Converting the living, contesting the dead: evangelization, identity, and the Ancestors

Abstract

Christian mortuary rites and practices were considered an important component of the successful evangelization of native Andeans, but historical documents account long-term campaigns to eradicate native mortuary practices and the persistence of the ancestor cult and idolatrous practices long after the first efforts of Christianization. In this presentation, we discuss different interpretations of natives buried as Christians from different regions of the Americas, as well as the various native responses to evangelization efforts from the perspective of bioarchaeology. Drawing from postcolonial theory and interpretive archaeology, we investigate different native and Spanish strategies, including accommodation, mimicry, ambivalence, and hybridity.