Disrupting Colonial Binaries: Gender and Masculinity on the Northwestern Frontier of New Spain, 1540-1780
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Date
2024-08-07
Authors
Austin, Zahran
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The overall goal of this thesis is to expand the understanding of the role of gender in theSpanish colonization of the margins of northwestern New Spain as well as the historiographical
conceptions which have previously restricted some aspects of this field of study. My sources
include both published and unpublished documents, primarily centered around Hernando de
Alarcón, Juan de Oñate, Pedro Fages, and Francisco Palóu. The main argument of the thesis is
that the proper performance of masculinity was so important to the colonizing Spanish, including
missionaries, settlers, and soldiers, that it shaped what they considered good governance,
reasonable conduct, appropriate clothing, marriage practices, and sexual behavior. They used the
actions of Indigenous people as a rhetorical foil both to make their own masculinity appear
stronger and to mark Indigenous people as inferior and other on the grounds of their improper
performance of Spanish gender norms.
Description
Keywords
Colonial Latin America, Gender, Sexuality, Spanish Empire