Submitting Campus

Daytona Beach

Department

Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication/Presentation Date

2014

Abstract/Description

The rich mountain of Potosí, with its famed silver mines, has commanded the attention of Europeans, creoles (Americans of Spanish descent), and indigenous Andeans since the Spanish colonizers of Peru were made aware of its existence in 1545. Soon after its discovery, the rich mountain was represented in a variety of written and visual texts created by writers and artists from the Andes, Spain, and other parts of Europe. Independent of its physical form, in these representations the rich mountain assumed a discursive meaning, functioning as an icon that, depending on the context, represented abstract ideas of wealth, immorality, dominance, and spirituality. This dissertation brings together texts, images, and maps to discuss the multifaceted iconicity of Potosí and its cultural salience in these representations. Besides functioning as an icon that supported Spain’s “official history,” a discourse that presented Spanish achievements as heroic and providential, other representations of the rich mountain supported alternative discourses regarding Spanish colonial history. To advance individual and nationalistic agendas, authors, artists, and mapmakers strove to control the meaning associated with the iconic rich mountain. My dissertation shows that for an early modern audience the mountain of Potosí was more than just a source of silver; it was also an icon that contributed to discourses negotiating issues of economy, morality, spatial and political dominance, and spiritual expression.

Publication Title

Decadent Wealth, Degenerate Morality, Dominance, and Devotion: The Discordant Iconicity of the Rich Mountain of Potosí

Publisher

The Ohio State University

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