“IDOLATROUS” CHANTS IN NEW SPAIN: QUESTIONS OF EPISTEMOLOGY AND TRANSLATION. THE CASE OF THE CANTARES MEXICANOS

This paper reflects on the concept of “idolatry”, an epistemological category with which Spanish missionaries in New Spain interpreted the chants in Mexican language that were part of the oral tradition in Mesoamerica. The said interpretation falls within the scope of cultural translation, resulting from the structuring of the culture of the others under modalities of knowledge associated with the domain. In this context, stands out the evangelizing project of the friar Bernardino de Sahagún, probable supervisor and underwriter of the Cantares mexicanos, a manuscript composed of chants in the called Classical Nahuatl whose text preserves the predominant culture and the interpolations corresponding to its interaction with the West. These occurred in Spanish, but also in Classical Nahuatl, which reflects the complex epistemic and translation work that involved the creation of neologisms to introduce Christian notions in the Nahua culture.

Keywords
Cantares mexicanos ; Idolatry; Epistemology; Translation