Perhaps of interest for some of you.

Best,
Roberto


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From: H-Net Staff <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Subject: H-Net Review Publication:  Evans on Bristol, 'Christians,
Blasphemers, and Witches: Afro-Mexican Ritual Practice in the
Seventeenth Century'
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Joan Cameron Bristol.  Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches:
Afro-Mexican Ritual Practice in the Seventeenth Century.  Albuquerque
 University of New Mexico Press, 2007.  xiv + 283 pp.  $24.95
(paper), ISBN 978-0-8263-3799-3.

Reviewed by Mark T. Evans (South Carolina University, History
Department)
Published on H-LatAm (February, 2012)
Commissioned by Dennis R. Hidalgo

Ritualized Resistance

Joan Cameron Bristol's _Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches _is a
fascinating exploration of ritual in the lives of colonial-era
Afro-Mexicans. She finds that seventeenth-century Mexican society
allowed for myriad forms of authority, and Afro-Mexicans,
understanding this, used ritual practices--both those of which the
Spanish approved and those of which they did not--to make claims for
power. In this way, the concocting of love potions, the employment of
magical cures, and the use of amulets represent much more than signs
of African culture in the New World. Likewise, recitations of the
Lord's Prayer by Afro-Mexicans were more than evidence of
creolization; rather, these ritualistic practices were political
actions by which Afro-Mexicans strove for reprieve, however fleeting,
from the hardships of their lives.

The story of Juan Cortés, with which Bristol opens her fourth
chapter, illustrates her argument well. Cortés appeared before the
Inquisition in 1600 for renouncing God prior to a beating. Many of
Cortés's white contemporaries thought blacks were prone to this
particular blasphemy because of their "lack of civilization and poor
understanding of colonial society" (p. 116), but Bristol argues,
"Afro-Mexicans were in fact quite aware of the implications of their
words," and "This particular action allowed slaves and servants to
insert themselves into the hierarchical relationship between owners
and the Inquisition" (pp. 116-117). By blaspheming, Cortés received
an audience with the Inquisition, where he was able to argue he had
been forced to sin due to the extreme violence of the thrashing. In
other words, the enslaved person, because he had renounced God, was
given the opportunity to formally complain about his treatment.
Because he understood Spanish society, Cortés was able to anticipate
his punishment and use it as a political weapon.

_Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches_will remind readers of Herman
Bennett's _Africans in Colonial Mexico _(2003), as both books analyze
the ability of black Mexicans to manipulate the white worlds in which
they lived. Both Bristol and Bennett find that identities in colonial
Mexico were dynamic and blacks demonstrated a remarkable
understanding of Spanish society. It is Bristol's focus on ritual
that sets _Christian's Blasphemers, and Witches_ apart.

One could only wish that some aspects of the book were developed more
fully. For example, it is never clear what Bristol means by the
eponymous "Afro-Mexican." Apart from claiming, "The category ...
encompasses a great variety of individuals and experiences" (p. 1),
she is never clear about who, exactly, comprises it. It is also
curious that, for a subject that seems to invite study through an
Atlantic world lens, _Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches_ is
focused squarely on the New World. Bristol states that Africans were
"expected to understand Christian practice and Spanish culture upon
arrival" (p. 3) and that "Members of diverse African ethnic groups
... became 'black' upon arrival in the Americas" (p. 12). As the
historiography continues to move toward an interpretation of New
World slavery that puts increasing emphasis on the transformative
nature of the process of moving through the Atlantic world, one would
think these claims would be developed in some detail.

This is not to say the book is without its merits. In fact,
_Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches _is an exemplary model of
cultural history and a fascinating look at black life in colonial
Mexico. Bristol used an impressive number of archives in researching
the book: the Archive of the Notaries Public, the National Archive of
Mexico, the Historical Archive of the National Institute of
Anthropology and History, and the Center of Historical Studies of
Mexico, to name a few. Bristol unpacks the seemingly mundane and even
silly elements of the sources she found to reveal the deep meaning
behind them. Love potions, in Bristol's hands, become subjects of
incredible importance to understanding Afro-Mexican society, and she
pulls every possible thread of meaning out of her sources. One walks
away from _Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches_ confident the author
interrogated every source to the fullest extent possible.

The reader should not downplay the difficulty of accessing colonial
power structures by analyzing the types of sources Bristol uses. This
was an ambitious undertaking, and she accomplished it with style. The
organization of the book, with chapters centered on clearly defined
themes, supports her discussion well, and the stories extricated from
the sources bring the book to life at points. This is most evident in
chapter 6, in which Bristol uses the story of a furtive home-based
church in Mexico City to facilitate a discussion that effectively
summarizes the book's arguments and most clearly demonstrates her
thesis.

_Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches _is a well-researched,
well-argued, and well-written book and would make an excellent
addition to both graduate and undergraduate syllabi. It stands to
inform readers on Afro-Mexican interactions with the Inquisition, and
at points, it is extremely entertaining. With more clearly defined
terms and categories, the work would have been even more persuasive.

Citation: Mark T. Evans. Review of Bristol, Joan Cameron,
_Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches: Afro-Mexican Ritual Practice
in the Seventeenth Century_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. February, 2012.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32984

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.