Bernabe Cobo was a seventeenth century Spanish Jesuit missionary who wrote this account of Inca religion and customs from direct observation and interviews in colonial Peru, translated into English by Roland Hamilton and published by University of Texas Press. As a primary colonial era source it preserves detail about Inca religious practice that might otherwise be lost, based on Cobo's own fieldwork among Andean communities generations after the conquest. Its limit is significant, Cobo wrote as a Catholic missionary describing a conquered people's religion partly in order to combat what he saw as idolatry, so his framing and selection of detail carries that missionary purpose, and a modern reader should treat his descriptions as valuable but filtered through a colonial religious agenda rather than as neutral ethnography.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier2
Bernabe Cobo's Jesuit account, completed in 1653 and preserving the fullest surviving list of the Cusco huacas and ceque lines; a late, second-hand source written more than a century after the conquest by a churchman writing about a religion his own church had set out to destroy, which is why it sits below the top tier despite its unique detail. NotesJesuit account completed in 1653, drawing on earlier lost relations. Preserves the fullest surviving list of the Cusco huacas and ceque lines. A late second-hand source written more than a century after the conquest, by a churchman, about a religion the church had set out to destroy. Translation year not verified and therefore left null rather than guessed.
Citation
AuthorBernabe Cobo; translated by Roland Hamilton
PublisherUniversity of Texas Press
Publication Year1990
URLhttps://archive.org/details/incareligioncust0000cobo
Source Typeprimary-text
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Inca, Cultures This source names Inca directly: "missionary who wrote this account of Inca religion and customs from direct observation and interviews in colonial Peru, translated into English by Roland Hamilton and published by University of..."
This source names Peru directly: "observation and interviews in colonial Peru, translated into English by Roland Hamilton and published by University of Texas Press."
Claims Backed By This Source (61 claims)
This source backs 61 claims across the atlas. As facts: 34 well-attested. As cited relationships: 14 holds. Plus 13 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sacred Objects & Ritual Items, 14 claims: 9 well-attested, 2 holds, 3 general references.
- Deities, 10 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 holds, 3 general references.
- Sources, 10 claims: 8 well-attested, 2 holds.
- Empires & Polities, 6 claims: 1 well-attested, 4 holds, 1 general references.
- Animals & Totems, 5 claims: 2 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Prayers, 4 claims: 1 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Articles, 3 claims: 3 well-attested.
- Religions, 3 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Sacred Sites, 3 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Bodies of Water, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Cities, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Well-attested
34Sacred Objects & Ritual Items
Holds
14Sacred Objects & Ritual Items
General References
13Sacred Objects & Ritual Items
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The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.