The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas

by Mundy, Barbara E.

• ISBN13: 9780226550978
• ISBN10: 0226550974
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

To learn about its territories in the New World, Spain commissioned a survey of Spanish officials in Mexico between 1578 and 1584, asking for local maps as well as descriptions of local resources, history, and geography. In The Mapping of New Spain, Barbara Mundy illuminates both the Amerindian (Aztec, Mixtec, and Zapotec) and the Spanish traditions represented in these maps and traces the reshaping of indigene world views in the wake of colonization. "Its contribution to its specific field is both significant and original. . . . It is a pure pleasure to read." --Sabine MacCormack, Isis "Mundy has done a fine job of balancing the artistic interpretation of the maps with the larger historical context within which they were drawn. . . . This is an important work." --John F. Schwaller, Sixteenth Century Journal "This beautiful book opens a Pandora's box in the most positive sense, for it provokes the reconsideration of several long-held opinions about Spanish colonialism and its effects on Native American culture." --Susan Schroeder, American Historical Review

Author Biography

Barbara E. Mundy is an assistant professor of art history at Fordham University and a contributor to Volume 2, Book 3 of The History of Cartography.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xxi
Author's Note	xxxi
Spain and the Imperial Ideology of Mapping	1	(10)
Mapping and Describing the New World	11	(18)
Colonial Spanish Officials and the Response to the Relacion Geografica Questionnaire	29	(32)
The Native Painters in the Colonial World	61	(30)
The Native Mapping Tradition in the Colonial Period	91	(44)
Language and Naming in the Relaciones Geograficas Maps	135	(46)
The Relaciones Geograficas and Other Viceregal Maps in New Spain	181	(32)
Conclusion	213	(4)
Appendix A Catalogue of Maps Studied	217	(10)
Appendix B The Questionnaire of the Relaciones Geograficas	227	(4)
Appendix C The Nahuatl Inscriptions of the Macuilsuchil Map	231	(2)
Appendix D A Typical Viceregal Acordado	233	(2)
Notes	235	(12)
Bibliography	247	(22)
Index	269