Reading the Book of Genesis in the New World: José de Acosta and Bernabé Cobo on the Origins of the American Population

The research that I reported in the darker side of the renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality and Colonization (1995) was driven by my desire and need to understand the opening up of the Atlantic in the sixteenth century, its historical, theoretical, and political consequences. How was it that coexisting socioeconomic organizations like the Ottoman and Mughal sultanates as well as the incanate in the Andes and the tlahtoanate in the Valley of Mexico were either inferior or almost absent in the global historical picture of the time? I became aware, for example, that people in the Valley of Mexico living in the Aztec tlahtoanate, whether in conformity or dissenting, were compared—by the Spaniards—with the Jews. The comparison was twofold: on the one hand, the Indians and the Jews were dirty and untrustworthy people; on the other hand, the Indians in the New World may have been part of the Jewish diaspora. So, the comparison got in trouble, because Indians and Jews may have been the same people. The Jesuit priest José de Acosta, in his Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1589), asked whether the Indians descended from the Jews, addressing a question that was on everybody's mind. He dismissed the possibility of the connection, because the Jews had had a sophisticated writing system for a long time while the Indians were illiterate (in the Western sense of the word). Jews liked money, Acosta pointed out, while Indians were not even aware of it; and while Jews took circumcision seriously, Indians had no idea of it. Last but not least, if Indians were indeed of Jewish origin, they would not have forgotten the Messiah and their religion.

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Los antiguos en el Nuevo Mundo. Reflexiones de los jesuitas José de Acosta y Alonso de Ovalle sobre el origen de los nativos americanos, siglos XVI-XVII

Revista de Historia y Geografía ◽

10.29344/07194145.37.1071 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 21

Author(s):

Carolina Valenzuela Matus

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

New World ◽

Rational Method ◽

Greco Roman ◽

Accurate Knowledge ◽

Roman People ◽

Ancient Civilizations ◽

Jose De Acosta

Durante los siglos XVI y XVII, cronistas y evangelizadores europeos defendieron algunas teorías de poblamiento que sostenían que los nativos americanos provenían de pueblos bíblicos y grecorromanos. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar las reflexiones realizadas sobre esta materia por los jesuitas José de Acosta y Alonso de Ovalle, considerando que hubo un tiempo en que las exploraciones geográficas y un conocimiento más cabal del continente privilegió el valor de la evidencia y la experiencia. Este artículo pretende demostrar que los jesuitas aquí estudiados tuvieron una postura escéptica sobre estas teorías, adhiriendo a un método racional moderno desde el que realizaron sus propuestas sobre poblamiento, prescindiendo de la presencia de las antiguas civilizaciones pero manteniendo la idea del monogenismo bíblico.Palabras clave: Monogenismo bíblico, tradición clásica, jesuitas, poblamiento.Ancients in the New World. Reflections by Jesuits José de Acosta and Alonso de Ovalle about the origin of Native Americans, 16th-17th centuriesAbstractDuring the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, European chroniclers and evangelizers defended some settlement theories that held that Native Americans came from Biblical and Greco-Roman people. This article is aimed to analyze the reflections made on this subject by Jesuits José de Acosta and Alonso de Ovalle, considering that there was a time when geographical explorations and a more accurate knowledge of the continent privileged the value of evidence and experience. This article tries to demonstrate that Jesuits here studied had a skeptical position on these theories adhering to a modern rational method from which they made their proposals on settlement, dispensing with the presence of ancient civilizations but maintaining the idea of biblical monogenism.Keywords: Biblical monogenism, classic tradition, Jesuits, settlement.Os antigos no Novo Mundo. Reflexões dos jesuítas José de Acosta e Alonso de Ovalle sobre a origem dos nativos americanos, séculos XVI-XVIIResumoDurante os séculos XVI e XVII, cronistas e evangelizadores europeus defenderam algumas teorias de assentamentos que sustentavam que os nativos americanos procediam dos povos bíblicos e greco-romanos. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as reflexões feitas sobre este assunto pelos jesuítas José de Acosta e Alonso de Ovalle, considerando que houve um tempo onde as explorações geográficas e um conhecimento mais preciso do continente privilegiaram o valor da evidência e da experiência. Este artigo pretende demonstrar que os jesuítas aqui estudados tiveram uma posição cética sobre essas teorias que aderiram a um método racional moderno a partir do qual eles fizeram suas propostas sobre o assentamento, prescindindo a presença de civilizações antigas, mas mantendo a ideia do monogenismo bíblico.Palavras-chave: Monogenismo bíblico, tradição clássica, jesuítas, assentamento.

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Ancient Authorities Intertwined

Journal of Jesuit Studies ◽

10.1163/22141332-00201001 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1-35 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Clifford Ando ◽

Anne McGinness ◽

Sabine G. MacCormack

Keyword(s):

New World ◽

Classical Literature ◽

Knowledge Of God ◽

Geographic Knowledge ◽

The One ◽

Jose De Acosta

The article surveys and interprets the works produced by José de Acosta during his years in the New World and his revisions of, and additions to, those works after his return to Europe. Elucidating Acosta’s engagements with both Scripture and classical literature, the essay urges respect for the various religious, intellectual, and metaphysical commitments that structured Acosta’s arguments. Particular attention is given to Acosta’s wrestling with the limits of ancient geographic knowledge, on the one hand, and to his efforts to understand religion in the New World in light of ancient evidence of knowledge of God before Christianity and patristic essays on the conversion of the ancient Mediterranean.

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What Did Natural History have to do with Salvation? José de Acosta Sj (1540–1600) in the Americas

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/s0424208400000565 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 144-168

Author(s):

Simon Ditchfield

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Natural History ◽

New World ◽

Original Position ◽

Botanic Gardens ◽

Old World ◽

Christian Conversion ◽

Palatine Hill ◽

Jose De Acosta

At the southern foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome, a little more than one hundred metres due west of the triumphal arch erected by the emperor who is associated more than any other with the Christian conversion of the Old World — Constantine the Great – there stands another arch. Relocated from its original position at the eastern foot of the Palatine, more or less directly across from the biggest remaining ruin in the forum — that of the Basilica of Maxentius — it formed the monumental entrance to one of the most important botanic gardens in sixteenth-century Europe — the Orti farnesiani, which were given their definitive shape between 1565 and 1590. I propose that this second arch has reason to be considered as occupying a similar symbolic significance for the conversion of the New World.

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