Monkey See, Monkey Do: Early New World Animal Descriptions as Transitional Texts

This dissertation investigates the zoological representation found in New World texts by early European explorers working for the Spanish Crown from 1492 – 1557 CE. It examines the education and animal literary influences that these writers had access to both before and after their arrival in the Americas, and how that knowledge influenced their own descriptions of indigenous fauna. Through my analysis of a variety of original texts, both written in Europe and in the Americas, I delineate the every-evolving perception of the human-animal relationship through the depictions of New World animals by European Pre- and Early-Modern writers. While I base my analysis in Critical Animal Studies, my aim is to contextualize these authors as a bridge between western, medieval understanding of fauna and the subsequent representation of New World animals.