Resumen

REDING-BLASE, Sofía. Testimonies about cannibalism in the letter of Dr. Chanca to the Council of Sevilla. Rev. hist. Am. [online]. 2018, n.154, pp.135-148.  Epub 28-Feb-2022. ISSN 2663-371X.  https://doi.org/10.35424/rha.154.2018.42.

Dr. Chanca, a physician who accompanied Columbus during the second voyage (1493-1496), wrote a letter to the Council of Seville, the very first description about the caribbean Indians. The document is a portrayal of those men and women, includes not only information provided by savages that Columbus previously qualified as good people, but also a very pessimistic vision about the bad savage to be civilized by Europe. His references to cannibals, that terrified Taino people because of their ferocity, served as a counterweight of the image of the “Noble Savage”, and lead us to a reflection about how it promoted the colonization of America and the vigilant eye of ethnographers.

Palabras llave : Chanca; cannibals; witness testimony; colonization.