Ritualised Violence against Amerindians and among the Colonisers

As has been seen, the colonisers adopted some of the native forms of violence, such as scalp taking, depriving them of their religious dimension. However, Europeans brought with them their own varieties of ritual vio­lence, which are particularly evident in two areas: the punishment of major crimes, especially those against public order; and the persecution of religious deviance and witchcraft.

The questioning of royal sovereignty, for example, was often severely sanctioned both in Europe and in the Spanish colonies. Rebel leaders were not simply brought from life to death but their bodies were physically destroyed. Jacinto Canek, for example, was tortured and executed in Merida, Yucatan, on 14 December 1761: his limbs were broken and his flesh ripped apart with pincers ‘until he dies naturally', and then his body was burned and ‘the ashes scattered to the wind'.^[180] Tupac Amaru II fared no better. Before being put to death in the main plaza of Cusco (Peru) on 18 May 1781 he was forced to witness the execution of his wife, several relatives and ‘principal captains', and after that his tongue was cut out and his arms and legs were tied to four horses to quarter him; however, this failed, and he was finally beheaded. Then, while his torso was burned in a bonfire and the ashes thrown to the wind, his head, arms and legs were sent to the main centres of the revolt, as were the dismembered corpses of his wife, son and uncle.^[181]

The burning of rebel leaders' bodies and the throwing of their ashes to the wind or into a river was the same treatment that heretics suffered as a consequence of inquisitorial trials in Europe to prevent their followers from collecting and venerating the remains. It was also considered an addi­tional sanction ordained by God. In fact, the ideas of offence and sin were closely related.

The Catholic Inquisition, aiming to eradicate heresy and blasphemy, was also active in the Americas from the early sixteenth century. Inquisitorial powers rested on friars or bishops until the Spanish established specialised tribunals in Mexico and Lima in 1570-1. Don Carlos Ometochtzin, the native leader of the Nahua town of Texcoco in central Mexico, for example, was burned in 1539 accused of backsliding to the worship of old gods. Although Amerindians were formally exempted from the Holy Office's jurisdiction in 1571, proceedings against indigenous people continued. Those suspected of heresy often had to endure torture, for example, by a form of waterboarding or by stretching, which implied that the victim was suspended by his wrists with or without weights attached to his feet. Convicts were severely pun­ished with 50,100 or even 200 lashes administered during public ceremonies. More than 150 natives may have died as a result of severe torture during the idolatry investigations of the Provincial Fray Diego de Landa in Yucatan in 1562. Even the bones of already deceased Amerindians found guilty of idolatry were exhumed and publicly burned during an auto-da-fe in the 36 same year.

The belief in evil magic and witchcraft was widely held among American natives as well as among European colonisers. Accusations. of witchcraft and sorcery provoked feuding and warfare among the Amerindians, as has been seen, and were also persecuted by the colonial administration in certain periods. However, in contrast to Europe, large-scale witch crazes were rare. In Latin America the Holy Office or episcopal and secular inquisitions investigated such cases.

The stocks and the pillory, stripes at the whipping-post or at the tail of an ox­cart, fines and imprisonment, branding and mutilation, banishment and death upon the gallows, were meted out... Many were imprisoned, some for years. Some were reduced from comfort to penury by fines imposed upon them. Some had their ears cut off, and the law provided for boring the tongue through with a hot iron. Two were ordered to be sold into slavery to pay their fines, and large numbers were mercilessly whipped. Neither age nor sex was spared.^[185]