El estatuto de limpieza de sangre de la Compañía de Jesús (1593) y su influencia en el Perú Colonial
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2011
- Journal Title:
- Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu
- Volume:
- 80
- Issue:
- 159
- Language:
- Abstract:
In the last few years many historians and anthropologists (Albert A. Sicroff, Verena Stolcke, Francisco de Borja Medina, Jean-Paul Zúñiga) have been interested in examining the social stigmas provoked by "mixed" parentage that eroded "pure" social categories in Hispanic-American colonial society. Blood was regarded as the symbol of familial continuity throughout Christian history. Thus, blood operated at the same time as a discriminating principle of behavior. At the end of the 16th century, the Society of Jesus issued a decree of lineage or de genere, which prohibited the admission into the religious order of new Christians. My aim in this essay is to show how this decree, which was presented at the Fifth General Congregation (Rome, 1593), was applied in the following years by Jesuit Provincials. Also the decree helped to consolidate these new ethnic-social categories such as the criollos and the mestizos and helped to conceptualize the presumed virtues and defects. In order to safeguard the reputation and honor of the Society of Jesus, rectors and provincials must apply the purity of blood decree in the selection of their students and novices in Lima. In principle, mestizos (generally the offspring of a Spanish father and an Indian mother) and conversos (new Christians) were prohibited to enter into this prestigious religious order. However, Jesuit authorities were far more lenient with students who came from other Peruvian colleges. I will argue that the decree of purity of blood had nothing to do with the modern notion of race - in the biological sense of the term - but referred to moral-theological criteria according to the interpretation and application of the local Jesuit authorities in colonial Peru.
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Page Range:
- 45–93
- ISSN:
- 0037-8887