Serge Gruzinski 
The Conquest of Mexico 
Westernization of Indian Societies from the 16th to the 18th Century

The Conquest of Mexico is a brilliant account of the Spanish
conquest of Mexico, written from a new and unfamiliar angle.

Gruzinski analyses the process of colonization that took place
in native Indian societies over three centuries, focusing on
disruptions to the Indian’s memory, changes in their perception of
reality, the spread of the European idea of the supernatural and
the Spanish colonists’ introduction of alphabetical script which
the Indians had to combine with their own traditional – oral and
pictorial – forms of communication.

Gruzinski discusses the Indians’ often awkward initiation into
writing, their assimilation of Spanish culture, and their
subsequent reinterpretation of their own past and recovers the
changing Indian perceptions of the sacred and their ‘absorption’ of
elements from the Christian tradition.

The Conquest of Mexico is a major work of cultural
history which reconstructs a crucial episode in the European
colonization of the New World. It is also an important contribution
to the study of the relationship between memory, orality, images
and writing in history.

Table des matières

Introduction.

1. Painting and Writing.

2. Memories to Order.

3. The Primordial Titles or the Passion for Writing.

4. Colonial Idolatry.

5. The Christianization of the Imaginaire.

6. Capturing the Christian Supernatural.

7. A Last Reprieve for Composite Cultures.

Conclusion.

A propos de l’auteur

Serge Gruzinski is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Director of Studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.