Description
Book SynopsisThe Many Meanings of Poverty is about poverty in a colonial context—it argues that the cultural meanings of poverty defined social compacts that served to bolster and undermine the sources of colonialism.
Trade Review"This makes Quito, I think, the ideal setting for Cynthia Milton's welcome exploration of what poverty meant in late colonial Spanish America The Many Meanings of Poverty is clearly a major contribution to the historiography of colonial Ecuador, which after years of neglect has attracted innovative work in areas such as gender, law, and demography." --
The Journal of Latin American Studies"The reach and ramifications of this book are broad. It is one of several new works that assess the social impact of the Bourbon reforms, and, by opening the doors to Quito's poor house, it contributes to reinvigorated institutional histories of Latin America... To write a history of poverty in colonial Spanish America is a truly ambitious endeavor.
The Many Meanings of Poverty is a valiant attempt at this monumental task, and the only word to describe many of its findings is: rich." -- Bianca Premo * Florida International University,
Eighteenth-Century Studies *
"Cynthia E. Milton's book ... adds an additional layer of explanation to Egas's interpretation of who comprised the 'truly poor.' In a richly detailed and throughly researched scrutiny of the various faces of poverty in late colonial Quito, Milton examines how society drew distinctions between the deserving and not-so-deserving poor." -- March Becker *
H-Net Reviews *
Table of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Illustrations 000 Acknowledgments 000 Preface 000 @toc2:Introduction Colonialism, Social Compacts, and the Taxonomy of Poverty 1 @toc1:Part One The City and People of Quito @toc2:1. The City of Quito 000 2. Living on the Edge: Survival Strategies of the Urban Poor 000 @toc1:Part Two Society of Compacts: The Social Poor @toc2:3. Defining the "Solemn Poor": Wordplay and Petitions of Poverty in Colonial Quito, 16781782 000 4. Prostrate before the Feet of the King: Widows, Widowhood, Pensions, and Colonial Compacts 000 @toc1:Part Three Society of Compacts: The Economic Poor @toc2:5. Children on the Fringe of Empire: The Limits and Uses of Juvenile Welfare 000 6. Putting the Colonial (Poor) House in Order: The Wretched Poor and the Bourbon State 000 @toc1:Part Four When Societies Meet: The Blurring of Social Compacts @toc2:7. Shifting Compacts of the Traditional Poor: Widows as Viudas and as Pobres 000 8. The Broadening and Narrowing of the Solemn Poor: Poor Spaniards, the Wretched, and Collapsing Privileges, 17831800 000 Conclusion The Erosion of Charity, Boundaries, and Colonial Compacts 000 @toc4:Appendix 000 Glossary 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000
