Hello everybody,
I have just joined PILAS and would like to introduce myself.
My name is Heidi Scott and I am presently in my first year of a PhD at
Cambridge University in the Department of Geography; my research topic is
'The Representation of Territory and Landscape in Colonial Peru'.
In 1997, I graduated from the University of St Andrews, with an MA in
Geography and Spanish. I first began to take a serious interest in Latin
American studies when writing my undergraduate dissertation for the
geography department, which focused on the 16th century account by the
conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca of his years amongst the native
peoples of Texas and New Mexico, known as 'Naufragios'. This was, above
all, a study of colonial discourse and the role of writing in the Spanish
conquest and colonisation of America.
My interest in Latin America still focuses on the colonial period; many of
the ideas I am working with are drawn from historical and cultural
geography, which has experienced a recent surge of interest in colonialism
and imperialism, but also from disciplines such as literary criticism,
anthropology and history. My present research builds thematically on my
undergraduate work, in that I aim to explore further the role of writing -
but also of visual representations such as maps and illustrations - in the
colonisation of Peru,from the early post-conquest years to the close of the
18th century. In particular, by looking at the representations which were
produced not only by Europeans but also by the native people, I want to try
to shed light on the complex nature of colonial relations which involved
native resistance (and complicity) as well as their subjugation to Spanish
rule, and move away from crude dualistic notions of coloniser/colonised. It
is my belief that far too little attention has been paid to issues of
territory and landscape in existing historical studies of colonial Peru,
yet I would argue that they were of undeniable importance in the
development of power relations and of identities both Peruvian and
European. As well as examining the concepts of territory and landscape that
are conveyed in texts such as the Relaciones geograficas (published for
first time last century by Jimenez de la Espada) I want to carry out a
detailed local study of territorial negotiations 'on the ground' which are
recorded, for example, in notarial records of land disputes or in wills. In
doing so, I not only want to access traces of native voices and agency, but
also explore the limits of Spanish control over the territory and people of
Peru, and examine the process of transculturation that took place in the
zones where the two cultures came together. In terms of the later colonial
period, I'll be focusing on the development of identities - creole identity
in particular - and explore the role and influence of territorial
representations in this process. Of particular interest are individuals
such as P.V. de Maldonado, the first 'Ecuadorian geographer', and the
patriotic historico-geographical writings of Quiteno Padre Juan de Velasco.
As well as exploring Spanish-Native relations, then, I am also interested
in tracing the growing rifts between the Crown and the Spanish of America.
If anybody else is working on a similar area or with similar themes, or has
any comments to make on my proposed research, I would be really pleased to
hear from you.
(By the way, if anybody knows of any reasonably up-to-date research guides
to the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, or of any recently published
articles about the Relaciones Geograficas, I'd also be delighed to hear
from you!)
Many thanks for your patience in reading this!
Heidi.
(My postal address is: St. John's College, Cambridge CB2 1TP (That's it!).
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