CULTURAL READINGS: Colonization & Print in the Americas

Jay I. Kislak Foundation

Bartholomé de Las Casas, Apologética historia sumaria. Manuscript, early 19th century.

Arguably one of the truly significant pieces of ethnology to come out of Spanish experiences in the Americas, Las Casas's huge work (almost 4,000 pages in this version) is a dense attempt to present a systematic reading of native culture in the New World and to defend that culture against its detractors. Las Casas, for example, audaciously compares human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism in the Americas with Christ's death and the eucharist. The work remained unpublished until the 20th century; the present manuscript was probably made for Lord Kingsborough.

[See also in this exhibition, illustrations from Lord Kingsborough's collection]

Viewers and the Viewed

• Early Impressions
• Black Legends
• The de Bry Engravings
• [Return to] Native Cultures, Ancient Cultures

Exhibition Contents | Introduction | Essays | Bibliography & Links