For my revised research topic, I plan to analyze the cosmological ideas of late medieval Europeans and the Inca pre-contact, focusing on how these peoples interpreted the universe. This subject is important because it highlights the ways in which people from different parts of the globe attempted to order the universe, demonstrating that all humans—even those whom Europeans considered to be different and separate from their own society—contemplate about the universe and their place within it. No matter their culture, the universe was something that many people thought about, yet Europeans considered their own perspectives and modes of understanding to be superior to those of the Inca. This demonstrates the Eurocentric worldview of Europeans both pre- and post-contact

Primary sources:

1. Bernabe Cobo’s History of the Inca Empire, translated by Roland Hamilton. This is a Spanish Jesuit’s perspective on Incan culture from the seventeenth century, which therefore reflects a colonial point of view.
2. Artistotle’s On the Heavens, a text that was written around 350 BC. Aristotle’s ideas about the universe provided an extensive foundation for later medieval European cosmology.

Secondary sources:

1. Clive Ruggels – Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth
2. Bryan E. Penprase – The Power of Stars
3. Edward Grant – “The Medieval Cosmos: Its Structure and Operation”
4. Susan Elizabeth – To Feed and Be Fed: The Cosmological Bases of Authority and Identity in the Andes
5. Johan Reinhard – Machu Picchu: Exploring an Ancient Sacred Center
6. Anthony F. Aveni – Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures