From Christopher Columbus to ldquo;first anthropologistrdquo; Friar Bernardino de Sahaguacute;n; fifteenth- and sixteenth-century explorers; conquistadors; clerics; scientists; and travelers wrote about the ldquo;Indianrdquo; dances they encountered throughout the New World. This was especially true of Spanish missionaries who intensively studied and documented native dances in an attempt to identify and eradicate the ldquo;idolatrousrdquo; behaviors of the Aztec; the largest indigenous empire in Mesoamerica at the time of its European discovery.Dancing the New World traces the transformation of the Aztec empire into a Spanish colony through written and visual representations of dance in colonial discoursemdash;the vast constellation of chronicles; histories; letters; and travel books by Europeans in and about the New World. Scolieri analyzes how the chroniclers used the Indian dancing body to represent their own experiences of wonder and terror in the New World; as well as to justify; lament; and/or deny their role in its political; spiritual; and physical conquest. He also reveals that Spaniards and Aztecs shared an understanding that dance played an important role in the formation; maintenance; and representation of imperial power; and describes how Spaniards compelled Indians to perform dances that dramatized their own conquest; thereby transforming them into colonial subjects. Scolierirsquo;s pathfinding analysis of the vast colonial ldquo;dance archiverdquo; conclusively demonstrates that dance played a crucial role in one of the defining moments in modern historymdash;the European colonization of the Americas.
#430639 in eBooks 2013-09-11 2013-09-11File Name: B00CS6OK7I
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Fantastic Book!By BrandiGreat book of Texas Architects and their use of form. I Highly recommend this for students interested in Architecture or Professionals.