Memoria antica e memoria indiana: discorso sulle divinità indigene nell’opera di Fray Juan Torquemada

Abstract

The Monarquía indiana - published in Seville in 1615 by Fray Juan de Torquemada - represented one of the most significant efforts to include Indigenous religions within a global view of religious diversity. As a product of a modern process of “mondialization”, the work of Torquemada reflected on the nature of Mesoamerican gods from a ground-breaking point of view. The Franciscan produced an evolution of the missionary methods and strategies used during the first part of colonial history. In the context of modern discourses on religion, the work of Torquemada does not represent only an "ethnographic" attempt to understand the complexity of Indigenous religions in order to promote evangelization. On the contrary, the missionary reflection on Indigenous gods established a key stage in the modern construction of a global theory of polytheism.