Women in the Crucible of Conquest
Subtitle: The Gendered Genesis of Spanish American Society, 1500-1600 (Dialogos Series)
Contributors: Lyman L. Johnson (Series Editor)
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: April 16, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780826335197
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; Women's studies; Sociology; Latin America - South America; Inca women; Women's Studies - General; Social Science; Social conditions; USA; Sex role; Latin America - General; Social History; Women's Studies - History; History / Latin America; History; Women; Americas (North Central South West Indies); 16th century; Latin America
Description: "The evidence of women in the Americas is conspicuously absent from most historical syntheses of the Spanish invasion and early colonization of the New World. Karen Powers's ethnohistoric account is the first to focus on non-military incidents during this transformative period. As she shows, native women's lives were changed dramatically. The book uncovers the activities and experiences of women, shows how the intersection of gender, race, and class shaped their lives, and reveals the sometimes hidden ways they were integrated into social institutions. Powers's premise is that women were demoted in status across race and class and that some women resisted this trend. She describes the ways women made spaces for themselves in colonial society, in the economy, and in convents as well as other religious arenas, such as witchcraft. She shows how violence and intimidation were used to control women and writes about the place of sexual relations, especially miscegenation, in the forging of colonial social and economic structures."--Provided by publisher.