Abstract
To call Bartolomé de Las Casas an anthropologist may seem to some not only inaccurate but presumptuous as well. It is true that he was an anthropologist only incidentally, for he was primarily a man of action determined to influence the course of events in America. It was to protect the Indians from cruel and devastating wars of conquest against them, and to defend them from the charge that they were slaves according to Aristotle’s theory that certain classes of human beings are inherently slaves, that Las Casas became a student of Indian culture. Certainly he did not possess all the skills required of an anthropologist today. But his attempt to describe the cultures of the American Indians, in the course of his defense of the natives, resulted in his producing a most comprehensive picture of their civilization. His works constitute even today one of the indispensable sources on the native people encountered during the course of what Spaniards of that time believed to be the Eighth Wonder of the World — the discovery of America.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Martín Fernández de Navarrete; Colección de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV. Tomo II (Paris, 1825), 385. The statement occurs in a letter written by Columbus, addressed to the Treasurer of Spain, on his return from the first voyage.
The writer has collected a quantity of information on this topic in The first social experiments in America (Cambridge, 1935), 74–81.
Washington Matthews, “The study of ethics among the lower races,” Journal of American folklore, XII (1899), 1.
Estudios en la historiografía de la Nueva España (México, 1945), 66–70. Introduction by Ramón Iglesia.
Robert R. Marett, Tylor (New York, 1936), 36.
The available information on Pane has been collected by Edward G. Bourne in “Columbus, Ramon Pane and the beginnings of American anthropology”, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (April, 1906) and by Robert Streit in “Fr. Ramon Pane, der erste Etnograph Amerikas,” Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft, band 10 (Münster 1. W., 1920).
Antonio de Remesal gives a number of royal instructions on the subject in Historia general de las Indias occidentales, y particular de la gobernación de Chiapas y Guatemala (Madrid, 1619), Libro 2, cap. 7.
A convincing illustration of the contribution of the friars in the field of linguistics alone may be seen in the Bibliografía española de lenguas indígenas de América (Madrid, 1892) by Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano (the Conde de Viñaza).
Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (México, 1938), 5 vols., ed. by Wigberto Jiménez Moreno. His method of checking his material by a wise use of informants was especially notable.
The best and most recent edition, with extensive and valuable notes, has been prepared by Alfred M. Tozzer, whose Landa’s Relación de las cosas de Yucatan was published as volume 18 of the Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (Cambridge, 1941).
Use has been made, however, of Las Casas’ writings by such modern authorities as Cayetano Coll y Toste, Prehistoria de Puerto Rico (San Juan, 1907); J. W. Fewkes, The aborigines of Porto Rico and neighboring islands (Washington, 1907); Herbert W. Krieger, Archeological and historical investigations in Samaná, Dominican Republic (Washington, 1929), and “The aborigines of the ancient island of Hispaniola” in the Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, 1929), 473–506, and Aboriginal Indian pottery of the Dominican republic (Washington, 1931); Pablo Morales Cabrera, Puerto Rico indígena (San Juan, 1932?); Marshall H. Saville, Turquois mosaic art in ancient Mexico (New York, 1922); Samuel K. Lathrop, Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua (New York, 1926); H. E. D. Pollock, Round structures of aboriginal Middle America (Washington, 1936). Some of these writers used the Apologética Historia and others the Historia, de las Indias. James Williams used both in his attack on Leo Wiener’s Africa and the discovery of America (3 vols., Philadelphia. 1920–22) and he criticized particularly Wiener’s failure to use Las Casas in “Christopher Columbus and aboriginal Indian words,” Proceedings of the Twenty-third International Congress of Americanists (New York, 1930), 816–850.
Apologética historia sumaria cuanto á las cualidades, dispusicion, descripcion, cielo, y suelo destas tierras, y condiciones naturales, policios, repúblicas, maneras de vivir e costumbres de las gentes destas Indias occidentales y meridionales, cuyo imperio soberano pertenece á los Reyes de Castilla is the full title but on the title page of the printed volume it is Apologética historia de las Indias, de Fr. Bartolomé de las Casas (Madrid, 1909). Ed. by Manuel Serrano y Sanz (Nueva biblioteca de autores españoles, tomo 13). Cited as Apologética historia.
Roger Wolcott, ed., Correspondence of William Hickling Prescott (Boston, 1925), 385. Ernesto de la Torre Villar has demonstrated that Baltasar Dorantes de Carranza used the Apologética Historia in his Sumaria relación de las cosas de la Nueva España completed in 1604, Estudios de la historiografía de la Nueva España (México, 1945), 236–241. The Augustinian Jerónimo Román y Zamora must have had access to a copy of the manuscript for he copied almost verbatim certain chapters for his Repúblicas de Indias according to Francisco Ximénez [cited by Adrián Recinos Popol Vuh (México, 1947), 43]. Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg quoted the Apologetic History rather fully in Popol Vuh (Paris, 1861), and Lord Kingsborough printed chapter 211 in Volume 8 of Mexican Antiquities, and fiftyone scattered chapters appeared as an appendix in volume five of the first printed edition of Las Casas’ Historia de las Indias (Madrid, 1875–76), 397–602. A transcript, made probably in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, is in the Division of Manuscripts of the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C
Manuel Serrano y Sanz, “Doctrinas psicológicas de Fr. Bartolomé de Las Casas”, Revista de archivos, bibliotecas, y museos, tomo 17 (Madrid, 1907), 59–60.
Apologética historia, pp. 8, 81. Other information on the time at which various chapters were written appears on pp. 16, 17, 94, 322, 614.
Historia de las Indias, Libro 1, cap. 67.
He says specifically that “ya está escrita la mayor parte”, ibid., end of cap. 67. It seems clear from the references Las Casas made to the Apologética historia in his Historia de las Indias that he completed the former work first. See Historia de las Indias, Libro 2, caps. 9 and 26.
Apologética historia, p. 88.
Ibid., pp. 321–23, 345. Chap. 166 (pp. 444–445) is based on an account by Friar Ramón.
Antonio María Fabié, Vida y escritos de don fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. I (Madrid, 1879), 237. Many letters and documents directed to Las Casas on Indian affairs may be found in Documentos inéditos de América, tomo 7 and in tomo 2 of Fabié, op. cit.
Some of the printed material cited: Pedro Martyr, Opus epistolarum; La relación y comentarios del gobernador Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca de lo acaescido en las dos jornadas que hizo a las Indias; Fernando Cortés, Cartas; Miguel de Estete, Relación de la conquista del Perú.
Toribio de Benavente (Motolinía) in his famous letter to Charles V against Las Casas, Lesley B. Simpson, The Encomienda in New Spain (Berkeley, 1929), 258.
Robert Ricard cites Martin de Valencia, Jacobo de Testera, and Domingo de Betanzos, La Conquête spirituelle du Mexique (Paris, 1933), 70–71.
Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán, Recordación florida, III (Guatemala, 1933), 408–410.
Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano (conde de Vinaza), Bibliografía española de lenguas indígenas de América (Madrid, 1892), 15–16.
Felipe Barreda y Laos, La vida intelectual de la colonia (Lima, 1909), 106.
Apologética historia, p. 113, gives a typical example of this. 5 Ibid., p. 175.
Ibid., p. 176.
Ibid., pp. 98–127.
Obras escojidas de filósofos, in: Biblioteca de autores españoles, LXV, 227. The frequency with which Las Casas cited the works of Aristotle may be seen in Carlos Larrazabal Blanco, “Bibliografía colonial. Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas,” Clio, IX (Ciudad Trujillo, 1941), 63–64.
The following paragraphs are based upon a previous study by the writer, La lucha por justicia en la conquista de América (Buenos Aires, 1949), Tercera parte, cap. 4.
A detailed account may be found in the author’s “La controversia entre Las Casas y Sepúlveda en Valladolid, 1550–1551,” Universidad católica bolivariana, VIII (Medellín, Colombia, 1942), 65–97.)
The argument Las Casas presented has not yet been printed but remains in manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), Nouveau fonds latin, ms. no. 12926.
Apologética historia, pp. 1–82.
Ibid., pp. 29–32. 3 Ibid., pp. 34–35.
Las Casas was interested in finding out whether syphilis had existed in America, enquired into the subject particularly by questioning the Indians and concluded that the disease was to be found in the New World before Columbus arrived. Ibid., p. 44. The best modern discussions of this complicated subject, are by Samuel E. Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, II (Boston, 1942), 193–218, and George C. Shattuck, “Syphilis in Yucatan,” in The peninsula of Yucatan (Washington, 1932), 249–289.
Apologética historia, pp. 67–69. See also pp. 55–56 and 70–76.
Walter B. Cannon, Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear and rage (New York, 1915.)
Apologética historia, p. 89. “No queremos aquí decir ni afirmar que todos, universalmente, en todos sus actos actualmente sean perfectos y muy acenderados en las obras de perfecta razón, sino que todos umversalmente y por la mayor parte tienen natural aptitud y habilidad, y muy de propincuo están en potencia para ser reducidos al acto y actos, siendo instruidos, de todo buen entendimiento y de buena razón, y finalmente, que son hombres de su naturaleza bien razonables y bien inclinados, y dello tienen muy ciertos y naturales indicios y claras señales.”
Ibid., p. 52.
Ibid., pp. 83–89.
Ibid., pp. 89–91.
Ibid., p. 91.
Ibid., pp. 119, 122.
Ibid., pp. 120–121.
Ibid., p. 118.
Ibid., pp. 127–128.
Estudios de la historiografía de la Nueva España (México, 1945), p. 317.
Apologética historia, p. 138.
Alexander von Humboldt, Political essay on the kingdom of New Spain, I (London, 1811), 134.
Apologética historia, pp. 151–155. Much miscellaneous and curious information is given by Las Casas-such as the fact that he could read his prayers by the illumination provided by lightning bugs (p.7), that the smell of the male crocodile was so penetrating that he could remember it for sixteen years (p. 27), and that he had heard birds sing in three voices (p. 9). He also states that some of the Indian women of the islands were so expert with the bow that they could shoot accurately while swimming in livers and in the sea (p. 171).
Ibid., p. 153.
Ibid., p. 156–157.
Samuel K. Lothrop, Coché, an archaeological study (Cambridge, 1937).
Ibid., p. 158. 4 Ibid., p. 159.
Ibid., p. 161. Jerónimo de Mendieta greatly praised Indian music ability saying “una cosa puedo afirmar con verdad, que en todos los reinos de cristiani-dad (fuera de las Indias) no hay tanta copia de flautas, chirimías, sacabuches, orlos, trompetas, y atabales, como en solo este reino de la Nueva España”. Historia eclesiástica indiana (México, 1870;, Lib. 4, cap. 14, pp. 412–413. Ed. by Joaquín García Icazbalceta. There were also complaints that Indians became too much interested in music, spent too much money on instruments, and in general required more supervision in its practice if excess were not to result. Archivo de Indias (Sevilla), México 291. These statements appear in a memorial on various ecclesiastical questions by the three provincials in New Spain to the Council of the Indies.
Apologética historia, p. 162.
Ibid., pp. 167–170.
Ibid., pp. 162–165.
Ibid., pp. 173–178.
Ibid., pp. 181–182.
Ibid., pp. 483–509.
Ibid., p. 481.
Ibid., p. 494–506.
Ibid., p. 336.
Ibid., p. 537.
Ibid., pp. 539–540.
Ibid., pp. 559–575.
Ibid., p. 589.
Ibid., p. 138.
Ibid., p. 575.
Ibid., pp. 683–695.
Robert O. Schlaifer, “Greek theories of slavery from Homer to Aristotle,” Harvard studies in classical philology, no. 47 (Cambridge, 1936), pp. 165–204. See also E. E. Sikes, Anthropology of the Greeks (London, 1914), 73.
Edmundo O’Gorman, “Sobre la naturaleza bestial del indio americano,” Filosofía y letras, no. 2 (México, 1941), p. 312.
Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, Lib. 2. cap. 58.
Robert Southey, History of Brazil (London, 1817), p. 363.
Apologética historia, p. 128.
Printed in Mexico in 1941 as Del único modo de atraer a todos los pueblos a la verdadera religión. An analysis and critique of it are given by Edmundo O’Gorman in his Fundamentos de la historia de América (México, 1942). For the writer’s dissent from O’Gorman’s interpretation, see The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America, pp. 187–189.
See Silvio Zavala, “Las Casas, esclavista?” Cuadernos americanos, año 3 (México, 1944), no. 2. pp. 149–154. José Antonio Saco made the definitive defense of Las Casas against charges that he supported Negro slavery in his Historia de la esclavitud de la raza africana en el mundo nuevo y en especial en los países américo-hispanos, I (Barcelona, 1879), 100–109.
Simón Bolívar, Discursos y proclamas (Paris, 1913), 47. Ed. by Rufino Blanco-Fombona.
Roberto Levillier, Don Francisco de Toledo, I (Buenos Aires, 1935), 178.
Alexander von Humboldt, A personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of America, during the years 1799–1804, Vol. 2 (London, 1876), 400.
Apologética historia, p. 321 and Historia de las Indias, Lib. I, cap. 67.
To appreciate how Las Casas differed from other anthropologists, see Franz Boas, “The history of anthropology,” Science, Vol. 40 (1904), 514.
An interesting survey of the development in the United States during the last seventy-five years of ethnological theory, with copious bibliographical notes, is given by Leslie A. White, “Evolucionismo e anti-evolucionismo na teoría etnológica americana”, Sociología, X (São Paulo, 1948), 1–39. It is instructive to note that anthropologists have long stirred up controversy. Paul Broca met with great obstacles from those in authority when he started to organize the Société d’anthropologie de Paris in 1859. A police officer, in plain clothes, attended each meeting and reported to the prefect the tenor of the proceedings. Robert Fletcher, “Paul Broca and the French school of anthropology,” The Saturday lectures delivered in the lecture room of the U.S. National Museum under the auspices of the anthropological and biological societies of Washington (Washington, 1882), 113–142.
Lucien Levy-Bruhl, How natives think (New York, 1926), 32.
I am thinking here of such anthropologists as Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, Melville Herskovits, Ralph Linton, and Robert Redfield.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1951 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hanke, L. (1951). Bartolomé de Las Casas: Anthropologist. In: Bartolomé de Las Casas. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6298-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6298-4_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-5839-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-6298-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive