Sunday, April 25, 2010
I, The Worst of All
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Women and The Church
This week’s class topic was about women and the Church in Colonial Latin America. We discussed prominent women figures to the Catholic Church, including the Virgin of Guadalupe, or the most important Mary in Latin America, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the most famous nun in Latin America. We also discussed the organization of the Catholic Church and it’s use as a financial institution. Another interesting topic was the differences between the white veil nuns and black veil nuns. I did not realize that even the nuns were subject to social and economic hierarchy. The black veil nuns did not take a vow of poverty and came from upper class families and spent most of their time studying and concentrating more on spiritual matters and less on physical. The white veil nuns were more like how we think of nuns today. They took a vow of poverty and bore the brunt of the labor. We also discussed the reasons why most females (especially those from prominent families) chose to become nuns instead of marrying and raising a family. The numbers of women who professed to convents were surprising; 77% of female from prominent families joined convents, while only 14% married. The reasons why these women chose this route were understandable. One major factor was education. The only way women could receive an education was through the Church. Another reason why a woman may choose this life was because of family and economic strategy. A daughter that chose to become a nun required a smaller dowry up front as opposed to one that got married. Lastly, a woman may rather live in autonomy without a man governing over her, so that she can devote her concentrations on God. It is also interesting, though not surprising, that women who did not join convents, beatas, were usually held suspect as immoral women.
These discussions about how women were involved in, and viewed by the Church were important, because during Colonial times in Latin America, the Church was mostly the center of the peoples’ lives, whether they liked it or not.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sexual Witchcraft
One of the main ways women administered witchcraft to their husbands was by making them eat their witchcraft. This was considered to be the most effective and direct way to administer the spell. One of the interesting points Behar makes about this method of administering witchcraft was that it was a way for women to “penetrate” men, so to speak, by physically putting a spell into the man’s body, in a way of reversing presumed gender notions. Also, many men were careful not to mistreat their wives out of fear that they would “pollute” them by serving them food while they were menstruating or using witchcraft against them.
Spanish religious elite viewed witchcraft as a sign of ignorance, curable with instruction and punishment. Many women, after performing an act against their husbands would feel bad and confess to the priest.
Witchcraft did serve in breaking down class barriers between women. Midwives and curandenas (folkhealers) were the main women that provided women from all classes with the herbs and ingredients necessary for performing a spell. It seemed that there were women everywhere who were lurking about, waiting to hear a woman complaining about their husband or lover, ready to offer her a remedy to her problems.
Men were not these women’s only victims. Women used witchcraft against other women and slaves used it on their masters to “soften” them. These studies of witchcraft reveal a lot about the Spanish society, including their fears of women assuming power over men by means of whichcraft.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Homosexuality Cases in Colonial Latin America
This week we discussed cases of people caught practicing homosexuality. Many of these cases are intriguing, though exhausted with details. Many of the details discussed and examined in these cases included who was on top and bottom during sex, who ejaculated first into whom, their actions in public, specifically whether or not they quarreled with one another, and many other things to try and prove a couple suspected of practicing homosexuality guilty.
It is important to note that the main force used to implicate and charge these unlawful acts was the reliance on alcalde del barrio, a network of neighborhood surveillance “copycats”, who accused these people of committing these nefarious sins. So, in effect, snitching neighbors became the key force of enforcing sexual rule in the society. This is interesting, because these cases were almost always based on 100% circumstantial evidence of how the couple acted in public. What made it even harder for the accused was that there was an assumption of guilt by the court, instead of today, where the accused are always assumed innocent until proven guilty. So, essentially, if a scorned acquaintance wanted to convict someone of committing the sin of sodomy, and the accused did not have an acceptable excuse, they were guilty.
Also, in many cases, the accused were tortured until a confession was made. I support capital punishment as a deterrent to others and a penalty to one who has committed heinous crimes; I do not think anyone would advocate severe torture as means to obtain a confession. Any amount of logic would conclude that most confessions were proclaimed to stop the pain of being raised up by the hands while tied behind the back and other painful methods. For instance, Zeb Tortorici writes in his article of Sodomitical Subcultures about a case in which a baker named Francisco Capiche was accused of sodomy, which he flatly denied. However, when he was interrogated and instruments of torture were introduced, he admitted to the crime.
These two subjects are two examples of how I believe that these accused couples were wrongfully tried in court. Even though they very well may have been practicing these unlawful acts, the way they were tried and convicted just did not seem fair in my eyes.