1959-60 Field Season National Geographic Society-Tulane University Dzibilchaltun Program, edited by Andrews, E. Wyllys, pp. 7–11. Miscellaneous Series No. 11. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Folan, William J. 1970 The Open Chapel of Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan. Publication No. 26. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Foster, George M. 1960 Culture and Conquest: America's Spanish Heritage. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology No. 27. Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York.Google Scholar
Gannon, Michael V. 1965 The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513-1870. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Tomas, Gallareta N., Andrews, Anthony P., and Schmidt, Peter J. 1990 A 16th Century Church at Xlacah, Panaba, Yucatan. Mexicon XII:33–36.Google Scholar
Gibson, Charles 1964 The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony 1984 The Constitution of Society, Outline of the Theory ofStruc-turation. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Gómez Canedo, Lino 1952 Fray Lorenzo de Bienvenida O.F.M., and the Origins of the Franciscan Order in Yucatan. Americas VIII:493–513.Google Scholar
Gómez Canedo, Lino 1977 Evangelizacion y conquista: Experiencia franciscana en Hispanoamérica. Editorial Porrúa, Mexico.Google Scholar
Graham, Elizabeth 1991 Archaeological Insights into Colonial Period Maya Life at Tipu, Belize. In The Spanish Borderlands in Pan-American Perspective, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 319–335. Columbian Consequences, vol. III. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Graham, Elizabeth A., Jones, Grant D., and Kautz, Robert R. 1985 Archaeology and Ethnohistory on a Spanish Colonial Frontier: An Interim Report on the Macal-Tipu Project in Western Belize. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by Chase, Arlen F. and Rice, Prudence M., pp. 206–214. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Elizabeth, Pendergast, David M., and Jones, Grant D. 1989 On the Fringes of Conquest: Maya-Spanish Contact in Colonial Belize. Science 246:1254–1259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gutiérrez, Ramon A. 1991 When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, Craig A. 1990a The Spanish Chapel at Xcaret, Quintana Roo, Mexico: A Report on Operation Two and Summary of the 1989 Field Season. Manuscript on file, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Hanson, Craig A. 1990b Informe Preiiminar del Proyecto Mani: Temporada de 1989. Manuscript on file, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Hanson, Craig A. 1991 Proyecto Mani. Boletin 1:57–60. Consejo de Arqueologia, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Hayes, Alden C. 1968 The Missing Convento of San Isidro. El Palacio 75:35–40.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Kathleen 1993 The Archaeology of the Convento de San Francisco. In The Spanish Missions of La Florida, edited by McEwan, Bonnie G., pp. 62–86. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Hoshower, Lisa M., and Milanich, Jerald T. 1993 Excavations in the Fig Springs Mission Burial Area. In The Spanish Missions of La Florida, edited by McEwan, Bonnie G., pp. 217–243. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Jones, B. Calvin, Hann, John, and Scarry, John F. 1991 San Pedro y San Pablo de Patale: A Seventeenth-Century Spanish Mission in Leon County, Florida. Florida Archaeology No. 5. Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee.Google Scholar
Jones, B. Calvin, and Shapiro, Gary N. 1990 Nine Mission Sites in Apalachee. In Archaeological And Historical Perspectives on the Spanish Borderlands East, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 491–510. Columbian Consequences, vol. II. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Jones, Grant D. 1989 Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule, Time and History on a Colonial Frontier. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Kent, Susan 1984 Analyzing Activity Areas. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Richard, Konetzke (editor) 1953 Coleccion de documentos para la historia de la formacion social de Hispanoamerica, volumen I (1493-1592). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Kubler, George 1948 Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century. 2 vols. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Kubler, George 1972 The Religious Architecture of New Mexico. Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Denise L., and Low, Setha M. 1990 The Built Environment and Spatial Form. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:453–505.Google Scholar
Lizana, Fray Bernardo de 1893 [1633] Historia de Yucatan: Devocionario de Ntra. Sra. de Izamal y conquista espiritual. Museo Nacional, Mexico.Google Scholar
McAlister, Lyle N. 1984 Spain and Portugal in the New World 1492-1700. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
McAndrew, John 1965 The Open-Air Churches of Sixteenth-Century Mexico. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marrinan, Rochelle A. 1993 Archaeological Investigations at Mission Patale, 1984-1992. In The Spanish Missions of La Florida, edited by Mc-Ewan, Bonnie G., pp. 244–294. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Maybury-Lewis, David 1967 Akwe-Shavante Society. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur G., and Farriss, Nancy M. 1979 Religious Syncretism in Colonial Yucatan: The Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Evidence from Tancah, Quintana Roo. In Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by Hammond, Norman and Willey, Gordon R., pp. 223–240. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cámara, Millet, Luis, Heber Ojeda M., y Vicente, Suárez A., 1993 Tecoh, Izamal: Nobleza indigena y conquista española. Latin American Antiquity 4:48–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solis, Molina, Francisco, Juan 1943 [1896] Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de Yucatan. Ediciones Mensaje, Mexico.Google Scholar
Motolinia, Fray Toribio de Benavente 1950 [1541] History of the Indians of New Spain. Translated and edited by Foster, Elizabeth Andros. The Cortes Society, Bancroft Library, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1981 Lamanai, Belize: Summary of Excavation Results, 1974-1980. Journal of Field Archaeology 8:29–53.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1985 Lamanai, Belize: An Updated View. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by Chase, Aden F. and Rice, Prudence M., pp. 91–103. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1986a Historic Lamany: Royal Ontario Museum 1985 Excavations at Lamani, Belize. Mexicon VI11:9–13.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1986b Under Spanish Rule: The Final Chapter in Lamanai's Maya History. Belcast Journal of Belizean Affairs 3(1-2): 1–7.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1991 The Southern Maya Lowlands Contact Experience: The View from Lamanai, Belize. In The Spanish Borderlands in Pan-American Perspective, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 337–354. Columbian Consequences, vol. III. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Phelan, John Leddy 1970 The Millenial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Rapoport, Amos 1990 Systems of Activities and Systems of Settings. In Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space, An Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Study, edited by Kent, Susan, pp. 9–20. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Redfield, Robert 1941 The Folk Culture of Yucatan. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Relaciones geográficas de Yucátan 1900 In Coleccion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubri-miento, conquista, y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de Ultramar. 2nd series, vols. 12 and 13. Madrid.Google Scholar
Ricard, Robert 1966 The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico, An Essay on the Aposto-late and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain: 1523-1572. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Ringle, William M., and Bey, George J. 1994 Report on the 1992 Field Season of the Proyecto Ek Balam (with contributions by Don Graff, Craig Hanson, Charles Houck, and Sharon Bennett). Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. 1952 Conquest Sites and the Subsequent Destruction of Maya Architecture in the Interior of Northern Yucatan. Publication No. 596. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Saunders, Rebecca 1990 Ideal and Innovation: Spanish Mission Architecture in the Southeast. In Archaeological And Historical Perspectives on the Spanish Borderlands East, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 527–542. Columbian Consequences, vol. II. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Scholes, France V. 1937 Church and State in New Mexico, 1610-1650. Historical Society of New Mexico Publications in History, vol. 7. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Scholes, France V., and Adams, Eleanor B. (editors) 1938 Don Diego Quijada Alcalde Mayor de Yucatan, 1561-1565. 2 vols. Antigua Libreria Robredo, de José Porrúa e Hijos, Mexico.Google Scholar
Scholes, France V., and Bloom, Lansing B. 1944-1945 Friar Personnel and Mission Chronology, 1598-1629. New Mexico Historical Review 19:319–336, 20:58-82.Google Scholar
Scholes, France V., Menendez, C. R.Rubio Mane, J. I., and Adams, E.B. (editors) 1936 Documentos para la historia de Yucatan. 3 vols. Compania Tipografica Yucateca, Merida.Google Scholar
Simmons, Marc 1979 History of Pueblo-Spanish Relations to 1821. In Southwest, edited by Ortiz, Alfonso A., pp. 178–193. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 9, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Spicer, Edward H. 1962 Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533-1960. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Stubbs, Stanley A. 1959 New ‘Old’ Churches found at Quarai and Tabira. El Palacio 66:162–169.Google Scholar
Stubbs, S. A., Ellis, B.T., and Dittert, A. E. 1957 The ‘Lost’ Pecos Church. El Palacio 64(3-4).Google Scholar
Thomas, David Hurst 1988 Saints and Soldiers at Santa Catalina: Hispanic Designs for Colonial America. In The Recovery Of Meaning: Historical Archaeology in the Eastern United States, edited by Leone, Mark P. and Potter, Parker B. Jr, pp. 73–140. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Thomas, David Hurst 1990 The Spanish Missions of La Florida: An Overview. In Archaeological And Historical Perspectives on the Spanish Borderlands East, edited by Thomas, David Hurst, pp. 357–397. Columbian Consequences, vol. II. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. (translator, and editor) 1941 Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 9. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Trautmann, Wolfgang 1984 The Impact of Spanish Conquest on the Development of the Cultural Landscape in Tlaxcala, Mexico: A Reconstruction Using Models. In Explorations in Ethnohistory: Indians of Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Harvey, H. R. and Prem, Hanns J., pp. 253–276. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wauchope, Robert 1938 Modern Maya Houses: A Study of Their Archaeological Significance. Publication No. 502. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Weisman, Brent Richards 1992 Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier: Archaeology of the Fig Springs Mission. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar