The tenth edition of Keen's Latin American Civilization inaugurates a new era in the history of this classic anthology by dividing it into two volumes. The 88 excerpts provide foundational accounts of life in colonial Latin America. Concise introductions for chapters and excerpts provide essential context for understanding the primary sources.
For decades "Keen s Latin American Civilization" has engaged students in primary sources from the widest variety of materials. Covering the pre-conquest and colonial periods, Volume One of the new divided version continues to provide excellent translations while enhancing coverage by adding new sources on a variety of subjects, from gender to the Bourbon reforms . . . "Keen s Latin American Civilization" is the most comprehensive anthology of primary sources available in English for the Spanish colonial period.
Jeremy Baskes, Ohio Wesleyan University
This collection of documents provides an exciting mosaic of ideas and images from the Latin American colonial past. It provides readers the opportunity to look at the processes of conquest and colonization from a wide variety of vantage points. Primary sources cover socioeconomic and political aspects of pre-Columbian and colonial societies as well as religion, race relations, gender, sexuality, art, honor, and everyday life. . . . It is hard to think of a more comprehensive and sophisticated teaching tool for survey courses on colonial Latin America.
Sergio Serulnikov, Universidad de San Andres / CONICET
The tenth edition of "Keen s Latin American Civilization" inaugurates a new era in the history of this classic anthology by dividing it into two volumes. This first volume retains most of the colonial period sources from the ninth edition but with some significant additions, including new sets of images representing Brazilian cannibals and casta paintings of mixed race families, an alternative conquest narrative, and five new readings on imperial governance, gender, and sexualityincluding selections from the autobiography of a Spanish nun who took on a male persona to fight as a soldier in the American colonies. The 88 excerpts in Volume One provide foundational and riveting first-hand accounts of life in colonial Latin America. Concise introductions for chapters and excerpts provide essential context for understanding the primary sources.
Robert M. Buffington is a professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Lila Caimari is a researcher at CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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