Civility and sin: the survey of the peoples, polities and religions of Portuguese Asia in the Codex Casanatense

Abstract

Using a Western iconographic model for the representation of society, consisting of images of couples and customs, the Indian artist of the Codex Casanatense presents the peoples of Portuguese Asia according to a geographic order running from West to East, and classified according to culture area and degree of civility. The presentation was based on the anthropological notion that all human beings are capable of achieving a lesser or greater mastery over nature, other human beings and themselves, but are unable to permanently observe the just ethical mean. Attention to variety and hierarchical order among peoples is thus combined with a discourse about underlying similarity and equality. In view of the Portuguese-Indian origin of the codex, this Western interpretation of the images needs to be complemented by an interpretation from an Indian perspective.