Sins against Nature
eBook - PDF

Sins against Nature

Sex and Archives in Colonial New Spain

Zeb Tortorici

Share book
  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Sins against Nature

Sex and Archives in Colonial New Spain

Zeb Tortorici

Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations

About This Book

In Sins against Nature Zeb Tortorici explores the prosecution of sex acts in colonial New Spain (present-day Mexico, Guatemala, the US Southwest, and the Philippines) to examine the multiple ways bodies and desires come to be textually recorded and archived. Drawing on the records from over three hundred criminal and Inquisition cases between 1530 and 1821, Tortorici shows how the secular and ecclesiastical courts deployed the term contra natura —against nature—to try those accused of sodomy, bestiality, masturbation, erotic religious visions, priestly solicitation of sex during confession, and other forms of "unnatural" sex. Archival traces of the visceral reactions of witnesses, the accused, colonial authorities, notaries, translators, and others in these records demonstrate the primacy of affect and its importance to the Spanish documentation and regulation of these sins against nature. In foregrounding the logic that dictated which crimes were recorded and how they are mediated through the colonial archive, Tortorici recasts Iberian Atlantic history through the prism of the unnatural while showing how archives destabilize the bodies, desires, and social categories on which the history of sexuality is based.

Frequently asked questions

How do I cancel my subscription?
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.
Can/how do I download books?
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
What is the difference between the pricing plans?
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
What is Perlego?
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Do you support text-to-speech?
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Is Sins against Nature an online PDF/ePUB?
Yes, you can access Sins against Nature by Zeb Tortorici in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Mexican History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Duke University Press Books
Year
2018
ISBN
9780822371625
Topic
History
Subtopic
Mexican History
Index
History
IMPULSES 
OF 
THE 
ARCHIVE
47
eral 
notaries. 
is 
case, 
like 
most, 
is 
thus 
a 
composite 
document 
and 
a 
col-
laborative 
effort, 
compiled 
throughout 
(and 
likely 
aſter) 
the 
investigation 
and 
sentencing.
at 
document 
told 
the 
following 
story. 
At 
around 
2:00 
p.m. 
on 
August 15, 
1604, 
the 
day 
of 
the 
local 
Feast 
of 
the 
Virgin 
in 
Valladolid 
(now 
Morelia), 
Michoacán, 
two 
indigenous 
Purépecha 
men, 
later 
identified 
as 
Cuyne 
and 
Quini, 
were 
caught 
in 
flagrante 
delicto. 
ey 
were 
committing 
the 
nefarious 
sin 
in 
a 
temascal
—a 
type 
of 
enclosed, 
pre-Hispanic 
steam 
bath 
or 
sauna 
used 
widely 
by 
Mesoamerican 
peoples 
for 
its 
ritualistic, 
ceremonial, 
and 
thera-
peutic 
effects. 
us, 
at 
the 
outset 
of 
this 
criminal 
case, 
we 
see 
the 
colonial 
influence, 
shiſting 
the 
temascal 
from 
a 
Mesoamerican 
space 
of 
purity 
and 
cleanliness 
to 
one 
that 
harbored 
the 
potential 
for 
the 
sins 
of 
lust. 
e 
temascal 
was 
housed 
on 
the 
property 
of 
a 
priest, 
Juan 
Velázquez 
Rangel.
2
Fig 
2.1
Title 
page 
of 
the 
1604 
sodomy 
trial 
transcript 
of 
Simpli-
ciano 
Cuyne 
and 
Pedro 
Quini. 
Courtesy 
of 
the 
Archivo 
Histórico 
Municipal 
de 
Morelia, 
Morelia, 
Mexico. 
ahmm
, 
caja 
30, 
exp. 
20, 
fol. 
1.

Table of contents