Before Mestizaje

The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico

Ben Vinson III (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

304 Seiten

2017
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-107-67081-5 (ISBN)

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Using the case of Mexico, this book examines how the concept of caste evolved by studying the most extreme racial mixtures in society. By arguing that the experiences of these individuals laid important foundations for the future, this book will be of interest to readers studying race, race relations, caste, racial mixture, mestizaje, Mexico, and colonial Latin America.

This book opens new dimensions on race in Latin America by examining the extreme caste groups of colonial Mexico. In tracing their experiences, a broader understanding of the connection between mestizaje (Latin America's modern ideology of racial mixture) and the colonial caste system is rendered. Before mestizaje emerged as a primary concept in Latin America, an earlier precursor existed that must be taken seriously. This colonial form of racial hybridity, encased in an elastic caste system, allowed some people to live through multiple racial lives. Hence, the great fusion of races that swept Latin America and defined its modernity, carries an important corollary. Mestizaje, when viewed at its roots, is not just about mixture, but also about dissecting and reconnecting lives. Such experiences may have carved a special ability for some Latin American populations to reach across racial groups to relate with and understand multiple racial perspectives. This overlooked, deep history of mestizaje is a legacy that can be built upon in modern times.

Ben Vinson, III is the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the George Washington University, Washington, DC. He was formerly the director of the Center of Africana Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of numerous books, including Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free-Colored Militia in Colonial Mexico (2002) and African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (2007). He is the editor-in-chief of The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History.

1. Wayward mixture: the problem of race in the colonies; 2. Mestizaje 1.0: the moment mixture had modern meaning; 3. 'Castagenesis' and the moment of castizaje; 4. The jungle of extremes (Castas); 5. Extreme mixture in a theater of numbers; 6. Betrothed: marrying into the extremes; 7. Betrothed: identity's riddle; 8. Betrayed; 9. Colonial bequests; Coda; Appendix A. Core records consulted from the Archivo General de la Nación; Appendix B. Place of origin of the extreme castas in Mexico City's marriage cases, 1605–1783; Appendix C. Extreme caste slave sales, from Mexico City Notarial Archive, seventeeth century; Appendix D. Identity reconsidered: factoring lineage into declarations of casta.

Erscheinungsdatum	15.02.2018
Reihe/Serie	Cambridge Latin American Studies
Zusatzinfo	27 Tables, black and white; 8 Plates, black and white; 3 Maps; 21 Halftones, black and white
Verlagsort	Cambridge
Sprache	englisch
Maße	153 x 229 mm
Gewicht	440 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-107-67081-0 / 1107670810
ISBN-13	978-1-107-67081-5 / 9781107670815
Zustand	Neuware