Overview

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.

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9780822331476

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Reviews

Venturing into the world of witchcraft in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century New Spain, anthropologist Laura Lewis has produced a very suggestive study in the growing genre of crossover work between anthropology and history. --Jrnl of Latin American Studies, February 2005 I strongly recommend this book to all those interested in the meaning of witchcraft, the nature of colonial power and the functioning of racial caste divisions in Spanish America. --History, Volume 90, Issue 4, Number 300, October 2005 [A]n important ethnographic study... The author provokes the reader to think of colonial society in new ways through her research, data and interpretation. This book is highly recommended to both students and scholars of colonial societies. --Colonial Latin American Historical Review [E]nlightening... [A] refreshing and challenging re-reading of colonial race and social relations... Lewis has written a book that by shaking the foundations of the concepts of authority, proposing the multiplicity of foci of domination, and the malleability of the process of colonization will reopen the debate on those terms. --Asuncion Lavrin, Catholic Historical Review Hall of Mirrors substantially adds to our understanding of colonialism in the New World... [T]he author provides one of the most concise and clear discussions available concerning Spanish colonial concepts of race. --Jim Norris, History: A Review of Books The particular strength of this absorbing book is its linkage of actual witchcraft cases to larger social issues: gender, caste, and race; the nature and limits of Spanish power and hegemony; the interpenetration of practices of the black, mulatto, and mestizo actors so long underrepresented in colonial Latin American historiography. --Louise M. Burkhart, American Historical Review [H]ere is a densely written and argued book on a complex set of issues... Hall of Mirrors stakes out new positions on debates regarding the casta system, gender, popular culture, and the dynamics of colonial power in New Spain. --Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, Itinerario [T]hought-provoking... The descriptions of individuals are skillfully woven into the larger argument about the way that people related to the discourses of caste and witchcraft, making this book a wonderful illustration of the multivalent colonial world... Hall of Mirrors is a fresh and insightful book that is sure to fascinate readers and serve as a touchstone for academics interested in witchcraft and caste in colonial Spanish America. --John Bristol, Journal of Social History [A]n original and honest attempt at examining a complex problem... [P]rovides both historians and anthropologists with new issues for discussion and research. --Gabriela Ramos, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute [E]xtraordinary... Hall of Mirrors is ... a landmark that historians and cultural and literary critics can use to plot future scholarship. --Daniel Torres, Sixteenth Century Journal The most engaging part of the book is the presentation of the witchcraft cases themselves... What raises Lewis's accounts of these episodes well above the level of quaint and colourful folk practices is her astute analysis of the social relationships in which they were embedded, especially their gendered and ethnic dimensions. --Eric Van Young, Journal of Latin American Studies [A] very satisfying interpretation of witchcraft in colonial Mexico... I strongly recommend this book to all those interested in the meaning of witchcraft, the nature of colonial power and the functioning of racial (or, as Lewis would prefer) caste divisions in Spanish America. --Rebecca Earle, History [A] suggestive and often compelling work. [Lewis's] study is based on deeply nuanced readings of three hundred inquisition cases... -- Susan Deans-Smith, Bulletin of Latin American Research

Author Information

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

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