Ethnophilology and Colonial Demonology: Towards a Global History of Early Modern Superstition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Superstition was at the core of intellectual debates during the early modern period. Rooted in the Christian theological tradition, these debates expanded to the New World via missionary networks. Although the historiography has dealt with this global process of Christianisation, fewer studies reflect the reverse process, that is, the influence of missionary reports at the centre of debates about superstition in the Old World. This paper sets out to reconsider the global entanglements that backed up Martin Delrio’s famous work, Disquisitionum magicarum (1599–1600), analysing the role played by demonology and philology in colonial contexts. It seeks to demonstrate that textual and inscription practices were not only decisive for the creation of a ‘global superstition’, but above all to tame and normalise the relationship between religious practices and Nature.