LOS REYES DESNUDOS. PERCEPCIÓN Y REPRESENTACIONES ESPAÑOLAS DE LAS FORMAS POLÍTICAS INDÍGENAS DE TIERRA FIRME

Abstract

Upon the European’s arrival to American lands, the continent was populated by a variety of indigenous societies boasting different languages, cultures and social systems. These groups had distinct political systems that both conquerors and chroniclers had difficulty comprehending. In this sense, tracing the path of Spanish depictions generated throughout the sixteenth century allows a better comprehension of the whole phenomenon. Doing so sheds light over both the construction of identity caused by the contact with different societies and the instrumentation of these same depictions in order to integrate the indigenous groups to
the Spanish Empire.