Introduction: Scientific engagements : women, sex, and racial science -- 1. Inappropriate relations : indigenous private lives as a matter of public concern -- 2. Sex and specimen : desiring indigenous bodies -- 3. Displaying gender : indigenous peoples in the Museuo de La Plata -- 4. Degenerates or new beginnings? : theorizing racial mixture in fiction -- 5. Defiant captives and warrior queens : women repurpose scientific racism -- Conclusion: An enduring legacy : the nineteenth century in the twentieth and twenty-first.
Summary:
"Based on analysis of a wide variety of late-nineteenth-century sources, this book argues that indigenous and white women shaped Argentine scientific racism as well as its application to projects aiming to create a white, civilized nation. The writers studied here, scientists, anthropologists, and novelists, including Estanislao Zeballos, Lucio and Eduarda Mansilla, Ramon Lista, and Florence Dixie, reflect on indigenous sexual practices, analyze the advisability and effects of interracial sex, and use the language of desire to narrate encounters with indigenous peoples as they try to scientifically pinpoint Argentina's racial identity and future potential"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.