Analysis Of Las Casas In Defense Of The Indians

In the religious context, there are two different views of the ‘other’. According to Todorov, Catholics, “regard the Indians as their equal, hence as like themselves, and try to assimilate them, to identify them with themselves,” while Protestants, “emphasize the differences and isolate their community from that of the natives, when they find themselves in contact.” He concludes by stating, “In both cases, the other’s identity is denied: either on the level of existence, as in the case of the Catholics; or on that of values, as in that of the Protestants, and it is absurd to ask which of the two parties goes farther down the path to the other’s destruction.”17 Las Casas hoped to assimilate the natives into the ‘self’ as to “reject all nonrelative …show more content…
Todorov stated that, “The existence of these rites was the most convincing argument for the Indians’ inferiority.”20 He went on to claim, “Las Casas wants to make human sacrifice less strange.”21 Through a series of arguments in In Defense of the Indians, Las Casas attempts to view the natives’ practices of human sacrifice and cannibalism through their prospective. Las Casas said, “Even though the Indians cannot be excused in the sight of God . . . they can be completely excused in the sight of man.”22 Las Casas argued for the natives and condemned the actions of the …show more content…
However, a Christian man has grace and doctrine to grant understanding that God does not demand human sacrifice. Las Casas concluded by saying, “It is not surprising that when unbelievers who have neither grace nor instruction consider how much men owe to God, they devise the most difficult type of repayment, that is, human sacrifice in God’s honor. And, absolutely speaking, this is within their capabilities.”27