Overview
This dazzling book delineates the relation between force and sex in social and political institutions. Its subject is male sexual culture in Europe and America at the time of the conquest; its basis is the primary sources of the period. What does it mean, Richard C. Trexler asks, that the Spanish and Portuguese repeatedly justified their conquest of America's Indians with the claim that the Americans had to be saved from themselves because they practiced sodomy, transforming into "women" (berdaches) the young men whom they penetrated. To answer his question, Trexler interrogates the sexual culture of both conqueror and conquered. Turning to the native American world, the author finds a remarkably similar pattern of gendered dominance and submission. He reconstructs the lived experience of the berdaches - biological males who lived as women - analyzing the familial and political pressures that produced them and concentrating on the social, religious, and sexual roles they were expected to fulfill. Trexler concludes that making berdaches was a form of state building, and that state building through berdaches involved child abuse. Finally, assessing both Iberian and American attitudes toward the transvestism and homosexual behavior he describes, Trexler maintains that civil institutions in both the Old and New World were modeled on the military: the weak, however defined, were gendered as feminine to guarantee the power of the (macho) elite. In an impassioned conclusion, he argues that the sexual violence so deeply encoded in social and political institutions must be confronted before "we [can] freely revel in the distinctive genius of each human culture."This dazzling book delineates the relation between force and sex in social and political institutions. The story it tells--of biological males who lived as women--forges a link between sexual themes dating from Antiquity and the erotics of much of the violence in today's world. Photos.
Editorials
Booknews
A historical account of the berdache--biological men who performed the offices and work of women, including sexual service--in Europe and America at the time of the Conquest. Trexler examines the sexual culture of both early modern Iberia and the native American world of that era. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)From the Publisher
"An absolutely fascinating book on male sexual culture in Europe and the Americas during the Conquest which will shock and take one's breath away." Ramon Gutierrez, University of California, San Diego
"Sex and Conquest is a persuasive tour de force of deserted histories." Gerald Vizenor, University of California, Berkeley
"In its exposure of the links between sexual abuse of boys and the sexualized subordination of women, Sex and Conquest offers a rare insight into gender inequality. Richard Trexler's analysis of male dominance in sacred and secular hierarchies offers evidence and depth, as well as sweep and vision." Catherine A. MacKinnon
"His brutally unromantic conclusions are sure to provoke much-needed debate." Eugene Rice, Columbia University
"Readable and informative, Trexler's book undeniably brings new complexity to conventional understandings of conquest." History