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The Hispanic Horizon in Yucatan: A model of Franciscan missionization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2010

Craig A. Hanson
Craig A. Hanson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
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Abstract

Following the military campaigns of conquest in sixteenth-century Yucatan, the Order of Friars Minor Observant assumed the task of controlling, by culture conversion, the indigenous Yucatec Maya. The fundamental vehicle for this program of social engineering was the built environment of the mission, composed of the chapel, atrium, and friary, and the associated village. Archaeological remains of mission sites are horizon markers for the earliest phases of permanent Hispanic presence on the peninsula, ca. 1545–1572. Mission villages specify locations where the friars reorganized pre-Hispanic Maya settlements according to Spanish sociopolitical norms. Increasing complexity in mission-chapel architecture marks the stages of this reorganization. In this article, I discuss the historical origin of the friars' policies and the context of their implementation in Yucatan; model the spatial, temporal, architectural, and behavioral variables the Franciscans employed to extend and maintain Hispanic hegemony; provide comparative data from seventeenth-century New Mexico and La Florida; and outline a general theory of Franciscan activity in the New World.

Resumen

A continuación de las campañas militares de conquista en Yucatán durante el siglo XVI, la Orden de los Frailes Observantes Menores asumió la tarea de controlar, por medio de la conversión cultural, a los indígenas mayas yucatecas. En este artículo, yo postulo que la manipulación franciscana de un medio ambiente construido fue el método fundamental del proceso civiiizatorio. El medio ambiente creado en las misiones constituyó el vehículo para el proceso de conversión; este medio ambiente estuvo compuesto de la capilla, el atrio, el claustro y el poblado asociado. Los restos arqueológicos de las misiones son marcadores de horizonte de las fases más tempranas de la presencia hispánica permanente en la península hacia los años 1545–1572. Los poblados misioneros especifican las localidades donde los frailes reorganizaron los asentamientos prehispánicos mayas de acuerdo a las normas sociopoliticas españolas. Puesto que el propósito de la misión fue fundar y organizar la iglesia, el postulado que yo utilizo aqui es equivalente a una hipóte sis que integra la arquitectura de las capillas del siglo XVI dentro de un marco interpretative coherente, el cual refleja el desarrollo espacial y temporal de esta organización. Las implicaciones conductuales de este modelo se originan en las teorías socioculturales del medio ambiente construido. Estas teorías mantienen que los grupos humanos crean medio ambientes y a la vez encuentran que su conducta está creada por el medio ambiente construido. En otras palabras, los frailes crearon una serie de medio ambientes para modelar progresivamente la conducta de los mayas yucatecas. La secuencia del desarrollo de la construcción de capillas sirve como metáfora para este proceso. Empiezo esta discusión con la evangelización de Nueva España descrita por Motolinia. A continuación presento el contexto histórico del avance misionero franciscano en la península de Yucatán. Luego presento un modeio en el que ejemplos especificos de la arquitectura de las capillas del siglo XVI son correlacionados con etapas sucesivas espaciales, temporales y conductuales de la reducción hispánica de la frontera indígena. La primera etapa del modelo está basada en documentos etnohistóricos. Las capiilas de Xcaret, Dzibalchaltun y Mani representan las tres etapas finales. Para concluir, discuto la relevancia de este modelo para comprender el avance misionero en Norte America durante el siglo XVII y para estudiar ios procesos de colonizatión española en el Nuevo Mundo.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 6 , Spring 1995 , pp. 15 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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