Social Classes Categories and the Casta System Race

Social Classes, Categories and the Casta System

Race and culture mixing § Miscegenation (race mixing) became common § Colonizers treated women as an extension of conquest and the “spoils of war”

Main categories: § Spanish + Indigenous = Mestizo/a § Spanish + African = Mulato/a § African + Indigenous = Zambo/a or Zambaigo/a

Social Classes and Categories: i. iii. iv. Spanish-born: Peninsulares, “Gachupines” Spaniards born in the Americas: creoles or criollos Mixed people, mostly mestizos Indigenous people and African slaves

Calidad and Limpieza de Sangre (Status and Purity of Blood) § § § Race Legitimacy of Birth Occupation Citizenship Religion § Fighting words: the case of Eusebio Chavez and Andres Martin

Catholic Church as Spiritual Arm of the Conquest § There was no separation of church and state in the colonial Spanish world § Spanish monarchy and the Church worked together in seeking to colonize the bodies, minds and souls of native people § The Pope mediated territorial claims between Spain and Portugal through the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494

The Church as Spiritual Arm of the Conquest (continued) § “Patronato Real” or royal patronage – the right of the Spanish Kings to nominate all church officials, collect tithes, and found churches and monasteries on Spain’s colonial territories § Religious orders: Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Augustinians

Catholic Church, continued… § Two primary goals: ridding natives of old beliefs and imposing a new system § Priests became linguists and ethnographers in these pursuits § Claimed 9 million native souls converted by 1537! § Superficial conversions § Catholicism imposed on deeply rooted belief systems that involved sacred spaces, ceremonies, rituals, and symbols that did not disappear

Religious syncretism § La Virgen de Guadalupe and Tonanantzin, Earth Goddess

Catholic Cathedral in Mexico City …

… built atop Aztec ruins

Iglesia de Santo Domingo built on top of the Inca Temple of the Sun in Cuzco, Peru

Enslavement § Spanish entry into the native peoples’ economic worlds fundamentally changed pre -existing systems of production

§ The Spanish commercial system was restrictive and mercantilist § It was restrictive because control over colonial trade was under the Casa de Contratacion in Spain § Mercantilism is an economic system/theory based on national policies of accumulating bullion (precious metals like gold and silver), establishing colonies, and developing a favorable balance of trade

Enslavement (euphemisms) § § Encomienda Repartimiento or Mita Yanaconas Hacienda (debt servitude or peonage)

Main sources of production § § Mining Agriculture Livestock Textiles

Resistance and Rebellion § Strategies include escape, sabotage, maintaining traditions (language, religion, etc. ), and violent rebellion § Examples include the Mixton War (15401542) and the Pueblo Revolt (1680 -1693)

Colonization of the Northern frontier of New Spain § The conqueror is conquered: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, 1528 -1536

Patriarchy in the colonial world • Patriarchy is a system of social organization in which descent is traced through the male line • Patriarchal ideology defined the father as the source of authority • Fundamentally, patriarchal European culture believed in male authority not only in the home, but in the government and the Church • Women defined by patriarchy as fragile, weak, needing protection

§ Ideas of honor based on women’s virtue § Seclusion of women § Double standard of morality for judging men’s and women’s behaviors § Class basis for honor (the poor are less likely to be considered honorable) § Economic class distinctions among women helped dictate options § Survival and coping strategies included employment, witchcraft, and religion or the convent (i. e. , Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz)