Gendering the Borderlands: Conquistadors, Women, and Colonialism in Sixteenth-Century Florida

    Authors

    D. S. Murphree

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Sixt. Century J.

    Keywords

    History

    Abstract

    The sixteenth-century Florida borderlands provide a unique setting for evaluating gender and its meanings to colonizers of the Americas. Despite being explored by European conquistadors much earlier than other Western locales, the peninsula and its hinterlands generated few riches and served as the site for no substantial settlements until the late eighteenth century. This situation differed significantly from settlements in Mexico, Peru, New England, or Virginia, the centerpieces of most studies evaluating gender in the New World. Between 1527 and 1567, multiple Spanish and French expeditions to Florida produced ample documentation of European men's distinct impressions of women, which aligned closely with their own ethnicities, and used these depictions to explain explorer successes and failures in the region. Conclusions reached in this evaluation of conquistador conceptualizations of women and gender in the Florida borderlands both validate existing paradigms and promote new perspectives regarding the Americas as a whole.

    Journal Title

    Sixteenth Century Journal

    Volume

    43

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    47

    Last Page

    69

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000304130400003

    ISSN

    0361-0160

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