La consideración de las fuentes indígenas en la Historia natural y moral de las Indias de José de Acosta

Abstract

The Jesuit José de Acosta, in his Historia natural y moral de las Indias, analyzes the question of the verisimilitude of indigenous history. If on the one hand Acosta uses the news collected by other chroniclers, on the other hand he considers the indigenous oral tradition. Writing, a sign of civilization, is only one of the methods for transmitting history. The other is oral tradition, that although in a limited way, acquires dignity as historic source, since it contributes to confirm past events and interpretive hypotheses of the main events of a people, until becoming a point of reference for the last part of the work of the Jesuit.