Pastoral Quechua: The History of Christian Translation in Colonial Peru, 1550-1654

by Alan Durston

Overview

Pastoral Quechua tells the story of how the Catholic church in post-conquest Peru attempted to "incarnate" Christianity in Quechua, the principal language family of the former Inca empire. These efforts resulted in the development and imposition of an official, standardized form of Quechua and of an extensive catechetical, liturgical, and devotional literature for use in parishes throughout the Andes. The book explores this Quechua-language Christian literature from historical, linguistic, and textual angles to reveal missionary translation as a highly strategic and contested activity on the front lines of Spanish colonialism in the Andes.

About the Author:
Alan Durston is assistant professor of history at York University, Toronto, Canada

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268077655
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	10/25/2007
Series:	History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Alan Durston is assistant professor of history at York University, Toronto, Canada.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     ix
Transcription, Translation, and Citation Norms     xii
Map     xiv
Introduction     1
Background     25
History
Diversity and Experimentation-1550s and 1560s     53
Reform and Standardization-1570s and 1580s     76
The Questione della Lingua and the Politics of Vernacular Competence (1570s-1640s)     105
The Heyday of Pastoral Quechua (1590s-1640s)     137
Texts
Pastoral Quechua Linguistics     181
Text, Genre, and Poetics     221
God, Christ, and Mary in the Andes     246
Performance and Contextualization     271
Conclusion     303
Glossary     316
Notes     319
Pastoral Quechua Works     357
Bibliography     359
Index     381

Editorial Reviews

Pastoral Quechua, with its subtle and complex analysis, is the long-awaited book that successfully charts the correlation between conquest and religious translation in Peru.” —Latin American Studies

“Durston’s achievement, which is a major contribution, is to show us the detailed and complex inner workings of the Spanish theory of domination through Quechua translation. The book is highly recommended.” —Church History

“Durston’s book explains how pastoral Quechua developed and why it never became a universal written standard for nonpastoral uses. Some of the analyses are little masterpieces of research. . . . His analysis of Ore’s hymns and its intertexts is a marvel. His study of the ways in which Christian writers substituted Andean tropes and images for European ones is another masterpiece of analysis.” —Hispanic American Historical Review

“ . . . Durston has written a carefully documented history of the many ways in which Spaniards sought to study, learn, and then employ Quechua to convert the newest members of the Church’s flock. . . . Durston’s excellent study will be useful to scholars in many fields: linguistics, anthropology, theology, Quechua literature, semantics, history, sociology, and Hispanic studies.” —Renaissance Quarterly

“The volume is worth the effort of even the non-specialist. Few have the skills to reach this level of analysis. Durston has made a major contribution to Andean studies with this well-written and carefully researched analysis.” —American Historical Review

“Pastoral Quechua is a remarkable new addition to the interdisciplinary studies of colonial Peru. Combining the fields of history and linguistics, Alan Durston’s study develops a holistic understanding of Christian translation into Quechua, the principal language family of the former Inca Empire.… His many discussions about the institutional struggles for colonial power through the use of the written language open new avenues of analysis for all those interested in colonial history and historical and anthropological linguistics, and for literary critics of this period.” —Colonial Latin American Historical Review

“. . . an indispensable and original tool for those in the field of Spanish and Portuguese linguistics, colonial Latin American history, and the history of the Catholic Church. . . . Although this is a complex and scholarly work, Durston's close examination of the unusual subject matter and his transparent writing make the work very interesting, even for the non-specialist.” —Catholic Library World

“A study of how Catholic priests and missionaries attempted to ‘incarnate’ Christianity in Quechua by codifying a single written standard grounded in a version of the language spoken in the former Inca capital of Cuzco.” —The Chronicle of High Education

“In this careful study of Quechua pastoral texts Durston's research is fundamental, opening up news ways of understanding how decisions about translation affected the growth and development of Christianity in South America. Pastoral Quechua is a 'must-read' for all scholars of the colonial Andes.” —Journal of Ecclesiastical History

“For specialists in Andean languages, Pastoral Quechua is obligatory reading. For the nonspecialist, this is a fresh and enlightening way of looking at history. In most colonial church histories language appears as a subtopic under evangelization. In this case, language itself, and the background battles over language, become the lens through which the reader views and relives colonial Andean history.” —The Catholic Historical Review

From the Publisher

Pastoral Quechua is a wonderful volume that will be of interest to a broad range of scholars including historians, linguists, anthropologists, as well as scholars in all fields interested in Peru. The study focuses on the practice of translation, as the author states, but it is much more than that. It is a meticulously researched work that provides careful linguistic analysis conceptualized within an historical study of Catholic evangelization in colonial Peru.

Thomas B. F. Cummins

“For specialists in Andean languages, Pastoral Quechua is obligatory reading. For the nonspecialist, this is a fresh and enlightening way of looking at history. In most colonial church histories language appears as a subtopic under evangelization. In this case, language itself, and the background battles over language, become the lens through which the reader views and relives colonial Andean history.”

Catholic Historical Review

“Durston combines knowledge of Quechua language and linguistics with a sophisticated account of the history of Christianity in the Andean world. His work is based on historical work and the actual analysis of Pastoral Quechua texts in terms of linguistics, genres, themes, and contexts. . . . Durston’s achievement, which is a major contribution, is to show us the detailed and complex inner workings of the Spanish theory of domination through Quechua translation.

Church History

“In this careful study of Quechua pastoral texts Durston's research is fundamental, opening up news ways of understanding how decisions about translation affected the growth and development of Christianity in South America. Pastoral Quechua is a 'must-read' for all scholars of the colonial Andes.”

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

“Pastoral Quechua is a remarkable new addition to the interdisciplinary studies of colonial Peru. Combining the fields of history and linguistics, Alan Durston’s study develops a holistic understanding of Christian translation into Quechua, the principal language family of the former Inca Empire.… His many discussions about the institutional struggles for colonial power through the use of the written language open new avenues of analysis for all those interested in colonial history and historical and anthropological linguistics, and for literary critics of this period.

Colonial Latin American Historical Review

“. . . An indispensable and original tool for those in the field of Spanish and Portuguese linguistics, colonial Latin American history, and the history of the Catholic Church. . . . Although this is a complex and scholarly work, Durston's close examination of the unusual subject matter and his transparent writing make the work very interesting, even for the non-specialist.

Catholic Library World