Revolutions: Material Forms, Mobile Futures
Monday Night Lecture Series | Spring 2020

The Cradle of Words: Languages, Knowledge, and Governance in Early Latin America

Valeria Lopez Fadul • Wesleyan University

February 24 @ 6 P.M.
Daniel Family Commons, Usdan University Center

The conquest and colonization of the Americas exposed Spanish scholars to a vast range of previously unknown languages, customs, and ways of recording the past. While the multiplicity of languages made imperial governance difficult, these intellectuals also perceived it as a resource. To them, language was an archive of local knowledge. In order to access and catalogue it, the Spanish Crown sponsored scientific expeditions, censuses, the writing of histories, and the creation of libraries. From the study of place names to the testimonies of local informants to the study of indigenous antiquities, recovery of local knowledge was at the center of Spanish efforts to compile the natural and human history of the so-called New World.

All lectures begin at 6 p.m. and are held in the Daniel Family Commons (located in the Usdan University Center) unless otherwise noted.

Revolutions: Material Forms, Mobile Futures
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