ARTICLES
FORUM: VIOLENCE IN THE EARLY MODERN ATLANTIC WORLD
Beyond Encounters: Religion, Ethnicity, and Violence in the Early Modern Atlantic World, 1492–1700
Brian Sandberg
pp. 1–26
Abstract: At the time of the quincentennial commemoration of the Columbian voyages in 1992, historical scholarship on the Atlantic world revolved around the theme of “encounters.” More recent research emphasizes the centrality of violence in the Columbian exchange. This article introduces the three following essays presented in this issue and analyzes the historical literature dealing with ethnic and religious violence in the early modern Atlantic world. Focusing particularly on the dynamics of captivity and atrocity, the author suggests that the patterns of violence developed in the early modern Atlantic world may have served as a model for the globalization of violence.
Franciscans, Indian Sorcerers, and the Inquisition in New Spain, 1536–1543
Patricia Lopes Don
pp. 27–50
Abstract: When Spanish settlers went to the Americas, they took with them institutions that had been central to their colonization of medieval Iberia, including the Inquisition. While the main interests of the crown and the church were to prevent the establishment of Judaism, Islam, and Protestant Christianity in the New World, the first bishop of New Spain, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, was soon drawn into applying the rigors of the Inquisition against the paganism of some thirty, mostly indigenous, leaders in the years 1536–1543. This paper analyzes the second trial in the series, that of the native sorcerer Martin Ocelotl, which alarmed religious authorities about the continuation of paganism in the Valley of Mexico and became a turning point in the escalation of religious violence against native leaders.
Hans Staden’s Captive Soul: Identity, Imperialism, and Rumors of Cannibalism in Sixteenth-Century Brazil
H. E. Martel
pp. 51–70
Abstract: This article examines the ways sixteenth-century reports of cultural cannibalism among the Tupinamba of Brazil were employed strategically by Europeans and Brazilians in the contest for economic, spiritual, and cultural dominance in the Atlantic world. By focusing on the experience of captivity among the Tupinamba by Hans Staden of Germany, this essay also explores the use of the cannibal by one ordinary man, as he negotiated dangerous limitations on identity and free will in the context of Reformation and imperial battles to possess both bodies and souls.
“To Fear and to Love Us”: Intercultural Violence in the English Atlantic
Melanie Perreault
pp. 71–94
Abstract: This article examines the interconnection of notions of fear and love during English exploration and colonization in the Atlantic world in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. English promotional literature argued that the English were uniquely qualified to establish a loving relationship with the native peoples they encountered. Increasing violence, however, presented a significant challenge to that image. By recasting intercultural violence as a natural component of a hierarchical yet intimate relationship, English accounts placed otherwise questionable actions into an acceptable framework that did not threaten their carefully constructed image as protectors of dependent Indians.
BOOK REVIEWS
Reuven Amitai and Michal Biran, eds. Mongols, Turks, and Others: Eurasian Nomads and the Sedentary World
Reviewed by Christopher J. Ward
pp. 95–97
Rémi Brague. Teresa Lavender Fagan, trans. The Wisdom of the World: The Human Experience of the Universe in Western Thought
Reviewed by Fabio López-Lázaro
pp. 97–101
Victor Lieberman. Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830, Volume I: Integration on the Mainland
Reviewed by Liam C. Kelley
pp. 102–104
Bernard Bailyn. Atlantic History: Concept and Contours
Reviewed by William E. Doody
pp. 105–107
Irene Silverblatt. Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World
Reviewed by Nils P. Jacobsen
pp. 107–110
Lynn A. Struve, ed. The Qing Formation in World-Historical Time
Reviewed by Laura Hostetler
pp. 110–112
Jeremi Suri. Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente
Reviewed by Sharon A. Kowalsky
pp. 112–114