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Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal De Acuña’S Nuevo Descubrimiento Del Gran Rio De Las Amazonas (1641)

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Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal De Acuña’S Nuevo Descubrimiento Del Gran Rio De Las Amazonas (1641) Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal de Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas (1641) DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Daniel Dinca M.A. Graduate Program in Spanish and Portuguese The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Professor Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar, advisor Professor Ignacio Corona Professor Fernando Unzueta Copyright by Daniel Dinca 2015 Abstract This dissertation analyzes how nature is represented and the functions it serves in the discourse of Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641) written by Cristobal de Acuña, one of the first detailed published accounts about the “discovery” of the Amazon region by Europeans. I argue that in Cristobal de Acuña’s narrative, Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641), the narrating subject tries to persuade the Spanish Crown to acknowledge the great economic potential that the natural resources from the Amazon region have to offer, how they would add to the wealth of the Spanish Empire and implicitly begin the Spanish efforts to colonize and evangelize the Amazon region. I claim that Acuña is “ahead of his time” and thinks like an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist proposing a new economic model for generating sustainable wealth: extraction and manufacture of the natural resources found in the Amazon region under a “state-guided” capitalistic system. Acuña does not just describe the unique, exotic landscapes he encounters in his voyage down the Amazon River, but rather these landscape descriptions serve the purpose of emphasizing the economic value of nature in the region. The elements of the Amazonian landscape seem to already possess connotations of richness and wealth ready for European appropriation and consumption. For example, in Acuña’s text the abundant trees are seen as timber that can be used to make boats at very low cost ii while the sugar mills harvesting sugar cane on the Amazon River banks can generate a good return for their investment. For the analysis of Acuña’s text I use two main theoretical concepts: landscape, from the field of Cultural Geography and capitalism from the disciple of Economics. Landscape, as formulated by Robertson, is viewed as a “cultural product”; landscape is not nature but nature transformed by humanity. This theoretical approach sees every landscape whether on the ground or imagined, as representation. For Robertson landscapes are products of human values, meanings and symbols, usually products of the dominant culture in society. In order to understand Acuña’s early modern capitalistic mentality I employ the economic framework for early capitalism detailed by Frieden in the study “The Modern Capitalist World Economy: A Historical Overview.” I claim that at a time when mercantilism was the main economic system in the Western World in the 17th century, Acuña was proposing a new economic model, a “state-guided” form of capitalism. I also briefly discuss the economic systems in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries focusing on the role of gold and silver in the monetary system at the time, as well as the power struggles between Spain, England and the Netherlands in appropriating segments of the Amazonian landscape. In addition to analyzing Acuña’s text I also examine an earlier narrative about the discovery and exploration of Amazonia, Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relación (1542) in order iii to contrast early representations of the Amazonian landscape to those provided by Acuña almost a century later. iv Dedication This document is dedicated to my family. v Acknowledgments I would like to first thank my dissertation advisor, Professor Ulises Juan Zevallos- Aguilar. In his role as my new advisor he inspired me, encouraged me and guided me. I will always value the time under his guidance and I am appreciative of his insightful comments and encouragement to finish my dissertation. I am grateful to Professor Ignacio Corona for his advice and for generously sharing with me his article on the concept of “pararepresentacion” that was helpful for my dissertation. Muchas gracias. I extend my heartfelt thanks for Professor Fernando Unzueta for his positive attitude and for his moral support during the dissertation writing process. I also appreciate Professor Unzueta’s comments during the defense of my prospectus, I ended up writing a whole new chapter as a result of his feedback. I am grateful for the honest advice that Professor Holly Nibert offered me and for her sincere encouragement, on several occasions, to finish my dissertation. I am thankful to Professor Maureen Ahern for inspiring me to pursue Latin American Colonial studies and for guiding the first stage of the current dissertation project. She was such an amazing professor and a good role model and is dearly missed. vi I am grateful for the inspirational messages I heard from Greg Plitt, even though he left us too soon earlier this year. His videos messages encouraged me in my darkest days and are still inspiring me. I remember in particular Greg’s messages of not giving up on yourself or your dreams and of “hard work and sweat” today to have a better tomorrow. I am also thankful to my family and friends who stood by me during this difficult time of writing my dissertation and understanding the time I had to sacrifice to complete my project. vii Vita 2000................................................................B.A. Spanish, The Ohio State University 2002................................................................M.A. Spanish, The Ohio State University 2002 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate and Lecturer Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese Primary concentration: Colonial Latin American Literatures and Cultures Secondary concentration: Modern Latin American Literatures and Cultures Minor: Film Studies viii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ........................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi Vita ................................................................................................................................... viii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: America – The Golden Landscape .................................................................. 22 Chapter 2: First documented exploration of the Amazon River: Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relación .............................................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 3: The Economy in the 16th and 17th Centuries ................................................. 102 Chapter 4: Cristobal de Acuña’s Narrative and the Economic Potentiality of the Amazon ......................................................................................................................................... 126 Chapter 5: Landscape and Religious Discourse .............................................................. 196 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 216 ix Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 222 x List of Figures Figure 1.1: Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594) ................................................................................................... 29 Figure 1.2: Depicting America Mexicana and Peruana. Modified close up of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594) . 34 Figure 1.3: Depicting Peruana and a cannibalistic feast present in the background. Modified close up of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594). ................................................................................... 36 Figure 1.4: El Dorado- credit the British Library. ............................................................ 40 Figure 2.1: A facsimile of the end of the document dated March 1, 1542. Document published along with Carvajal’s original relación by José Toribio Medina in 1894. ....... 49 Figure 2.2: Map of Orellana's route down the Amazon (after Medina 1934) .................. 65 Figure 2.3: Elaborate ceramic from the Marajo region dated between 1000-1500 AD., at the Penn museum. Photographed by John H. Walker. ..................................................... 68 Figure 2.4: Ancient terraces in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia are indication of advance agricultural techniques that sustained a large civilization. Photograph by Clark Erickson. ..........................................................................................................................................
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