Instructor: Professor Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
Description: The history of Latin America is very much the history of the meeting of peoples. Men and women of many races and cultures clashed and cooperated during the conquest, developed a modus vivendi under colonialism. Contacts between indigenous peoples such as the Aztecs and the Incas with the Spanish and then later African peoples also entailed confrontations over ideas of gender and sexuality. This class will follow the evolution of gender norms as well as conflicting notions of acceptable sexuality in this region. The course will partly follow a chronological pathway with some thematic classes as well. We will tackle many questions such concepts of gender complementarity among indigenous peoples, differing ideas of sexuality and acceptable behaviors for the Aztecs, Incas and the Moche. How did the Spanish conquerors, national and revolutionary governments conceive of gender and sexuality in alternate ways? How did women and men accept or reject the models imposed upon them by social norms?
Organization:
Two one and a half lectures.