Description
Book SynopsisExplores the construction of hierarchy and difference in a Spanish colonial setting. This book describes how the meanings attached to the caste categories of Spanish, Indian, black, mulatto and mestizo were generated within that setting.
Trade Review“A smart, sophisticated analysis of the cultural politics of caste, gender, and power in colonial Mexico,
Hall of Mirrors is built upon a foundation of strong archival work with fascinating sources from the Mexican Inquisition.”—Orin Starn, author of
Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes“Here is a fine example of well-researched, ‘thick’ ethnographic description at the service of a fuller understanding of ‘caste as a system of values, practices, and meanings in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mexico.’
Hall of Mirrors offers memorable cases from Inquisition files nestled in an unusually probing and synoptic analysis.”—William Taylor, author of
Magistrates of the Sacred: Priests and Parishioners in Eighteenth-Century MexicoTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi
Note on Sources xiii
Introduction 1
1. Forging a Colonial Landscape: Caste in Context 15
2. The Roads Are Harsh: Spaniards and Indians in the Sanctioned Domain 46
3.
La Mala Yerba: Putting Difference to Work 67
4. From Animosities to Allegiances: A Segue into the World of Witchcraft 95
5. Authority Reversed: Indians Ascending 103
6. Mapping Unsanctioned Power 132
7. Hall of Mirrors 167
Notes 185
Works Cited 235
Index 255
