History 448 - Schedule

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"

Schedule
Readings: Be sure you come to class meetings having already done the assigned reading. Below is our reading schedule:

Theme 1: Pre-Colombian Indigenous Concepts of Gender, Sexuality and Identity

Week 1:
August 26 Tues
Introduction to the Course
August 28 Thurs
Gender: Theory, Method, and Debates
“Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” Joan Scott; “Women’s History and Gender History: Aspects of an International Debate” Gisela Bock [BB (Blackboard)]

WEEK 2:
Sept 2 Tues
Pre-Contact Aztec and Incan Societies
Women in the Crucible of Conquest: The Gendered Genesis of Spanish American Society, 1500-1600
Karen Vieira Powers pp.1-67
Sept 4 Thurs
Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru Irene Silverblatt pp. 3-66

WEEK 3:
Sept 9 Tues
Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru
Irene Silverblatt pp. 67-108
Sept 11 Thurs
“Gender Subordination and Political Hierarchy in Pre-Hispanic America”
Richard C. Trexler in Infamous Desire: Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America Peter Sigal ed.
“Toward an Andean Theory of Ritual Same-Sex Sexuality and Third-Gender Subjectivity”
Michael J. Horswell in Infamous Desire: Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America Peter Sigal ed.

WEEK 4:
Theme 2: Iberian Concepts of Gender, Sexuality and Identity - Early Views
Sept 16 Tues
Spain before and during Expansion
Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville Mary Elizabeth Perry pp. 3-74
excepts from Columbus’ Diary; Treaty of Tordesillas [BB]
Sept 18 Thurs
Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville Mary Elizabeth Perry pp. 75-117

WEEK 5:
Sept 23 Tues
Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville Mary Elizabeth Perry pp. 118-180
Sept 25 Thurs
Moon, Sun, and Witches Irene Silverblatt pp. 109-158

WEEK 6:
Sept 30 Tues
Moon, Sun, and Witches Irene Silverblatt pp. 159-210
Selected Writings Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz [BB]
Oct 2 Thurs
The Iberian Colonial World - Religion and Honor
“Honor and Honors in Colonial Spanish America” Mark Burkholder in The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America Lyman L. Johnson and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera eds pp18-44
Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico Laura A. Lewis pp. 15-45

WEEK 7:
Oct 7 Tues
Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World Catalina de Erauso
Oct 9 Thurs
Last Day to meet with me to discuss your research topic
Hall of Mirrors Laura A. Lewis pp. 46-102

WEEK 8:
Oct 14 Tues
Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico Laura A. Lewis pp. 103-183
Oct 16 Thurs
“Honor, Sexuality, and the Colonial Church” Geoffrey Spurling and “ The Negotiation of Honor” Ann Twinam both in The Faces of Honor Johnson and Lipsett- Rivera eds. pp. 45-102
Midterm exam due in class

WEEK 9:
Oct 21 Tues
“An Urgent Need to Conceal” Muriel Nazzari and “A Slap in the Face of Honor” Sonya Lipsett-Reviera both in The Faces of Honor Johnson and Lipsett- Rivera eds. pp. 103-26; 179-200
Oct 23 Thurs
The Iberian Colonial World - Patriarchy
Children of the Father King: Youth, Authority, and Legal Minority in Colonial Lima Bianca Premo University of North Carolina Press. Introduction, chapters 1, 2.

WEEK 10:
The 20th Century
Oct 28 Tues
Children of the Father King Bianca Premo chapters 3-5.
Oct 30 Thurs
Children of the Father King Bianca Premo chapters 6, 7 and conclusion.

WEEK 11:
Theme 3: Gender between the margins of Spanish power in the later period
Nov 4 Tues
David T. Garrett, "'In Spite of Her Sex:' The Cacica and the Politics of the Pueblo in the Late Colonial Andes," pp. 547 - 581. The Americas 64:4 (Apr. 2008)
Nov 6 Thurs
“Dangerous Words, Provocative Gestures, and Violent Acts” Lyman Johnson and “ Honor among Plebeians” Richard Boyer both in The Faces of Honor Johnson and Lipsett- Rivera eds. pp. 127-78

WEEK 12:
Nov 11 Tues
“Can Women Guide and Govern Men? Gendering Politics among African Catholics in Colonial Brazil” Mariza de Caralho Soares in Women and Slavery: The Modern Atlantic vol. 2 eds Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller (Ohio University Press, 2008) pp. 79-99.
Nov 13 Thurs
“Honor among Slaves” Sandra Lauderdale Graham in The Faces of Honor Johnson and Lipsett- Rivera eds. pp. 201-28

WEEK 13:
Nov 18 Tues
Student Presentations
Nov 20 Thurs
Student Presentations

WEEK 14:
Nov 25-27 Tues Thurs No Class Thanksgiving Holiday
WEEK 15:
Dec 2 Tues
Student Presentations
Dec 4 Thurs
Student Presentations

EXAM WEEK:
Analytical paper and final exam due Noon Tuesday Dec. 9