The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America

A contemporary of Columbus noted those crazy Spaniards have more regard for a bit of honor than for a thousand lives. This obsession flourished in the New World, where status, privilege, and rank became cornerstones of the colonial social order.

Honor had many faces. To a freed black woman in Brazil it proscribed spousal abuse and permitted her to petition the Church for permission to leave her husband. To a high church official charged with sodomy in Alto Peru, honor signified the privile...