Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human by Sur... - 9781107036673

Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the HumanNew Worlds, Maps and Monsters\nAuthor(s): Surekha Davies\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781107036673, 978-1107036673\nSynopsis\nGiants, cannibals and other monsters were a regular feature of Renaissance illustrated maps, inhabiting the Americas alongside other indigenous peoples. In a new approach to views of distant peoples, Surekha Davies analyzes this archive alongside prints, costume books and geographical writing. Using sources from Iberia, France, the German lands, the Low Countries, Italy and England, Davies argues that mapmakers and viewers saw these maps as careful syntheses that enabled viewers to compare different peoples. In an age when scholars, missionaries, native peoples and colonial officials debated whether New World inhabitants could or should be converted or enslaved, maps were uniquely suited for assessing the impact of.