Race and Gender in the 19th Century

1
Race and Gender in the 19th Century

• Colonial Racial Categories based upon system of
  castes, or castas
• 19th Century system of race based on concepts of
  class and racial whitening
• Colonial system of gender relations based upon
  heterosexual patriarchy
• 19th century gender relations still based upon
  patriarchy, but are interrupted by war and the
  rise of the nation state

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18th century casta paintings
3
19th Century concepts of whitening

• Partly a response to changing status of
  non-whites
• Partly a response to European theories of race
  and eugenics
• In many countries with large non-white
  population, efforts to define racial mixing as
  forming a new CosmicRace
• In others, race is defined by class status or
  geographic location

4
Do all Latin American countries have the same
racial realities?

• Racial mixtures depend upon proportions of
  Indigenous, Afro-Latin American, and Europeans
• Argentina, for example 25 Afro-Latin American at
  time of independence, and had few mestizos. By
  the end of the 19th century, Argentines falsely
  claimed that they were of European origins
• Mexico had a dominant Indigenous population of
  many ethnicities, but denied the presence of a
  well established community of Afro-Mexicans,
  particularly in the Vera Cruz area
• Status of Afro-Latin Americans dependent upon
  gender and emancipation laws.
• Race, therefore is a mixture of reality, myth,
  and careful selections of truths
• Money believed to whiten ones status.

5
Gender realities in 19th century Latin America

• What do we mean by gender?
• Who defines the social responsibilities of men
  and women?
• Religion
• LawCivil Codes
• Race
• Social Customsimmigrants bring own ideas

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Patriarchy

• Defined as the rights of male heads of family to
  control property and family members
• Concept changes over time and affected by race
  and class
• The formation of new nations prompted rethinking
  of patriarchy and its relation to the nation
• Unlike some Middle Eastern nations, Latin
  American nations were never theocracies
• Introduction of modern female work and education
  all weakened patriarchy, particularly in working
  class families