Natural and Moral History of the Indies

Acosta Jose de Acosta de, Lopez-Morillas Frances Lopez-Morillas

Description

The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, the classic work of New World history originally published by Jose de Acosta in 1590, is now available in the first new English translation to appear in several hundred years. A Spanish Jesuit, Acosta produced this account by drawing on his own observations as a missionary in Peru and Mexico, as well as from the writings of other missionaries, naturalists, and soldiers who explored the region during the sixteenth century. One of the first comprehensive investigations of the New World, Acosta's study is strikingly broad in scope. He describes the region's natural resources, flora and fauna, and terrain. He also writes in detail about the Amerindians and their religious and political practices.A significant contribution to Renaissance Europe's thinking about the New World, Acosta's Natural and Moral History of the Indies reveals an effort to incorporate new information into a Christian, Renaissance worldview. He attempted to confirm for his European readers that a "new" continent did indeed exist and that human beings could and did live in equatorial climates. A keen observer and prescient thinker, Acosta hypothesized that Latin America's indigenous peoples migrated to the region from Asia, an idea put forth more than a century before Europeans learned of the Bering Strait. Acosta's work established a hierarchical classification of Amerindian peoples and thus contributed to what today is understood as the colonial difference in Renaissance European thinking.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Perú
• México
• América del Sur
• South America
• History of the Americas
• Mexico
• Peru

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822383932
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

n a t u r a l a n d m o r a l h i s t o r y o f t h e i n d i e s

c h r o n i c l e s o f t h e n e w w o r l d o r d e r

N A T U R A L A N D M O R A L

H I S T O R Y

O F T H E I N D I E S

J O S É D E A C O S T A

EditedbyJaneE.Mangan,

with an Introduction and Commentary by Walter D. Mignolo.

TranslatedbyFrancesM.López-Morillas

D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

Durham and London

2002

∫2002 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Designed by Mary Mendell Typeset in Galliard by

Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

C O N T E N T S

Introduction to José de Acosta’s Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias

xvii

Printing permission granted by King Philip II

1

Printing permission granted by Gonzalo Dávila, Society of Jesus

Content approval granted by Fray Luis de León

4

Dedication to the infanta Doña Isabel Clara Eugenia de Austria

Paper tax ordered by Christóbal de León

Prologue to the reader

b o o k i

8

7

1. Of the opinion held by some authors that the heavens did not extend to the New World 13

2. How the heavens are round everywhere and rotate around themselves 16

3. How Holy Writ gives us to understand that the earth is in the midst of the universe 19

4. In which a response is given to what is alleged in Scripture against the heavens being round 23

5. Of the shape and appearance of the heavens in the New World

6. How the world has both land and sea in the direction of both poles 26

7. Which refutes the opinion of Lactantius, who said that there were no antipodes 29

3

5

24

vi

c o n t e n t s

8. Of Saint Augustine’s motives in denying the antipodes

9. Of Aristotle’s opinion of the New World and what it was that caused him to deny it 34

10. How Pliny and most of the ancients believed the same as Aristotle 38

11. How some mention of this New World is found in the ancients 39

12. What Plato believed concerning these West Indies

13. How some have believed that in Holy Scripture Ophir is this Peru of ours 44

14. What Tarshish and Ophir mean in Scripture

47

31

43

15. Of the prophecy of Abdias, which some say concerned these Indies 49

16. How the first men could have come to the Indies and how they did not sail purposely to these parts 51

17. Of the properties and remarkable virtue of the lodestone in navigation and how the ancients did not know of it 55

18. Which answers those who believe that in ancient times the ocean was crossed as in our day 58

19. How it may be believed that the first inhabitants of the Indies came there brought by storms and against their will 58

20. How it is more reasonable to believe that the first dwellers in the Indies came by land 61

21. How wild beasts and domestic animals crossed to the lands of the Indies 64

22. How the race of Indians did not come by way of Atlantis, as some believe 67

23. How the opinion of many, who believe that the Indians come from the race of the Jews, is false 69

1. Which will deal with the nature of the equinoctial line, or equator 75

72

71

vii

9. How the Torrid Zone is not excessively hot but only moderately so 88

11. How in addition to the causes mentioned there are other reasons why the Torrid Zone is temperate, especially the proximity of the Ocean Sea 91

24. Why there is no sure way to establish the Indians’ origin

b o o k i i

5. How in the Tropics the rains come in summer, or time of heat, and the calculation of winter and summer 80

3. How the Torrid Zone is very wet, and how in this the ancients were much mistaken 77

2. What caused the ancients to have no doubt that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable 75

25. What the Indians are wont to say about their origin

6. How the Torrid Zone has a great abundance of water and vegetation, though Aristotle denies it 81

87

8. How what is said of the Torrid Zone must be understood

4. How outside the Tropics there is more rain when the sun draws farther away, which is the reverse of the Torrid Zone 78

7. Which deals with the reason why the sun, outside the Tropics, causes rain when it is most distant, and in the Tropics the reverse, when it is nearest 84

10. How the Torrid Zone’s heat is tempered by the abundance of rain and the brevity of the days 89

c o n t e n t s

12. How the higher lands are colder and the reason for this 93

viii

c o n t e n t s

13. How cool winds are the chief reason why the Torrid Zone is temperate 95

14. How life in the equatorial region is very agreeable

b o o k i i i

1. How the natural history of the Indies is pleasant and enjoyable 99

97

2. Of winds and their di√erences and properties and causes in general 100

3. Of some properties of the winds that blow in the New World

4. How easterly winds always blow in the Torrid Zone and outside it both westerlies and easterlies 106

5. Of the di√erences between easterlies and southwesterlies and other kinds of winds 109

6. Why there is always an east wind for sailing in the Torrid Zone 112

7. Why westerly winds are more usually found when leaving the Torrid Zone, at higher latitudes 115

8. Of exceptions to be found in the rule just expressed and the winds and calms that exist on sea and land 116

9. Of some wonderful e√ects of winds in parts of the Indies

104

117

10. Of the ocean that surrounds the Indies and of the Northern and Southern Seas 122

11. Of the Strait of Magellan and how it was crossed on its southern side 125

12. Of the strait that some say exists in Florida

13. Of the properties of the Strait of Magellan

128

129

14. Of the ebb and flow of the Ocean Sea in the Indies

131

15. Of the di√erent fish and methods of fishing of the Indians

132

17. Of various fountains and springs

27. How earth and sea clasp one another

23. Of undiscovered regions and the di√erence of a whole day between east and west

154

b o o k i v

c o n t e n t s

19. Of the general nature of the earth in the Indies

20. Of the properties of the land of Peru

16. Of the pools and lakes that are found in the Indies

18. Of rivers

141

146

157

160

26. Of earthquakes

6. Of the mountain of Potosí and its discovery

4. Of the gold that is produced in the Indies

3. Of the kind of land where metals are found, and how in the Indies all the metals are not worked, and how the Indians used metals 165

ix

162

25. Why the fire and smoke of these volcanoes persists for so long156

151

139

143

170

5. Of the silver of the Indies

166

172

1. Of the three kinds of mixtures that will be dealt with in this history 161

24. Of volcanoes or vents of fire

21. Of the reasons given as to why it does not rain on the plains 148

22. Of the properties of New Spain and the islands and the other lands 149

136

2. Of the abundance of metals that exist in the Indies