Amerindians and Europeans in Colombian School Textbooks on American History (1975-1990)

Written discourse on the peoples categorized as Amerindians and Europeans is analyzed in a sample of school textbooks of American history published in Colombia between 1975 and 1990. It is suggested that these texts feature an underlying social evolutionism, in combination with diffusionism; these characteristics serve as organizers of a social classification that places indigenous peoples and cultures at a starting point associated with the notion of the past. In accordance with this arrangement, Amerindians are located in a prior and inferior position relative to Europeans, who are positively represented as contemporary and as providers of civilization. Thus, a Eurocentric perspective is imposed, and conquest and colonization are justified as essential processes for civilizing America.