Sexual Cultures In New Spain And New France

Trigger agrees that “...the native American evidence was strongly colored by a desire to please Europeans...historical records are stereotyped in various ways that must be understood before they can be used reliably as historical documents” (Trigger, 1991, p. 1196). Trigger’s thorough article provides clear, specific situations that occurred during European contact, and the position they were affected in. For example, Natives believed the Europeans were“...supernatural spirits...Europeans...offered...supernatural interpretation in terms of native religious concepts” (Trigger, 1991, p. 1200). This situation is related to the romantic behavior of the Indians as the Europeans were arriving into their land. A historiographical example which relates and agrees to Trigger’s argument is the novel, Native Americans: Opposing Viewpoints, because it provides several different viewpoints rather than favoring only the

In a time when numerous countries were beginning to explore the new and exciting land of North America during the Age of Exploration, and groups of people from England and Spain were fleeing their home countries either for religious freedom or wealth, vast and civilized colonies began to form all throughout the New World. It is in this context that the colonies founded by the English and the Spanish began to develop and grow. There was a significant difference between the Spanish and New England colonies between 1492 and 1700 in terms of the treatment of indigenous people, and there were some immense similarities between the two colonies in terms of the role of religion in their society and the

Ramon Gutierrez’s When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away is an exploration of the merging of Spanish, Franciscan and Pueblo Indian cultures throughout Spain's “frontier” in its colonial American empire before Anglo contact. Gutierrez builds a foundation for his analysis by discussing Pueblo Indian life prior to outside contact, Franciscan theology, and the class structure of Spanish communities in each of its respective book sections. He examines meanings of the cultural interactions of gift exchange, ownership, trade, sexual rights, labor, kinship, social status, religious beliefs, and honor among many others using marriage as a window. His interpretation of the complex cultural meanings of marriage illustrates the ways in which the

The first source presented is a Spanish priest/missionary named Bartolome De Las Casas, who declares that the Christian Spaniards treated the Indigenous peoples in the Americas poorly, by not converting them to the Christian faith before their cruel and torturous deaths from the abusive behavior. The source starts out with the comment that “the reason the [Spanish] Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed... Their insatiable greed and overweening ambition know no bounds; the land is fertile and rich, the inhabitants simple, forbearing and submissive.” The author states this because the Spaniards at the time were not concerned about the Indigenous peoples lives; they only cared about their 3 precious things: gold, God, and glory. They stole the riches from the chieftains, they assimilated the peoples to the “superior” Christian faith, and stole their lands for the glory of Spain. Next, the author states that “the

Patricia Seed notes the differences between English and Spanish ideas of imperialism during the late 15th and 16th centuries. She argues that the Spanish approach claimed the rights to the people populating the New World rather than just the land that they inhabited, including their conversion to Christianity. Seed’s argument holds true when applied to the text written by Bartolomé de Las Casas. Las Casas claims that the Spanish “inhumanely and barbarously butchered and harassed with several kinds of Torments” the natives of the islands. According to Seed’s argument, the Spanish believed possession “signified dominion over [the] people” of the New World. Therefore, they would have had the right to do with the native population as they

“It follows, then that these [Native American] peoples are barbarians…” (Casas Chapter CCLXVII). These words, spoken by Bartolomé de Las Cosas, expressed his true condescending spirit toward the Native Americans. While he claimed to believe that the Native American peoples deserved to be treated as humans and deserved basic rights, his thoughts always came back to this concept. The people they encountered while in the Americas were not much more than simple barbarians. However, while Bartolomé used a condescending tone and conveyed a level of hypocrisy, he brought to light points of organization and valor contained in the Native American culture that were often rejected or overlooked by the Spaniards by creating an understanding of the concept of a barbarian culture.

For Europe’s influence to be successful across the world, they had a guide written by Father Jean de Brébeuf, called “Instructions for The Fathers of Our Society Who Shall Be Sent to The Hurons.” In this small guide, Father Jean, writes instruction for other European members to follow in order to be successful in their influence in the new world. The thought of being the superior race, followed them to the new world, so embracing a culture that they thought was low-class, was a big change to the European men. “As to the other numerous things which may be unpleasant, they must be endured for the love of God, without saying anything or appearing to notice them.” They did not do anything that contradicts the Natives belief, as they were trying to convert them to the “idealized” culture. They were doing so in a way that the Natives did not realize they were being converted. So, the Europeans change their normal customs, to gain their trust. In which they accommodate to non-European ways. The

The Atlantic slave trade changed gender ideology, altered the relationships between men and women, and also gave rise to racism in the Americas. “Throughout the New World, gender ideology was deeply shaped by developing racist assumptions. ”(101) Each region we read about was affected by infestation of Europeans in many ways, most beginning with economic shifts. When the Spanish began settling in the Americas, they brought with them a myriad of problems for the Native people.

A Historical Critique of Homosexual Exclusions from the Armed Forces using the concepts of Michel Foucault

hroughout this comparative essay between the United States and Spain I will be focusing on a number of themes by covering their past and their progression towards its current day standing in these societies. The themes covered will be marriage and casual sex, gender roles and expectations, and religion and its influence on sexuality.

The second section of the documentary will focus on the aspect of gender identity throughout the history of sexuality. As sexual identity and gender identity are entirely different, it is important to include both topics and, for the issue of gender identity, to highlight its own diverse spectrum and the subsequent social stigmas and medical developments that have surfaced around it. Throughout sexual history, whether an individual identified as male, female, or intersex, controversy and societal disapproval often occurred if the individual’s identity did not match the gender they were biologically born as, per their genital structure. By the mid-nineteenth century, corrective surgery for the polysemous gender community had taken root. Particularly

History of Sexuality by Michael Foucault is a project in dissolution of the notion that Western society has experienced a repression of sexuality since the seventeenth century. Furthermore, he contends with the notion that sexuality has not been the subject of public discourse. The goal of this paper is an effort to expound, through Foucault understandings, that modern society has employed the mechanisms essential for engendering true discourses regarding sex.

through a complex set of behavioral codes that served to regulate personal and social conduct. One’s ability to approximate ideals of honor and embody those ideals laid the foundation for familial values and proved to be an integral tool for distinguishing people by ethnic and economic factors. Sexual conduct became a fundamental component of honor as the constructions of male and female sexuality were defined through the honor paradigm. Pressures to maintain honorability proliferated when temptations of the flesh clashed theological values set forth by the Church. Confession aided individuals to resolve these discourses and any possible instances of sin. Most importantly, confession was imperative to uncovering human weaknesses and understanding the complexity of social relationships that espoused sexual transgressions. Sexual transgressions exposed the paradoxical nature of canon law by providing enclaves of power to be harnessed and exploited by those most oppressed in the colonial system: non-elite women. The actions catalyzed by this specific group demonstrated effective strategies for subverting colonial power, the most defiant of which involved sexual witchcraft. Unlike their elite counterparts, plebeian women, especially those who occupied the lower social strata, were least likely to experience internalized conflicts over whether to challenge male domination directly or

When the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English arrived on the West and East Coasts, neither they nor the indigenous people were prepared for how their interactions would influence the future of the United States of America. On both West and East Coasts, the European settlers repeatedly misinterpreted Native American religions and rituals and felt these beliefs were inferior to the accepted European Christian faith. While their view on Christian superiority was mirrored on both coasts, Spanish settlers in the west used violence to coerce Native Americans into becoming slaves of the Christian religion, while European settlers on the east fought through a war with the indigenous people which ultimately contributed to the decimation of Native American culture as a whole.

A ten-year-old Indian boy was baptized at a mission, but the Native people were only exploited for the benefit of the church, the Spaniards, and the individual missionaries themselves. The article continues by explaining that Spaniards hoped to assimilate the Natives to a Hispanic way since they believed their way of life was superior (language, religion, crop raising techniques).