Tlacamictiliztli: os rituais sacrificiais nahuas e sua recepção no universo artístico europeu e do Vice-Reino da Nova Espanha

Abstract

America s progressive conquest involved not only a series of territorial battles, but also an intense religious and cultural clash between the Europeans and the so-called Indians . In practice, this represented the opposition between the Christianity of the invaders and the innumerable religions of the native peoples. In the Mexican case, both political and military conquest, consummated in 1521, also opened room for another kind of dispute: the spiritual one. The autochthonous resistance in accepting the Christian God as the unique and true one was remarkable, at least until the end of the sixteenth century, even if the main indigenous temples were plundered or destroyed and the human sacrifice ceremonies essential for the maintenance of life, according to their beliefs , prohibited. From this scenario, Catholic missionaries began a careful process of observation and learning of the native languages plus understanding and studying the religiosity and culture of the most diverse peoples, such as the Nahuas. They soon realized the importance and centrality of concepts such as blood and sacrifice, equally estimated to Christianity. Thus, a diversity of objects of the material culture that has a hybrid nature emerges, in a manner to communicate visually, literally and orally with the native and European artistic and cultural universe. Only through this strategy, which implied a constant relationship of association, exchange and negotiation between both sides, Christianity could, in fact, be understood and absorbed by the Indians of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.