The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492–1700

Critical Perspectives on Empire

by Rebecca Earle

This fascinating history explores the dynamic relationship between overseas colonisation and the bodily experience of eating. It reveals the importance of food to the colonial project in Spanish America and reconceptualises the role of European colonial expansion in shaping the emergence of ideas of race during the Age of Discovery. Rebecca Earle shows that anxieties about food were fundamental to Spanish understandings of the new environment they inhabited and their interactions with the native populations of the New World. Settlers wondered whether Europeans could eat New World food, whether Indians could eat European food and what would happen to each if they did. By taking seriously their ideas about food we gain a richer understanding of how settlers understood the physical experience of colonialism and of how they thought about one of the central features of the colonial project. The result is simultaneously a history of food, colonialism and race.

Genres: History, Latin American History, Food, 17th Century, 16th Century

278 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 2012

Reviews

[Kendall Vanderslice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has transformed my own work and research. Anyone interested in food and religion, especially food and Christianity, should read this book. Covers the development of wheat production in the Americas and its connection to Eucharistic theology.

[eliza! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tech and Empire: new favorite! Really great read, crazy breadth of source material, learned so much

[Indigo bear]

This is added to my natural history and ecology list because it discusses how corn moved throughout the world after 1492. And they say that corn was only cultivated in the Americas pre-1492, so it is a reference for that.

[Kazue Sohma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Her thoughts on racism and the four humors theory is fascinating.

[Topher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights and lots of helpful source citations. Would recommend a quick primer on the Columbian Exchange before starting this book.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars. An excellent work, really enjoyable to read, well-written and a great synthesis of the important themes of Spanish American colonization. I was a bit disappointed that Earle's main idea - the importance of studying food as a central component of colonization, wasn't backed up with more insight. She had a lot to write on the subject, but very little of it seemed new and none of it was earth shattering (then again, this is a particular area in which I spend a lot of time thinking and studying, so perhaps I've absorbed her arguments in other sources.)

This would be an excellent book to assign to undergrads, they should have no trouble grasping the content or argument.

[José Angel Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read.