José de Acosta on Indigenous beliefs about the dead

Record summary

José de Acosta’s Historia natural y moral de las Indias discusses Indigenous ideas about souls, burial, the dead, divination, sacrifice, and religious error across Spanish America. It is not a single encounter narrative, but a substantial early modern source for comparing how colonial observers interpreted boundary-crossing and postmortem traditions. Acosta often distinguishes what he considered credible history from what he labeled superstition or demonic illusion. His evidence is uneven and frequently derivative, making source criticism essential when using his generalizations comparatively.