The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492–1700 (Critical Perspectives on Empire)
In The Body of the Conquistador, Rebecca Earle investigates how food and eating shaped racial identities and colonial hierarchies in Spanish America from 1492 to 1700. Through an analysis of dietary habits, the book uncovers the ways in which cuisine became a tool for asserting dominance and defining difference in the New World empire.
About This Book
The Body of the Conquistador examines the role of food in the colonial experience of Spanish America during the period from 1492 to 1700. It highlights how eating habits and food choices were central to the construction of racial categories and social distinctions in the empire.
Drawing on historical sources, the book analyzes the interplay between culinary practices and the broader dynamics of conquest and colonization. Food served not only as sustenance but as a marker of cultural superiority and difference in colonial interactions.
This work is part of the Critical Perspectives on Empire series, offering insights into how bodily experiences, particularly through diet, influenced the racial ideologies that underpinned Spanish rule in the Americas.
By focusing on the material culture of food, the book provides a unique lens on the colonial encounter, showing how everyday practices reinforced the power structures of empire.
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