Indigenous Intellectuals: Knowledge, Power, and Colonial Culture in Mexico and the Andes - Paperback

by Gabriela Ramos (Editor), Yanna Yannakakis (Editor)

Via military conquest, Catholic evangelization, and intercultural engagement and struggle, a vast array of knowledge circulated through the Spanish viceroyalties in Mexico and the Andes. This collection highlights the critical role that indigenous intellectuals played in this cultural ferment. Scholars of history, anthropology, literature, and art history reveal new facets of the colonial experience by emphasizing the wide range of indigenous individuals who used knowledge to subvert, undermine, critique, and sometimes enhance colonial power. Seeking to understand the political, social, and cultural impact of indigenous intellectuals, the contributors examine both ideological and practical forms of knowledge. Their understanding of "intellectual" encompasses the creators of written texts and visual representations, functionaries and bureaucrats who interacted with colonial agents and institutions, and organic intellectuals.

Author Biography

Gabriela Ramos is University Lecturer in Latin American History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow and College Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of Death and Conversion in the Andes: Lima and Cuzco, 1532-1670.

Yanna Yannakakis is Associate Professor of History at Emory University. She is the author of The Art of Being In-Between: Native Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca, also published by Duke University Press.