Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco,
Peru
by Kathryn Burns, Duke University Press, 1999
Reviewed by James Keating
A few years ago, visiting Peru, I noticed something. In Cusco,
the charming ancient capital, drivers recklessly speed through
crowded streets heedless of rules or common sense, scattering
pedestrians before them… with a single exception. Everyone stops
for nuns! I mentioned this to a friend who said he actually knew
something of the nuns in Cusco, for his niece had written a book
about them. Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of
Cuzco, Peru by Kathryn Burns (Duke University Press, March, 1999)
is the fascinating story of the surprising political and economic
power once exercised by religious women in this remote Andean
outpost. Convents were de facto government, providing social
services and public works. They were banks as well, accepting
deposits for safekeeping and lending money to finance
infrastructure and business in the Sacred Valley. The sisters were
held in high esteem as trusted leaders. Of course, it didn't last.
By the 18th century traditional institutions supplanted the sisters
who returned to their convents, to lives uncoupled from economics
and politics. Kathryn Burns' work reminds us of what they
accomplished. Colonial Habits is skillfully written, enjoyable, and
well worth reading. It will surprise readers to discover the power
of an unlikely group of women in an unlikely place. And possibly
may explain the respect still given…when traffic stops to let nuns
cross the street.
- James Keating is an instructor of English at Butler
University.