In Search of Monsters: Constructing the “Other” in Spanish Chronicles of the Americas and Early Russian Descriptions of Siberia

Abstract

This article compares two geographically distant and not directly related traditions of constructing the “other” and “otherness” in the Age of Discovery. It discusses the indigenous populations of the Americas and Siberia as portrayed by Spanish and Russian chroniclers of late fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, examining common points and differences in the construction of “the other” and “otherness.” Emphasis is placed on the common elements in viewing the “other” by Spanish and Russian chroniclers, which have origins in works of Greek and Roman authors and in Christian exegesis of the Old and New Testaments. These common points are attribution of animal characteristics and “anomalous” behavior to indigenous peoples of Americas and Siberia, their identification with monstrous races of Classical authors and the Bible, and correlation between the presence of monstrous peoples and fabulous riches, which was the principal motivation to gather all the available information on monsters in distant lands.