Sonya Lipsett- Rivera analyzes gender dynamics in Mexico from 1750 to 1856. She does this by looking both at etiquette books written during this period and at archival materials from the state of Puebla and Mexico City that document instances of gender violence that reached the courts. The author views gender relations through the unique lenses of space and the body and bases her arguments on the concept of honor.
The effects of space on gender can be seen in who was respectively admitted to the interior and the threshold of residences, along with who had rights to be on the street during daytime or nighttime hours. Lipsett- Rivera argues that these spatial effects had both horizontal and vertical dimensions related to security and honor. The horizontal dimension emerges in relation to opposed spaces such as the house and the patio, the house and the street, the town center and...
