De sillas y almohadones o de la naturaleza ritual del poder en la nueva España de los siglos XVI y XVII

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between public ritual and colonial authority in sixteenth and seventeenth-century New Spain. In colonial society, the establishment of authority depended more on such things as prestige, reputation and/or public appearance than on the use of force. This helps explain the great transcendence attributed by contemporaries to all kinds of public rituals. Their effects were far from negligible: they were much more than a disguise with which to make the rulers’ power more palatable. Royal officials constituted their power and identities through public ceremony, and therefore placed crucial importance on maintaining an authoritative public image.