Lecture | Luis Millones: La cruz del Perú

Thursday, October 17, 2013
6–8 pm

The cross is a universal symbol which was present in American societies long before the arrival of Columbus. In the Andes, Catholic priests utilized  Christ's cross to exorcize pre-columbian sanctuaries, in the same way they superimposed this symbol upon Greco-Roman religions. This lecture will examine the ways in which Andean peoples have interpreted this Christian symbol both historically and in the present.

La cruz es un símbolo universal, también era conocido en las sociedades americanas antes de la llegada de Colón. En los Andes, los sacerdotes católicos esaron la cruz de Cristo para exorcisar los santuarios precolombinos, de la misma manera en que superpusieron dicho símbolo sobre las religiones greco-romanas. En esta presentación se explicará la interpretación que hicieron y siguen haciendo las poblaciones andinas del signo cristiano.

*The lecture will be in Spanish, with some English translation provided.

As one of Peru's leading historians, Luis Millones is the recipient of Peru’s National Culture Fellowship and a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Seminar of Andean Studies in Lima. He is also a member of the Chilean Academy of History and a researcher with the National Ethnology Museum of Japan. Millones currently teaches in the graduate program of Social Sciences at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru, is professor emeritus of the University of San Cristobal de Huamanga, Ayacucho, and a visiting professor at several universities outside Peru. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the Andean world, including Ser indio en el Perú.

Video: Victor Bautista

Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003

This event is free and open to the public. A photo ID is required to enter NYU buildings.