The Confession Rite and Its Cultural and Political Meaning in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Andean Traditions: Regarding the Padrón de Confesiones de Codpa in 1785 [el Rito de Confesión y Su Significado Cultural y Político en Las Tradiciones Prehispánica y Colonial Andinas: A Propósito del Padrón de Confesiones de Codpa en 1785

This text discusses, as other authors have already done for the pre-Hispanic case, that the so-called Andean confession, as well as the sins that were tried to be extirpated, had a strong political correlation linked to the stability of the Inca state and was a source of information of the social discontent of subordinate groups. The colonial confession, on the other hand, is interpreted as part of the process of confessionalization of modern states and of the reformed Christian churches, as well as the Catholic one, which sought to homogenize behavior and have greater social control, where the sacrament of confession played a key role. In the Andean case, it is analyzed within a process of struggle against Andean religious practices that were interpreted by the Church as influenced by the devil. In this process there was coordination between the Modern State and the Post-Tridentine Church (16th-17th centuries). These efforts in the colonial period resulted in a massive process of evangelization, without eliminating the Andinization of Christianity, as various authors have demonstrated (Abercrombie, 2006; Penry, 2019; Castro, 2024). The information found in the Codpa Confessions Register of 1785 reflects these processes of social control, where this sacrament acquired a central role in colonial times. © 2024 Universidad Bernardo O Higgins. All rights reserved.