CAREY Postdoctoral Fellow 2005-06
Alan Durston
University of Chicago, Historical Anthropology
Quechua and the Catholic Translation Tradition in Peru
Since the mid-16th century the Catholic Church in Peru has been
employing varieties of Quechua, the most widely spoken indigenous
language family of the Americas, as official vernaculars for religious
instruction and the performance of parts of the liturgy in native
communities. Because a truly indigenous, Quechua-speaking Church
never developed, the totality of the Catholic literature in Quechua
can be regarded as the product of successive efforts of “translation”
(broadly understood) using Latin and Spanish originals or models.
My research deals with the history of this “translation tradition,”
examining variations in terminology, dialectology, genre, and style
in the extant Quechua literature and interpreting them in relation
to the ideological and political contexts in which this literature
was produced. My dissertation focused on the translation policies
and practices of the period between 1550 and 1650, which was the
high point of official interest in the creation of a Christian language
in Quechua, but there have been several other efforts over the intervening
350 years. I am now working to place my dissertation research in
a broader context, both comparatively (by looking at analogous translation
projects involving other languages) and chronologically (by surveying
the Quechua catechetical and liturgical literature of the 18th,
19th and 20th centuries).
This broad chronological perspective is intended to highlight connections
between translation practices and shifts in the Church’s relations
with the indigenous population, in its definitions of the indigenous,
and in interethnic relations in Peruvian society in general—connections
which in turn might illuminate the changes themselves. On the comparative
front, I seek to discern parallels and contrasts with, and perhaps
direct influences from, other translation programs, as well as the
degree to which Church-wide doctrines and policies on translation,
from Trent to Vatican II, have affected the practice of Catholic
writing in Quechua. Comparative research should help interpret obscure
features of the Quechua literature via analogy, and also reveal
those features that are most characteristic and thus require special
attention. Perhaps the central aim of my research is to explore
the implications of Catholic translation theory and (most importantly)
translation practice for understanding general problems concerning
the nature of the relation between religious traditions and the
languages in which they develop, and the determinants and effects
of translation considered as a concrete, social activity rather
than an abstract linguistic process.
Dr. Durston will teach HIST 30902 - Emergence of Nations in Latin America - for the History department in Fall 2005.
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