Mexican monasteries on the border between history of art history and anthropology Mexican monasteries on the border between history of art history and anthropology Mexican monasteries on the border between history of art history and anthropology
Abstract
The theme of the paper is the Mexican monastic architecture, which originated in 16th-century New Spain for the purpose of Christianizing and ac- culting indigenous peoples. The contribution represents this unique architecture and gradually deals with changes in architecture and its functions over time (layering and overlapping of religious cults and cult places, secularization of church and state, monument care, etc.).
It is based on data from field research, where the author visited 116 monasteries located in Central Mexico. The research was carried out with the support of the Mexican government scholarship in 2013.
The main aim of the paper is to interpret Mexican monastery architecture from the point of view of three scientific disciplines (history, history of art and anthropology). Finally, the contribution also seeks the possibilities and boundaries of an interdisciplinary approach not only in this particular case, but also in contemporary science, in which the importance of visual sources and their associated approaches grows.