Fall 2006

LAS 366 • GENDER IN COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA

Course Description

A lecture/discussion that focuses on the gendered history of women and of men in pre-Conquest and Colonial Latin America. Topics include: gender roles in Native American civilizations and in 15/16th century Iberia, changing patterns in male-female relations during the conquest and colony, gendered institutions (e.g. convents, army), sexuality, participation of men and women in the economy and the family, state policy toward the family.

Grading Policy

Grade 1/4 discussion 1/4 take home midterm 1/4 take home final 1/4 project Use either a film or primary source documents to write a 5-10 paper on a topic concerning gender in colonial Latin America

Texts

Xerox book of selected readings Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches, Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru (Princeton University Press, 1987) Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling, Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850 (Oxford University Press 1999) Ann Twinam, Public Lives Private Secrets: Gender Honor, Sexuality and Illegitimacy in Colonial Spanish America (Stanford University Press 1999)

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