 | This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Use Google Books to replace the missing-citation tags. (April 2018) |
 The Aztec God Quetzalcoatl: who it was believed that the Aztecs mistook conquistador Hernán Cortés for. | |
| Claims | Native Americans made contact with pre-Columbian European explorers, influencing their religions and culture. In post-conquest history, the White Gods myth suggests that Hernán Cortés was believed to be the return of Quetzalcoatl. |
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| Related scientific disciplines | Archaeology |
| (Overview of pseudoscientific concepts) | |
White gods is the pseudoscientific belief that ancient cultures around the world were visited by white races in ancient times, and that they were known as "white gods".
Some authors have claimed that white missionaries or "gods" visited the Americas before Christopher Columbus. Authors usually quote from mythology and legends which discuss ancient gods such as Quetzalcoatl to conclude that the legends were actually based on Caucasians visiting those areas, and that the Caucasians were really the gods.[1][2]
This story was first reported in 1553 by Pedro Cieza de León, and later by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. Similar accounts by Spanish chroniclers (such as Juan de Betanzos) describe Viracocha as a "white god", often with a beard.[3]
The first Spanish chroniclers from the 16th century, however, made no mention of any identification with Viracocha. The first to do so was Pedro Cieza de León in 1553.[4] Similar accounts by Spanish chroniclers (e.g. Juan de Betanzos) describe Viracocha as a "white god", often with a beard.[5] However, the whiteness of Viracocha is not mentioned in the native authentic legends of the Incas. Most modern scholars, therefore, had considered the "white god" story to be a post-conquest Spanish invention.[6]
- ^ MacKenzie, Donald A. (April 2003). Myths of Pre-Columbian America – Donald A. MacKenzie – Google Books. Kessinger. ISBN 9780766148314. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- ^ Stein, Henry Binkley (1940). Thirty Thousand Gods Before Jehovah – Henry Binkley Stein – Google Books. Health Research Books. ISBN 9780787310905. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- ^ Pre-Columbian America: Myths and Legends, Donald. A. Mackenzie, Senate, 1996, p.268-270
- ^ Colonial Spanish America: a documentary history, Kenneth R. Mills, Rowman & Littlefield, 1998, p. 39.
- ^ Pre-Columbian America: Myths and Legends, Donald. A. Mackenzie, Senate, 1996, p.268-270
- ^ Mills, 1998, p. 40.