Popular Religion and Appropriation: The Example of Corpus Christ Eighteenth-Century Cuzco David Cahill Latin American Research Review, Vol. 31, No. 2. (1996), pp. 67-110. ble URL: bitp://links jstor.org/sici?sici=0023-879 1% 281996%2931%3A2%3C67%3APRAATE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B Latin American Research Review is currently published by Uni Press. ersity of T ‘Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at butp:/\vww jstor.orglabout/terms.huml. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at hup:/www jstor-org/journals/texas. hum Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the sereen or printed page of such transmission, JSTOR isan independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to ereating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals, For more information regarding JSTOR, please contaet support @jstor.org, upswwwjstorore/ Mon Noy 27 21:38:31 2006POPULAR RELIGION AND APPROPRIATION: The Example of Corpus Christi in Eighteenth-Century Cuzco David Cahill University of New South Wales Historical studies of Andean popular religion have largely been confined to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the main exegeses of the early chronicles and the rich materials on “extirpation of idolatry.”! ‘The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries remain largely terra incognita, while information on twentieth-century popular religion has come pri- marily from ethnographic field studies. More recently, historians and anthropologists have begun to explore the religious or messianic dimen- sion of the great uprisings of 1780-1783 in the southern Andean sierra, taking their cue from a 1955 essay by John Rowe on a purported “Inca 1. A useful although controversial overview of studies of Andean religion is Henrique Urbano, "Representacones colectivas yarqueologia mental en los Andes," Allunchi 17, no. 20 (982):33-85. Especially important are two historically informed anthropological reat iments: Michael J Salinow, Pilgrims of the Andes: Regional Cults in Cusco (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), and Deborah Poole, “Los santuariosreligiosos en la ‘economia regional andina (Cusco),”Allpanchis 16, na 19 (1982)79-116. sallnow also provides 4 full bibliography on Andean festive culture that updates in certain respects that of Urbano. The leading works on colonlal Andean religion include Johann Specker, Die Mis- sionsmethode in Spanisch-Amerita in 16, jkrhundert (Chur, Switzerland: Beckenried, 1953), Pierre Duviols, Li lutte conte les religions autochtones dans le Pro coli: "Lextinpation de idole” entre 1832 ef 1600 (Lima: Institut Prancas d'Etudes Andines, 197), witha Span ‘sh translation published as Ladesruccion de las religines andinas (durante a conquistay nia) (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional AutGnoma de México, 1977); Lorenzo Huertas lejos, Li eligi en wa sociedad rural andina (siglo XVI) (Ayacucho: UNSC Huamanga, 1981) Manel M. Marzal, La transformacion rligiow peraana (Lima: Pontificia Universidad CCatsiea, 1983}; Sabine MacCormack, Reliion in the Andes: Vision and Traagination in Early Colonial Peru (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999; Catlciomo y extipacin de iolatrias, silos XVI-XVIl, edited by Gabriela Ramos and Henrique Urbano (Cuzco: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, 1093); Kenneth Mills, An Evil Lst fo View? An Inestigtion of Post Evangelization Anvoon Religion in Mid-Colonial Peru (Liverpool, Engl: University of Liver- pol, 1991) and Mils, "The Limits of Religious Coercion in Mid-Colonial Peru” Past and Present, no. 15 (1994)84-121. The debate has been given an Important flip with the publication of sections ofthe extant documentation on “idolatra” in the seventeenth cen ary im Cultura andina yreprein: Process estes de Uoatrie y beers, Caatamo, ito XVII edited by Pierre Duviols(Cxzco: Centro Bartolomé de Is Casas, 1986); and in Amar ‘eos hechiceosy eels, edited by Ana Sinchez (Cuzco: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, 1990. Latin Ameria Ressrch Review volume 31, number 2 1996 o7Latin American Research Review rnationalism.”? Yet between early-colonial historiography and twen- tieth-century ethnography, one encounters a virtual silence of two centuries. This hiatus is largely explained by the lack of printed sources for the period and the consequent need to sieve scarce data from archives. Also pertinent is the fact that by the end of the seventeenth century, the tide of ‘arly-modern missionary zeal had ebbed. That waning of interest in ex tirpatory endeavors by church and state alike coincided with a diminu- tion of witch-hunts in Europe generally and a decline in the influence and fervor of the Inquisition in Spain specifically Such lack of zeal also appears to have represented something of an accommodation between church and state on the one hand and Andean popular religiosity on the other. Beliefs and practices once viewed as incorrigibly heretical might henceforth be incorporated or tolerated as superstitious or magical, as elements of a popular culture grounded in ignorance that might nonetheless coexist comfortably on the margins of post-Tridentine Catholicism.‘ This belated tolerance was no doubt facili- tated by official conviction that the more outrageous native Andean reli- gious practices had already been eradicated or at least driven under- ground. Yet this newfound tolerance had its limits: the state (even more than the church) continued to proscribe features of religious praxis deemed malign, thereby continuing to set strict parameters for the permissible in religious observance. The fragmentary post-1700 data on native Andean 2. See ohn H. Rowe, “El movimiento nacional inca dl siglo XVI” Recs Universtri 43, no 107 1954) 17-4 Tas article draws heal on George Kubler, “The Quechua in the Colonial Wor” in Handbok of South American Ids ede by Jalan Ft Seward (Wash Sngton, DC: Smithsonian Insteation, 1946), 2331-410 The corespondence between these episodes and the campaign to extirpteilatey in Peru should not be pushed to far See, for example, the remarks of Antonio Acosta Kod "ger in “La extirpacion de as doltias en el er: Origin y desarrollo de las campus Revit Andina 5.1 (987) 171-95 “There was les tolerance of popular religiosity in Europe, for which ste the two key text Peter Burke, Popular Calta Early Madern Europe London: Temple Sith, 1979 and Robert Muchembled, Popuiar Culture ani Ete Culture in France, H0021730, translated by [dia Cochrane (Baton Rouge La: Lousiana State University Pres, 1985; orginally pub lished in 978) Foran apprasl and comparison, see Wiliam Belk, “Popular Cult and Ete Repression in asi Madern Europe, oural of lnterdiseplnary Mistry 1.1 (1980) 57-103 For crigues of approaches to the study of popular religion, sce Stuart Clatk, "french Historians and Eatly Modern Poplar Cult ast and Present, no. 100 (889)62~ 99; moat recently, Gerald Stause, “The Dilemma of Popular History” Pst and Present, no 132 (891)130—0, and the related debate with Wiliam Beik 10-29. A pioneering meth ‘edologial esayof ending values Natalie Zemon Davis, Some Tasks and Themes in he Study of Poplar Religion” in The Pursuit of Holiness Late Mtevl and Renasanee Rel ‘in, edited by Charis Tinkaus and Hisko A: Oberman (Leiden, The Netherlands: E Bil, 197, updated to some exten in Davis, “From ‘Popular Religion’ to Religious Cal ture,” im Rofrmation Europe: A Gude to Resarch, edited by Steven £. Ozment (St. Loss, Mos Center for Reformation Resarch, 982) Many of the methodological esues are dis ‘ssc in Robert Serine, "ls History of Popular Cultore Possible? Hatory “dvs 10, no. 2 (1989)475-5, An article with msportant consequences forthe Mt ‘of popula religion is Peter Burke's “Smengths and Weaknesses ofthe History of Mental ihe Hltory of Europe Ids. 5 (980°499"51 68