In Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ Carolyn Dean investigates the multiple meanings of the Roman Catholic feast of Corpus Christi as it was performed in the Andean city of Cuzco after the Spanish conquest. By concentrating on the erarsquo;s paintings and its historical archives; Dean explores how the festival celebrated the victory of the Christian God over sin and death; the triumph of Christian orthodoxy over the imperial Inka patron (the Sun); and Spainrsquo;s conquest of Peruvian society. As Dean clearly illustrates; the central rite of the festivalmdash;the taking of the Eucharistmdash;symbolized both the acceptance of Christ and the power of the colonizers over the colonized. The most remarkable of Andean celebrants were those who appeared costumed as the vanquished Inka kings of Perursquo;s pagan past. Despite the subjugation of the indigenous population; Dean shows how these and other Andean nobles used the occasion of Corpus Christi as an opportunity to construct new identities through tinkuy; a native term used to describe the conjoining of opposites. By mediating the chasms between the Andean region and Europe; pagans and Christians; and the past and the present; these Andean elites negotiated a new sense of themselves. Dean moves beyond the colonial period to examine how these hybrid forms of Inka identity are still evident in the festive life of modern Cuzco. Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ offers the first in-depth analysis of the culture and paintings of colonial Cuzco. This volume will be welcomed by historians of Peruvian culture; art; and politics. It will also interest those engaged in performance studies; religion; and postcolonial and Latin American studies.
#146900 in eBooks 2014-02-04 2014-02-04File Name: B00I2G73L8
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Its OkayBy funnymememanTheres plenty to learn from this collection of essays; however; I would not consider it to be the most educational thing Ive read. I was concerned at the lack of copyediting; with every essay containing an overabundance of grammatical errors and simplistic word choice (or the occasional improper attempt at a complex term). Many of the points made seemed to be quite a stretch to fit the authors arguments. The essays lacked a common ground of academic quality; making it difficult to appreciate a cover-to-cover read. Having said that; its not without some merit in that it provides a nice historical and political background for the years it addresses and sheds some light on lesser-known films of the decade.
