The Secret History of Gender: Women, Men, and Power in Late Colonial Mexico

by Steve J. Stern

Book Overview

In this study of gender relations in late colonial Mexico (ca. 1760-1821), Steve Stern analyzes the historical connections between gender, power, and politics in the lives of peasants, Indians, and other marginalized peoples. Through vignettes of everyday life, he challenges assumptions about gender relations and political culture in a patriarchal society. He also reflects on continuity and change between late colonial times and the present and suggests...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807846430
• ISBN13: 9780807846438
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Amazing research--a MUST-READ for gender scholars and scholars who hate 'gender'

For those who love 'gender' as a lens through which to analyze other social processes (warfare, citizenship, empire- or nation- formation, etc.) this may not be the book for you: this is an actual analysis of Gender itself. The author looks at the relations between men and women in peasant communities in Mexico, using concrete examples of real families that went through the justice system. But not just husbands-wives--he addresses daughters-parents (mother/father), sisters-brothers, AND fathers-sons, brothers-brothers... Priests-parishioners... he really looks at patriarchy as a system that organized society NOT as static and merely oppressive, but dynamic and unstable. And he looks at how patriarchy not only organized men-women relations, but relations between the rich and poor AND politics and power, in the most convincing way I have read so far. It's GREAT in that regard--but getting through the INSANELY NUMEROUS examples and statistics gets pretty tiresome...