Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico

Through an examination of caste in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mexico, Hall of Mirrors explores the construction of hierarchy and difference in a Spanish colonial setting. Laura A. Lewis describes how the meanings attached to the categories of Spanish, Indian, black, mulatto, and mestizo were generated within that setting, as she shows how the cultural politics of caste produced a system of fluid and relational designations that simultaneously facilitated and undermined Spanish governance.

Using judicial records from a variety of colonial courts, Lewis highlights the ethnographic details of legal proceedings as she demonstrates how Indians, in particular, came to be the masters of witchcraft, a domain of power that drew on gendered and hegemonic caste distinctions to complicate the colonial hierarchy. She also reveals the ways in which blacks, mulattoes, and mestizos mediated between Spaniards and Indians, alternatively reinforcing Spanish authority and challenging it through alliances with Indians. Bringing to life colonial subjects as they testified about their experiences, Hall of Mirrors discloses a series of contradictions that complicate easy distinctions between subalterns and elites, resistance and power.

Author: Laura a. Lewis
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 09/05/2003
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 9.22h x 5.88w x 0.68d
ISBN: 9780822331476

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2004 pg. 1720

About the Author

Laura A. Lewis is Associate Professor of Anthropology at James Madison University.