Religion in 16th-Century Mexico

To understand religion in 16th-century Mexico, it is necessary to examine the preceding century in both the Iberian kingdoms and central Mexico. In the first session, we will consider the doctrine and practice of religion in 15th-century Spain, where a distinctive form of Catholicism and a particular legal structure were developing. Columbus was an ardent practitioner of Spanish Catholicism and favored the Franciscans. In the second session, we will examine the religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of central Mexico, particularly the Aztecs, who incorporated many beliefs as they migrated southward. In the final session, we will explore the organization of missionary efforts in New Spain and the overlay of specific Catholic and Mesoamerican beliefs.

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Cheryl Claassen earned a BA in anthropology from the University of Arkansas and a PhD in anthropology from Harvard. She is particularly interested in gender, landscape, and ritual in relation to rock shelters, caves, and shells. Her participant observation at pilgrimage and ritual sites in Mexico informs her research on the archaeology of the eastern United States 10,000 to 3,000 years ago. She has authored seven books and compiled and edited eight. In 2022, Cambridge University Press published Religion in Sixteenth-Century Mexico.