Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 29, 2021 at 11:12:28 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Environment]: McCormick on Bauer, 'The Alchemy of > Conquest: Science, Religion, and the Secrets of the New World' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Ralph Bauer. The Alchemy of Conquest: Science, Religion, and the > Secrets of the New World. Charlottesville University of Virginia > Press, 2019. 670 pp. $79.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8139-4254-4; $39.50 > (paper), ISBN 978-0-8139-4256-8. > > Reviewed by Ted McCormick (Concordia University) > Published on H-Environment (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Daniella McCahey > > For its early modern European advocates, empire promised > transformation: economic, political, spiritual, > natural-philosophical. Colonial expansion across the Atlantic--so > argued proponents of conquest--would turn waste into wealth, idleness > into industry, barbarism into civility, sin into salvation. Like the > Philosophers' Stone, empire transmuted. Ralph Bauer is not the first > to notice the alchemical aspects of imperial apologetics, but The > Alchemy of Conquest is the first thorough account of their complex > origins and multifaceted development over the course of centuries. In > its scope, its richness, and (at nearly 650 pages, including notes) > its heft, this is a major work. > > Bauer connects the histories of alchemy, cosmography, ethnography, > prophecy, theories of conversion, the mendicant orders, competing > strains of Aristotelianism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Baconianism, > artisanal epistemology, mercantilism, and print, as well as the > historical processes of colonial expansion, war, genocide, and > enslavement in the Iberian and English Atlantic. Yet the object of > the book is, in a sense, straightforward. It is a history of > discovery: "discovery" as used in phrases like "the Age of > Discovery," and as an element in narratives of scientific advance, > but discovery too in the context of the "Doctrine of Discovery" as a > legal and rhetorical justification of conquest and expropriation. > These were intertwined: "It was ... the conquest of America that > legitimated the modern idea of discovery by underwriting it with a > salvific and even millenarian reason that forged an unprecedented > synthesis of science, religion, and state power" (p. 11). Rather than > a condition of empire, discovery was a product of it--specifically, > of defenses of colonial domination and expropriation rooted in "the > medieval cultural nexus between crusade and the transmission of > Aristotelian science, especially alchemy" (p. 13). > > The book's many moving parts move together well thanks to its neat > division into four sections of three chapters each, and the author's > merciful habit of revisiting key details at strategic points. A > survey of the whole underlines the wide interest the book should find > and gives some idea of its nuance and ambition. Part 1 braids > together a series of medieval traditions and debates. One is the > divergence within Scholastic Aristotelianism between a realist > metaphysics (associated with Thomas Aquinas) that lent weight to the > idea of universal natural law, and a Franciscan nominalism that > privileged the sovereignty of the divine (and, by analogy, > monarchical) will. Another is the transmutation of alchemy--via the > writings of pseudo-Geber (Paul of Taranto), Roger Bacon, John of > Rupescissa, Arnald of Villanova, and both genuine and spurious works > attributed to Ramón Llull--from an empirical practice into an > esoteric pursuit of material transformation and bodily rejuvenation > that yoked nonhylomorphic matter theory to an apocalyptic project of > holy war. It was above all in Franciscan circles that this nexus > formed and flourished; among Thomists and Dominicans, by contrast, > imperial and alchemical adventures found important critics. > > Part 2 traces the legacies of these traditions in arguments for > Spanish Atlantic expansion, starting with Christopher Columbus's > fusion of cosmography with prophecies fathered on Joachim of Fiore by > the late medieval alchemists met earlier. This "ecstatic materialism" > (p. 138) territorialized the pursuit of the elixir while it > spiritualized the pursuit of gold, making the "discovery" of the New > World an apocalyptic _and_ alchemical process--an urgent and forcible > revelation of secrets. Exploring the justification of colonization in > terms of "reduction" (beginning, in the papal bulls _Inter cetera > _[1493], with that of Indigenous people to Catholicism), Bauer links > alchemical ideas to theories of conversion developed during a > "Llullian Renaissance" (p. 202) centered in the University of Alcalá > under Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. Perhaps the most > compelling case for alchemy's _metaphorical _significance to the real > and deliberate process of ethnocide follows (pp. 213-264). Here, > Bauer examines "reduction" as a policy predicated at once on the > painstaking empirical study of Indigenous religion, language, and > society ("ethno-demonology," as he has it) and on the isolation of > Indigenous people in _reducciones_ that sought to break them down and > destroy--as diabolical impurities--those parts of them inconsistent > with the faith. > > Part 3 pursues the role of Democritean and Paracelsian matter > theories in sixteenth-century representations of Indigenous > societies--and vice versa. Accounts of New World cannibalism from > Amerigo Vespucci to Theodor de Bry emerge as safe, "heterotopic" (pp. > 288-89) spaces for Europeans to explore heterodox ideas about the > persistence of matter through successive acts of digestion. The > "Great Debate" over the enslavement of Indigenous people, between the > Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas and the Spanish humanist (and > self-styled "second Democritus") Juan Gines de Sepúlveda, reveals > not the triumph of a Thomist idea of natural law but its repudiation > in favor of a Christian humanism that combined pre-Socratic atomism, > an aggressive version of Aristotle's idea of "natural slaves," and an > alchemical exaltation of the power of art to argue that the > dispossession and enslavement of demonically generated American > "homunculi" (Sepúlveda's Paracelsian term, p. 293) was just. Natural > histories from Oviedo in the 1520s to Acosta in the 1590s did to the > land what Sepúlveda did to the people of the Americas, portraying "a > primeval state of chaos, a _prima materia_" (p. 346) in need of > reduction to order by art. The alchemical hunt for the secrets of > nature, the "chemical wedding" (p. 365) of an active Europe to a > passive, porous but potentially rich New World, became both a > justification and a method of empire. > > Part 4 turns from Spanish to English apologetics. Building on the > work of Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and other historians of science in > the Iberian Atlantic, this section elucidates the continuities as > well as the departures involved in erecting a "White Legend" (p. 370) > of English scientific-cum-imperial destiny atop the Black Legend of > Spanish perfidy. We see the now familiar fusion of alchemy and > ethno-demonology translated and secularized in the works of Walter > Raleigh on Guiana, Thomas Harriot on Virginia, and Francis Bacon's > _New Atlantis _(1626). The focus of transformation shifts from people > to land, the end of empire from apocalyptic crusade to "epistemic > mercantilism" (p. 435)--the discovery of nature's secrets as the > basis of power and property--in the interests of the state. A brief > coda leaps ahead to consider Alexander von Humboldt's role in > combining a cosmopolitan vision of scientific community with a clear > division between the "temperate man's" pursuit of natural philosophy > and the "tropical man's" subjection to it. But, perhaps surprisingly, > it is really Francis Bacon who marks the emergence of "a modern > paradigm of discovery" (p. 433). > > To have woven so many themes together coherently in a discussion > spanning so vast a period is an extraordinary accomplishment, and the > above summary does scant justice to the incisive readings Bauer > offers of key texts along the way. Likewise, the overarching account > of the concept of "discovery" rests upon a series of sub-themes and > -arguments that will be of interest in their own right to > specialists. Bauer emphasizes the centrality of religion to the > history of science as one such, and while I am not sure that Carl > Jung's alchemical studies are needed to make this case (p. 77), > Bauer's own discussion of Columbus (pp. 135-83) is an admirable case > in point. Another key theme carefully developed is the variety within > late medieval and early modern "Aristotelianism"--a label that papers > over many of the crucial splits Bauer details, from metaphysics to > politics to method. (Bauer's excursus on the interpretation and > reinterpretation of "natural slavery" [pp. 315-31] is a particularly > interesting sub-example.) The entanglement of genuine and spurious > texts in prophetic and alchemical traditions alike--the cases of > Llull and Joachim resurface repeatedly--is a third. The book adds a > wealth of alchemical material to growing literatures on the late > medieval preconditions of early modern (and hence modern) science, as > well as on the importance of Spanish imperial knowledge and > experience to the British Empire. Above all, it shows specific and > consequential implications of alchemical aspirations, thinking, and > metaphor (as distinct from simple thirst for gold) in colonial > contexts. This is plainest in the discussion of missionary towns > (e.g., p. 238). But it underlies the whole idea of "discovery" that > justified Spanish and then English colonialism not only in the > rhetorical flights of their promoters but also in the legal judgments > of the authorities they set up--which is to say, the authority on > which settler colonialism still rests. > > A large argument makes gaps inevitable; some stones remain unturned, > some work unconsulted. The book's concern is with origins, but > seventeenth- and eighteenth-century specialists might selfishly wish > it said more about consequences. Given Bauer's meticulous > disentangling of discovery's premodern roots, Francis Bacon's > continued ability to stand alone as its modern representative is > doubtful. Even in the seventeenth century, Bacon's witting heirs > (notably in the Hartlib Circle) employed alchemy in a variety of > concrete and metaphorical ways to problems of empire, and while Bauer > furnishes invaluable context for situating this in a long-term > chronology, he does not mention or explore it. In this light, the > jump from Bacon to Humboldt--eliding the proliferation of scientific > institutions and the explosion of the slave trade--looks like a > missed opportunity. Similarly, the focus on Spain and England as > successive seats of Atlantic domination raises the question of where > other European states and empires, and other theorists of scientific > and political conquest writing (such as Giovanni Botero or Jakob > Bornitz, who figure alongside Bacon in Vera Keller's recent work) > might fit. The proliferation of alchemies--literal and metaphorical > (p. 11), physical and spiritual, linguistic and textual--may > frustrate some readers. Others will ask how (or whether) alchemical > vocabulary related to alchemical work in any given colonial setting. > > The singular status of the New World raises a different set of > questions. What bearing do justifications of domination in terms of > discovery have on colonization in the Old World? How can we make > sense of alchemical projects of social engineering applied to people > whose humanity was not necessarily "homunculized"? It's not clear how > far Bauer's account takes us toward answers. Early on, we learn that > the celebrated alchemist Robert Boyle was bound to "English colonial > enterprise" (p. 32) through his personal participation in the East > India Company and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. But > Boyle was a _child_ of empire, too, being the younger son of the > first Earl of Cork--a colonial land-grabber if ever there was one, > only in Ireland rather than America; and his circle sought to > "transmute" or "digest" the Irish even as it displaced Indigenous > people in Virginia and New England. Did the Franciscan reduction of > Indigenous cultures to _minima naturalia_ feed into European thinking > about subject populations in general? Did it shape thinking about > race in the context of the enslavement of Africans? How did an > alchemical defense of empire in the Americas become (if it did) a > modern view of what it is to know and to govern? > > These questions are not gaps in the book so much as the defects of > its virtues--for it keeps its focus tight even as the argument draws > on an astonishing range of subjects and literatures. Importantly, > too, they are opportunities for discussion and research, across > periods and specializations, that Bauer has opened up rather than > closed off. _The Alchemy of Conquest_ should change the questions we > ask about the meaning of discovery, about the relations between > science, religion, and colonialism, and about the ties between > esoteric medieval traditions and central aspects of the modern world. > It will be a point of departure for a long time to come. > > Citation: Ted McCormick. Review of Bauer, Ralph, _The Alchemy of > Conquest: Science, Religion, and the Secrets of the New World_. > H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55859 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8281): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8281 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82458683/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
