In the Wake of In the Wake of Columbus: Why the Polemic Over Columbus' First Landfall is of Interest to Africanist Historians

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 349-357
Author(s):  
David Henige
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Old World ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
History Of ◽  
Day By Day

It must be premised that the journal contains statements that appear to be absolutely irreconcilable with the present topography of the Bahamas.Despite its disappointingly meager immediate results, its role as catalyst for the great age of worldwide culture contact inevitably resulted in a lively interest in every detail of Columbus' first voyage to the New World. Continuing unabated for nearly five centuries, the interest has assumed many forms, ranging from the putative effects of contact on the Amerindians to the identity of Columbus' first landfall--just where did the Old World first view the New World? Though it might seem to be both straightforward and of minor interest, the latter issue has in fact aroused great controversy for more than two centuries and remains far from settled today, as it appears that the most recent bid for consensus has been rudely shattered in its turn.The controversy arises not at all from the fact that there exist several and contradictory independent testimonies bearing on the issue. Quite the contrary, as there is only a single surviving source, the so-called Diario de a bordo, which purports to be, at least in part, a record of Columbus' voyage on a day-by-day basis. The history of this text as we have it is complicated and this goes some way towards explaining why so many issues based on it remain moot. The only known extant copy was discovered as recently as 1790 and is in the handwriting of Bartolomé de las Casas, the noted missionary and historian of the early Indies, who was also a friend of several members of Columbus' family.

scholarly journals “Obedezco pero no cumplo”: Surviving Censorship in Early Modern Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-74
Author(s):  
Rolena Adorno
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Modern Spain ◽  
Old World ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Better known by the royal decrees that governed it than by its practice, book censorship in Early Modern Spain remains an elusive topic. How did it work in individual instances? Were there authors who defied it? I take up here two works, one an imprint published and expurgated; the other a manuscript, approved for printing but never published. Both reveal the marks of the censor’s pen (occasionally, knife) but also the literary personalities of the authors whose writings were scrutinized. Both works belong to the genre of “proto-anthropology” that studied civilizations ancient and modern, from the Old World and the New. Please meet Fray Jerónimo Román y Zamora and his Repúblicas del mundo [Republics of the World] and Fray Martín de Murúa, author of Historia General del Piru [General History of Peru]. Along the way we encounter their respective readers, “Dr. Odriozola” and Fray Alonso Remón, as well as the larger-than-life presence of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.

Alonso de Zorita: Early and Last Years

1976 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-513
Author(s):  
Ralph H. Vigil
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
New World ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
Active Interest ◽  
The Masses

Alonso De Zorita’s career as a Spanish judge in the Indies in the years 1548–1556, though not as well known as the career of Bartolomé de las Casas and other pro-Indian reformers, merits serious study. The arrival of Zorita and his subsequent actions as an administrator and legist represent one example of the serious efforts of the Crown in the 1540’s to impose royal control over a quasi-feudal class of conquerors and pobladores which had from the early sixteenth century entrenched itself in the New World. Moreover, Zorita was not only a jurist who attempted to implement the New Laws of 1542–43, but an inspired humanitarian who took an active interest in the native civilizations of the New World and questioned the relations that had evolved and created “a Hispano-Indian society characterized by the domination of the masses by a small privileged minority…” His ardent defense of the Indians against the charge that they were “barbarians” included a relativist line of argument that anticipated Michel de Montaigne’s celebrated comment that “everyone calls barbarian what is not his own usage.” In addition, his inquiries into native history, land tenure and inheritance laws may be considered “in effect exercises in applied anthropology, capable of yielding a vast amount of information about native customs and society” and is an example of what Europe saw or failed to see in the sixteenth century when confronted with a strange new world.

Language as a Key to Latin American Historiography

1955 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-539
Author(s):  
Richard M. Morse
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
New World ◽  
Old World ◽  
History Of

Latin americanists have in recent years become increasingly concerned with constructing the basis for a unified history of Latin America. Frequently this enterprise leads them to contemplate the even larger design of a history of the Americas. While the New World may still be, in Hegel’s words, “a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of old Europe,” it is now recognized as having an independent heritage; its history is no longer experienced as “only an echo of the Old World.”

The genus Capsicum (Solanaceae) in Africa

Bothalia ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 845-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Eshbaugh
Keyword(s):  
Wild Species ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
New World ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Old World ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Local Phenomenon ◽  
History Of ◽  
Genus Capsicum ◽  
Large Acreage

The genus Capsicum (Solanaceae) includes approximately 20 wild species and 4-5 domesticated taxa commonly referred to as ‘chilies’ or ‘peppers’. The pre-Colombian distribution of the genus was New World. The evolutionary history of the genus is now envisaged as including three distinct lines leading to the domesticated taxa. The route of Capsicum to the Old World is thought to have followed three different courses. First, explorers introduced it to Europe with secondary introduction into Africa via further exploratory expeditions; second, botanical gardens played a major role in introduction; and third, introduction followed the slave trade routes. Today, pepper production in Africa is of two types, vegetable and spice. Statistical profiles on production are difficult to interpret, but the data available indicate that Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Ghana are the leading producers. Production is mainly a local phenomenon and large acreage is seldom devoted to the growing of peppers. The primary peppers in Africa are C.  annuum and C.  frutescens.

scholarly journals Old World and New World Phasmatodea: Phylogenomics Resolve the Evolutionary History of Stick and Leaf Insects

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Simon ◽  
Harald Letsch ◽  
Sarah Bank ◽  
Thomas R. Buckley ◽  
Alexander Donath ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
New World ◽  
Old World ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Bartolome de Las Casas and the Tradition of Medieval Law

1970 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Pennington
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Steady Flow ◽  
New World ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
Medieval Law

As a defender of the Indians and an opponent of the methods used by the Spanish conquistadors, Bartolomé de Las Casas was as controversial a figure in the sixteenth century as he has been in the last four hundred years of historiography. Las Casas' fight to preserve the freedom of the Indians has gained for him not only devoted admirers, but also angry detractors.1Las Casas was not the only Spaniard who defended the Indians, but his efforts are the best known. He labored for fifty years before death finally halted the steady flow of polemics from his pen. However, he was not just a sheltered academician like Vitoria, but he actively championed the rights of the Indians by working and living among them in the New World.

Molecular Phylogeny of the Notomicrine Water Beetles (Coleoptera: Noteridae) Reveals Signatures of Gondwanan Vicariance and Ecological Plasticity

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M Baca ◽  
Andrew E Z Short
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Mitochondrial Gene ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Divergence Times ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Water Beetles ◽  
Old World ◽  
Ecological Plasticity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Species Groups

Abstract Notomicrinae (Coleoptera: Noteridae) is a subfamily of minute and ecologically diverse aquatic beetles distributed across the Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. We investigate the evolution of Notomicrinae and construct the first species-level phylogeny within Noteridae using five nuclear and mitochondrial gene fragments. We focus on the genus Notomicrus Sharp (Coleoptera: Noteridae), sampling 13 of the 17 known Notomicrus species and an additional 11 putative undescribed species. We also include Phreatodytes haibaraensis Uéno (Coleoptera: Noteridae). Datasets are analyzed in Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian frameworks. With these, we 1) estimate divergence times among notomicrine taxa and reconstruct the biogeographical history of the group, particularly testing the hypothesis of Gondwanan vicariance between Old World and New World Notomicrus; 2) additionally, we assess ecological plasticity within Notomicrinae in the context of the phylogeny; and 3) finally, we test the monophyly of tentative species groups within Notomicrus and place putative new taxa. We recover a monophyletic Notomicrinae, with Phreatodytes sister to Notomicrus. We estimate the crown age of Notomicrinae to be ca. 110 Mya. The crown age of Notomicrus is recovered as ca. 75 Mya, there diverging into reciprocally monophyletic Old and New World clades, suggesting Gondwanan vicariance. Our phylogenetic estimate indicates a strong degree of ecological plasticity within Notomicrinae, with habitat switching occurring in recently diverging taxa. Finally, we recover five main species groups in Notomicrus, one Old World, Four New World, with tentative affirmation of the placement of undescribed species.

Text, Context, Intertext: Columbus' diario de a bordo as Palimpsest

1989 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Henige ◽  
Margarita Zamora
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
Text Context ◽  
Day By Day

We pray [any reader] not to nibble with critical teeth at this work of ours, which has been diligently twisted into shape by love rather than knowledge…Since its discovery nearly two centuries ago, Las Casas' summary of the diario de a bordo of Columbus' first voyage has fascinated, beguiled, and exercised historians, who have used it time and again in attempting to recreate the events, course, and atmosphere of this momentous occasion. In doing so, most have treated the summary as a quintessential day-by-day account of the events it describes, despite the fact that the document as we have it is at least a third-hand transcription by Bartolomé de las Casas, who was effectively its author, or at least its senior co-author. Despite this tendency to treat the diario as a primary source then, in truth it is, even more than most historical sources, a prism rather than a window on the past, and a prism unfortunately not governed by any known laws of historical optics.

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