History 448
You have arrived at the home page for History 448: Gender in Colonial Latin America. Most likely you are a student or prospective student in the class and may have some questions about the course content and possibly even why such a course exists. My intention is that these pages will answer those questions but also act as a support and augmentation for the course when it is in progress. What follows is an explanation of the course that hopefully will answer those questions. The second issue may seem self evident to many visitors but to address the question briefly, as Joan Scott suggests in the quote below gender is the primary way of signifying power relations in societies.
Attention to gender is often not explicit, but it is nonetheless a crucial part of the organization of equality or inequality. Hierarchical structures rely on generalized understandings of the so-called natural relationships between male and female.
Joan Scott "Gender and the Politics of History"
So if we want to understand the structures of power within any society we need to understand how gender functions with that society. I am convinced this is particularly evident in the construction of colonial societies. Why this is true is that colonization involves the confrontation between two or more culturally distinct peoples and the domination of one group over the other or others. This process is not just a function of military superiority but the creation of a functioning society based on new relationships of power. Therefore gender ideas have to be re-articulated, imposed, taught and managed. There are processes of challenge and inscription.
All of these things help us to better understand how Spain and Portugal came to create the largest empires the world had ever seen by the end of the 16th century. That they were able to successfully maintain their empires for some 300 years, largely intact, is a testament to their ability to construct and impose their ideas concerning social relationships. We can not fully understand the how or the why of colonial Latin American history without understanding the gender concepts in play and how they were negotiated and re-negotiated over time.
If we want to understand the structures of power within any society we need to understand how gender functions with that society. I am convinced this is particularly evident in the construction of colonial societies. Why this is true is that colonization involves the confrontation between two or more culturally distinct peoples and the domination of one group over the other or others. This process is not just a function of military superiority but the creation of a functioning society based on new relationships of power. Therefore gender ideas have to be re-articulated, imposed, taught and managed. There are processes of challenge and inscription. How these processes were created and functioned in the lives of women and men help us to better understand how Spain and Portugal came to create the largest empires the world had ever seen buy the end of the 16th century. That they were able to successfully maintain their empires for some 300 years largely intact is a testament to their ability to construct and impose their ideas concerning social relationships. We can not fully understand the how or the why of colonial Latin American history without understanding the gender concepts in play and how they were negotiated and re-negotiated over time.
Course Information
This is the formal description of the course: This course is designed to
introduce you to critical issues in colonial Latin American history and
the theories and methods of gender history. We will explore pre-contact conceptions
of the roles of women and men and the continuities and changes those ideas
underwent as a result of contact and conquest in the New World. Spaniards
constructed this category of difference (along with others such as race/caste)
and thereby created distinct ways of organizing their colonial system.
It also created areas of conflict between people within the pre-existing
cultural systems and the newly arrived colonizers. It is useful to focus
on women because it has often been women who were the most marginalized
in the society and looking at their lives will help us to highlight the
ebb and flow of power and ideas (both religious and secular) that shaped
the history of the region.
Some of the questions we will consider over the course of the semester: What
concepts of gender existed before Iberians colonized the “New World?” How
did those ideas change and how were they reconstructed? How was patriarchy constituted
in the colonial world of Latin America? What role did religion or religious ideas
play in creating gender norms? What was the relationship between early modern
family structure and political economy like? We’ll also examine issues
of identity, difference, and hierarchy in the New World. What rights did some
people claim to control the lives of others based on gender, sexuality, or status
as free or slave, or age? What kinds of relationships resulted, and when were
they challenged and changed?
Our readings will span a variety of perspectives, including the poetry of a rebellious
seventeenth century nun, the picaresque account of a cross-dressing Basque nun,
accounts of the lives of people considered honorable and reprobate, as well as
some essays on theory and methods.
