Trading Roles By Pete Hyland And Jane Mangan

Through the texts of Sabine Hyland and Jane Mangan one is able to see and understand the culture of Colonial Latin America. Hyland gives the account of Incan Religion before Christianity became part of the Andean culture. Mangan, on the other hand, gives an insight as far as how the economics were run in the town of Potosi and how women and indigenous populations impacted the economy. Both are completely different aspects of Colonial Latin American life, but are both extremely important in the understanding of how the communities worked. In the text, Trading Roles written by Jane Mangan, the colony of Potosi is examined and the impact of the newly found silver industry is explained. Through this explanation it is shown that people were drawn

Though there were some difference that did exist between women who were married to Spanish men and those who were married to indigenous men. Spanish married women seemed to only run the business for their husbands and had more direct ties. While indigenous married women ran the business for themselves and had less direct ties between them and their husbands (Mangan, 159). The roles of women in trade were critical for the successful development of the colony. The silver industry and the development of the marketplace were critical to the development of trade and the economy for the colony of Potosi. They were also critical to the way gender roles and labor roles were developed between men and women. Next, the text Gods of the Andes, written by Sabine Hyland, one is able to look at the religious aspect of the colonial development of Latin America. The indigenous people of Andes clashed with the new coming Spanish and their Christian beliefs (Hyland, 1). Prior to the conquistadores arriving the Andean people worshipped many different Gods, and had a variety of different religions. (Hyland,

One of the first Christian missionaries to arrive at Huarochiri was a young Jesuit named Blas Valera. Being the son of an Indian women and a Spanish man, he struggled with the idea of replacing the customs and beliefs of his mother with those of Christianity. (Hyland, 2) Valera believed that Andean religion was a precursor for Christianity and mirrored the ideas and beliefs. Therefore this meant that Andean religion was not inferior to Christianity. (Hyland, 3) Conversion to Christianity was often done by force of the Spaniards and through violence. Those who did convert did so in fear of their own lives. While they did convert to Christianity in fear, many did not truly convert and still practiced their own religion in private. The struggle still remained between the indigenous peoples and the missionaries. Indigenous people were seen as having lower morality and an inferior way of life. This is what the missionaries believed attributed to their inability to accept the Christian way of life. (Hyland, 5) Valera spent his life studying how the beliefs of the indigenous population were similar to the beliefs of Christianity. He obtained much of his information from sources such as Polo de Ondegardo, Melchior Hernandez, and others. Ondegardo was very influential to the writings of