Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru

by Kathryn Burns

In Colonial Habits Kathryn Burns transforms our view of nuns as marginal recluses, making them central actors on the colonial stage. Beginning with the 1558 founding of South America’s first convent, Burns shows that nuns in Cuzco played a vital part in subjugating Incas, creating a creole elite, and reproducing an Andean colonial order in which economic and spiritual interests were inextricably fused.
Based on unprecedented archival research, Colonial Habits demonstrates how nuns became leading guarantors of their city’s social order by making loans, managing property, containing “unruly” women, and raising girls. Coining the phrase “spiritual economy” to analyze the intricate investments and relationships that enabled Cuzco’s convents and their backers to thrive, Burns explains how, by the late 1700s, this economy had faltered badly, making convents an emblem of decay and a focal point for intense criticism of a failing colonial regime. By the nineteenth century, the nuns had retreated from their previous roles, marginalized in the construction of a new republican order.
Providing insight that can be extended well outside the Andes to the relationships articulated by convents across much of Europe, the Americas, and beyond, Colonial Habits will engage those interested in early modern economics, Latin American studies, women in religion, and the history of gender, class, and race.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Latin American History, Religion

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Kathryn Burns,Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, works on colonial Latin America, especially the history of mestizaje, property, and literacy in the colonial Andes. Her first book examined nuns, production, and reproduction in Cuzco. Her second traces the practices of the Spanish American escribanos who shaped notarial truth and generated vast colonial archives.

Dr. Burns' work has been funded by the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation.

Reviews

[Tahlia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 It was interesting, I just had a hard time following what was going on.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was required to read this book for my Latin American History Course in college. Naturally I was dreading it because most books for classes are not that interesting. However, this ended up being a really amazing read! Kathryn Burns is a great story teller and had thought provoking insights which helped me better understand colonial Latin America and what role the Catholic church, specifically the convents had to play in society at the time. Each claim is supported by evidence and individual stories, and when there is a particular claim which does not have any evidence for or against it, she is quick to inform the reader that it has yet to be determined. This book makes me want to read history books just for the sake of learning. If you are ever required to read this book for a course, don't despair! And if you are looking for a deep analysis of women's part in history this is the book for you!

[Sarah Gautam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. An unusually good companion to your spirituality as an elder. Inspired by this book, I have also written a blog on Spiritual Habits. You must also read my blog, it is very interesting Visit Here

[Chris Mcmanaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing history of finance in Cusco

An absolutely fantastic history of the financial history of Cusco. Cusco had eccentrically created its own weapon of financial destruction much like the CDS of 2007.

[Keaton Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

How a group of Nuns took the city of Cuzco’s economy by the balls and became the loan sharks of Christ.

[Matt Staff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it, and the funniest part about this particular read was I approached the book with strong apprehension and lack of interest if you will on the grounds that it was an assigned reading for class. Furthermore, an assigned reading that had to be finished in three days time. Hence, the task was daunting to say the least. But then I started garnering interest about 20 pages in. Subtle at first but by the 50 page mark I was fucking hooked. Why though?

Well, for starters Burns prose is incredibly articulate and straight forward despite the density and specific details inherent in a historians work and writings. She traced the convents of Santa Catalina, Santa Clara, and Santa Theresa from their humble beginnings to their golden days of prosperity attained (roughly 16th-19th century timeframe) via an implementation of a credit system. To elaborate, this credit system established a means for the nuns of these different monasteries to fuel the economies of their respective communities by providing loans with the money graciously donated to their convents for various citizens to start up businesses, maintain crop efficiency, build homes, you name it.

Unfortunately, what started as a promising endeavor with seemingly infinite possibilities of accumulated wealth and power was in fact the main variable responsible for the demise of these monasteries. Civilians took advantage of the credit system, with a lack of enforcement mechanisms (minus the collateral punishment part of the contract in which the nuns would take the debtors or whatever the collateral was without being recompensed in a 3 year span), there was no way for the nuns to consistently collect money lent out in the first place. Not only this, but these convents prided themselves on the fact they were separated from the secular, materialist, economically motivated world by the grille (bars) in the locutarios where outsiders could come to visit said nuns. It was fascinating to read of how quickly these locutarios went from being innocent visiting centers, to instead formal meeting areas to conduct business with matters taking place in the secular world. Through the nuns implementation of the credit system to maintain and add on to their economic prosperity, they in a sense lost the purity they had originally had when they cut themselves off from material concerns and found solace in the confines of monasteries.

I wanted to touch on one more part of the book that stuck with me; I was shocked to hear of the power these nuns had in a spanish patriarchal society. A power that spanned for 3-4 centuries . These nuns, literally took practice in raising what were once illegitimate, "mestizas"-children born from the indigenous population and not the Conquistador spanish population, to be nuns or worthy citizens of spanish society that knew all about spanish culture, values, language etc. So this practice was incredibly important to the spaniards, and the spaniards respected the nuns enough to bestow upon them the responsibility of assuring the spanish blood would continue for years and years. As fucked up as the practice was, its damn crazy the power women held during at time in which patriarchy could be argued to have been most prevalent.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her book Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru, Kathryn Burns writes of three colonial convents of Cuzco- Santa Clara, Santa Catalina and Santa Teresa- and the role they took in establishing Spanish rule of Peru through their participation, and essentially creation of an economy based on spiritual faith.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Book. It traces three convents from the early colonial period through the 19th Century in Cuzco, Peru. It is beautifully written and integrating history and theory well.

[Matt Shake · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that really showed how powerful women are in any society, even one as seemingly patriarchal as the Spanish empire.