L’educazione dell’Indio. I gesuiti José de Acosta e Blas Vale- ra su lingua e ingegni dei nativi peruviani

Abstract

For the first Jesuits, the Peruvian Province has been a place of experimentation of educational practices and inculturation. The presence of a culture as complex as that of the Incas posed to the Society some crucial theological and political problems. To solve these problems, some of its members undertook grammatical, anthropological and historical studies that are still essential for understanding the peoples of the Andes. Among these studies, they are to be counted those of José de Acosta (1540-1600), who was provincial of Peru, and Blas Valera (1544-1597?/1619?), first Jesuit mestizo to be ordained a priest. Both were opposed to the policy of forced conversion of the Indios, but they proposed two different ways to educate the natives to Christianity. This paper aims at investigating the plots of these pathways, understanding them as two pedagogies strategically different, but not in opposition to each other.