Inga Clendinne Ambivalent Conquests Essay - 1,433 words

Inga Clendinne Ambivalent Conquests In this paper I will try to look at Inga Clendinne and her work Ambivalent Conquests in such a critical way that will allow answering several important questions. The first question addressed in the book: what is the crisis, which the writer talks about and what is even more specific what insights do the discussions in the novel raise as to evangelization campaigns in the Yucatan and the relationship between the settlers and the missionaries in the New World. The other important question is about authors examination of description of the conquests as ambivalent and if this term is the most appropriate to describe the situation. And then we will try to identify any ambiguities standing apart from the material of the book. While discussing the crisis we should refer to chapter six of the book. There is a possibility that instead of one big crisis there exist 3 crises that are taking place at the same time. All these crisis can be followed through the life and perception of the Indians, Franciscans and the settlers.


If we try to understand the crisis from the point of view of Franciscan friars that came to the region as missionaries, the crisis is most definitely that the Indians that they have converted, trusted as Christians, and guided in daily religious life have been deceitful in their proclamations of Christianity. Besides they have been worshiping idols, committing human sacrifice and also double playing working against the friars secretly. In their feedback to the situation the friars insist on the programs of purification, to make the region of dangerous and subversive pagan influence cleaner and a safer place to leave. From the other hand if we try to analyze crisis from the perspective of the settlers, the situation in the case is more convoluted. I think several things, such as the chance of human sacrifice, threatened them and also the possibility of interruption in the labor supplies, because of the heavy strict strategies applied by friars. Some of the settlers were threatened by the chance of all-out indigenous revolt in response to the escalating abuse of the Indians by the Franciscan friars.


This abuse could in fact have been the reason of the crisis for Indians. During the preceding periods of time, Indians were allowed to live their lives balanced between practicing Christianity, therefore providing cheap labor force fro settlers, and yet participating is some of the religious practices they were used to. Now the Franciscan friars were unleashing an unprecedented level of physical and psychological violence on the indigenous populations. The book says about some individuals confessing to crimes during brutal tortures and committing suicide to escape the torture. Entire villages were left abandoned because of the fears. The episode does not clarify that there were problems with understanding and accepting cultural practices of Indians by the missionaries and the ways of the implementation of the bringing Christianity of New Spain. The author alludes to conflicts that take place in the church over the question if the Indians should immediately become Christian or should be allowed to be Christian on the surface and to integrate Christian practices into their cultures gradually.


Clearly Franciscan friars were for immediate total conversion of every Indian, but Bishop Toral and most of the settlers were more tolerant and rather satisfied with gradual conversion into Christianity. The situation shows the precariousness of the relations between Franciscan missionaries and Spanish settlers. Even though the Spanish settlers were good, religious Catholics, they were at the first place concerned with their livelihood, which surely why they came to the United States. And, when the inquisition of the Indians threatened their labor force, the settlers were left in an awkward situation: do they oppose the friars in defense of the Indians or do they join the friars in their persecution of the Indians? There is not surprise that settlers did not choose any of the options and mostly were trying to escape confronting the situation as much as possible. Thus the attitude of the settlers to Franciscan friars became very ambivalent. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, the term ambivalence means simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward an o ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: indian, settlers, friar, labor force, human sacrifice

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