Subjects
Sex, Identity and Hermaphrodites in Iberia, 1500–1800
Richard Cleminson and Francisco Vázquez García
The Body, Gender and Culture
978 1 84893 302 6: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 84893 303 3
Early modern European thought held that men and women were essentially the same, with social forces creating their differences. Such a view made the existence of hermaphrodites easy to accept. During the seventeenth century, medical and legal arguments began to turn against this ‘one sex’ model, with hermaphroditism seen as a medieval superstition. This book traces this change in Iberia in comparison to the earlier shift in thought in northern Europe, and with concurrent ideas in Latin America.
Readership
Gender Studies, History of Science and Medicine, Hispanic Studies and Queer Theory
Contents
Introduction
1 Marvels, Monsters and Prodigies: Hermaphrodites as Natural Phenomena in Spain, 1500–1790
2 Sexual Transgression and Hermaphroditism in the New World: The Cases of Estebanía de Valdaracete, Helena de Céspedes and Catalina de Erauso
3 The Expulsion of the Marvellous: The Decline of the 'One Sex' Model, 1750–1810
4 Hermaphroditism in Portugal
Conclusion