In this history of childbirth and contraception in Mexico, Nora E. Jaffarychronicles colonial and nineteenth-century beliefs and practices surroundingconception, pregnancy and its prevention, and birth. Tracking Mexico'stransition from colony to nation, Jaffary demonstrates the central role ofreproduction in ideas about female sexuality and virtue, the development ofmodern Mexico, and the growth of modern medicine in the Latin Americancontext. The story encompasses networks of people in all parts of society, fromstate and medical authorities to mothers and midwives, husbands and lovers,employers and neighbours. Jaffary focuses on key topics including virginity,conception, contraception and abortion, infanticide, "monstrous" births, andobstetrical medicine. Her approach yields surprising insights into the emergenceof modernity in Mexico. Over the course of the nineteenth century,for example, expectations of idealised womanhood and female sexual virtuegained rather than lost importance. In addition, rather than being obliteratedby European medical practice, features of pre-Columbian obstetricalknowledge, especially of abortifacients, circulated among the Mexican publicthroughout the period under study. Jaffary details how, across time, localisedcontexts shaped the changing history of reproduction, contraception, andmaternity.

Mexican History is a comprehensive and innovative primary source reader in Mexican history from the pre-Columbian past to the neoliberal present. Chronologically organized chapters facilitate the book's assimilation into most course syllabi. Its selection of documents thoughtfully conveys enduring themes of Mexican history (land and labor, indigenous people, religion, and state formation) while also incorporating recent advances in scholarly research on the frontier, urban life, popular culture, race and ethnicity, and gender. Student-friendly pedagogical features include contextual introductions to each chapter and each reading, lists of key terms and related sources, and guides to recommended readings and Web-based resources.

When Europe introduced mechanisms to control New World territories, resources and populations, women-whether African, indigenous, mixed race, or European-responded and participated in multiple ways. By adopting a comprehensive view of female agency, the essays in this collection reveal the varied implications of women's experiences in colonialism in North and South America. Although the Spanish American context receives particular attention here, the volume contrasts the context of both colonial Mexico and Peru to every other major geographic region that became a focus of European imperialism in the early modern period: the Caribbean, Brazil, English America, and New France. The chapters provide a coherent perspective on the comparative history of European colonialism in the Americas through their united treatment of four central themes: the gendered implications of life on colonial frontiers; non-European women's relationships to Christian institutions; the implications of race-mixing; and social networks established by women of various ethnicities in the colonial context. This volume adds a new dimension to current scholarship in Atlantic history through its emphasis on culture, gender and race, and through its explicit effort to link religion to the broader imperial framework of economic extraction and political domination.

"Mexican History" is a comprehensive and innovative primary source reader in Mexican history from the pre-Columbian past to the neoliberal present. Chronologically organized chapters facilitate the book's assimilation into most course syllabi. Its selection of documents thoughtfully conveys enduring themes of Mexican history--land and labor, indigenous people, religion, and state formation--while also incorporating recent advances in scholarly research on the frontier, urban life, popular culture, race and ethnicity, and gender. Student-friendly pedagogical features include contextual introductions to each chapter and each reading, lists of key terms and related sources, and guides to recommended readings and Web-based resources.

"This outstanding collection makes available for the first time a remarkable range of primary sources that will enrich courses on women as well as Latin American history more broadly. Within these pages are captivating stories of enslaved African and indigenous women who protest abuse; of women who defend themselves from charges of witchcraft, cross-dressing, and infanticide; of women who travel throughout the empire or are left behind by the men in their lives; and of women's strategies for making a living in a world of cross-cultural exchanges. Jaffary and Mangan's excellent Introduction and annotations provide context and guide readers to think critically about crucial issues related to the intersections of gender with conquest, religion, work, family, and the law." -Sarah Chambers, University of Minnesota

"This outstanding collection makes available for the first time a remarkable range of primary sources that will enrich courses on women as well as Latin American history more broadly. Within these pages are captivating stories of enslaved African and indigenous women who protest abuse; of women who defend themselves from charges of witchcraft, cross-dressing, and infanticide; of women who travel throughout the empire or are left behind by the men in their lives; and of women's strategies for making a living in a world of cross-cultural exchanges. Jaffary and Mangan's excellent Introduction and annotations provide context and guide readers to think critically about crucial issues related to the intersections of gender with conquest, religion, work, family, and the law." -Sarah Chambers, University of Minnesota

In this history of childbirth and contraception in Mexico, Nora E. Jaffarychronicles colonial and nineteenth-century beliefs and practices surroundingconception, pregnancy and its prevention, and birth. Tracking Mexico'stransition from colony to nation, Jaffary demonstrates the central role ofreproduction in ideas about female sexuality and virtue, the development ofmodern Mexico, and the growth of modern medicine in the Latin Americancontext. The story encompasses networks of people in all parts of society, fromstate and medical authorities to mothers and midwives, husbands and lovers,employers and neighbours. Jaffary focuses on key topics including virginity,conception, contraception and abortion, infanticide, "monstrous" births, andobstetrical medicine. Her approach yields surprising insights into the emergenceof modernity in Mexico. Over the course of the nineteenth century,for example, expectations of idealised womanhood and female sexual virtuegained rather than lost importance. In addition, rather than being obliteratedby European medical practice, features of pre-Columbian obstetricalknowledge, especially of abortifacients, circulated among the Mexican publicthroughout the period under study. Jaffary details how, across time, localisedcontexts shaped the changing history of reproduction, contraception, andmaternity.

"False Mystics" provides a history of popular religion, race, and gender in colonial Mexico focusing on questions of spiritual and social rebellion and conformity. Nora E. Jaffary examines more than one hundred trials of "false mystics" whom the Mexican Inquisition prosecuted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While the accused experienced many of the same phenomena as bona fide mystics--visions, sacred illness, and bouts of demonic possession--the Mexican tribunal condemned them nevertheless. "" "False Mystics" examines why the Catholic church viewed the accused as deviants and argues that this categorization was due in part to unconventional aspects of their spirituality and in part to contemporary social anxieties over class and race mixing, transgressions of appropriate gendered behavior, and fears of Indian and African influences on orthodox Catholicism. Jaffary examines the transformations this category of heresy underwent between Spain and the New World and explores the relationship between accusations of "false" mysticism and contemporary notions of demonic possession, sickness, and mental illness. Jaffary adopts the perspectives of visionaries to examine the influence of colonial artwork on their spiritual imaginations and to trace the reasons that their spirituality diverged from conventional expressions of piety. "False Mystics" illuminates the challenges that popular religion and individual spirituality posed to both the institutional church and the colonial social order.