Sex and Conquest: Gender Construction and Political Order During the European Conquest of the Americas

by Richard C. Trexler

This volume is a study of early-American sexuality at the time of the Conquests. It examines the sexual relations, mainly between males, that the Spaniards and Portugese encountered when they entered various parts of the Americas from 1492 until around 1750.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer Studies, Academic, Sexuality

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never believed someone less!

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book for you if, only if, you have a fundamental belief in sex as power and very little else. For me it's a dark interpretation of human culture and unwarranted. His theory - incidence of homosexuality has to do with power (and subjection, humiliation) or is primarily to be studied in those terms - is way too blanket across cultures for my trust; he seems to me to treat vastly different cultures as almost equivalent. The evidence he hangs on is often loose, and the fact naively given away in his sentence structure: that is, you can easily read through to: 'although there's not a lot of data on this point, my theory holds'.

Sorry, my skin crawled; I have less negative beliefs. For your guidance, he follows Foucault, he scorns Walter Williams' The Spirit and the Flesh. He discounts the spirituality, or spiritual significance of the berdache.

[Becca w · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful for understanding the historical construction of patriarchy and power