From Sodomy to Superstition: The Active Pathic and Bodily Transgressions in New Spain

Engaging primary documents and scholarly debates, this article examines an array of practices in colonial Mexico as it undertakes a discursive account of how gender ideologies informed the politics of discipline and a range of behaviors from atypical sexuality to cross-dressing and witchcraft. It speaks to a lived world set ambiguously between violations of social norms and the uncertainties of official culture as it examines these heterodox practices, especially as they relate to Indians.