Cultural Hierarchy in Sixteenth-Century Europe
The Ottomans and Mexicans

Concentrating on the Habsburg Empire, this book examines the creation of cultural hierarchy in sixteenth-century Europe.

Carina L. Johnson (Author)

9781107638983, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 March 2014

340 pages, 32 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

'In this innovative rethinking of the relationship between the Reformation and early modern cultural exchange, Carina Johnson vividly demonstrates how religious conflict altered European perceptions of not only Christian objects and symbols, but also of Ottomans, North Africans, and Tlaxcalans and their material cultures. Using an impressive array of archival materials, she shows how the Habsburg monarchy formulated a cultural hierarchy that progressively exoticized and demonized non-Europeans and heterodox Christians as a means to legitimate its authority in an increasingly diverse and conflicted world.' Allyson M. Poska, University of Mary Washington

This book argues that sixteenth-century European encounters with the newly discovered Mexicans (in the Aztec Empire) and the newly dominant Ottoman Empire can only be understood in relation to the cultural and intellectual changes wrought by the Reformation. Carina L. Johnson chronicles the resultant creation of cultural hierarchy. Starting at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when ideas of European superiority were not fixed, this book traces the formation of those ideas through proto-ethnographies, news pamphlets, Habsburg court culture, gifts of treasure and the organization of collections.

Part I. Categories of Inclusion: 1. Cultures and religions
2. Iberia after Convivencia
3. Aztec regalia and the reformation of treasure
Part II. Experiments of Inclusion: 4. Boundaries and cultures of diplomacy in central Europe
5. Imperial authority in an era of confessions
6. Collecting idolatry and the emergence of the exotic
Part III. Conclusion: 7. Categorical denials.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]