Abstract

CUNILL, Caroline. The indigenous use of the probanzas de meritos y servicios: its political dimension (Yucatan, 16^th Century). Sig. his [online]. 2014, vol.16, n.32, pp.14-47. ISSN 1665-4420.

In general, the probanzas de méritos y servicios have been used to reconstruct the history of the New World Conquest from the viewpoint of Spaniards. However, many Indians quickly familiarized with this legal tool and employed it in order to defend their own interests in the colonial system. This paper aims to examine the use that Mayas, Chontales or Mexicans made of the probanzas in sixteenth-century Yucatán. I will try to highlight how the strategies they implemented in order to present their merits and deeds not only depended on the objectives they followed and on their familiarity with the colonial legal culture, but also on their knowledge of the agents and interests at stake in the peninsula. Therefore, I will claim the intrinsic political value of the probanzas, being their authors either Indians or Spaniards.

Keywords : probanzas; legal culture; mayans; Yucatán; Colony.

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