Description: This book tells the stories of women from Spain, North Africa, Senegambia, and Canaries accused of sorcery in sixteenth-century Mexico for adapting native magic and healing practices. These non-native women - the mulata of Seville who cured the evil eye; the Canarian daughter of a Count who ate peyote and mixed her bath water into a man's mustard supply; the wife of a Spanish conquistador who let her hair loose and chanted to a Mesoamerican god while sweeping at midnight; the wealthy Basque woman with a tattoo of a red devil; and many others - routinely adapted Native ritual into hybrid magic and cosmology. Through a radical rethinking of colonial knowledge, Martin Austin Nesvig uncovers a world previously left in the shadows of historical writing, revealing a fascinating and vibrant multi-ethnic community of witches, midwives, and healers.
Brief description: Martin Austin Nesvig is Professor of History at the University of Miami, and a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. He is the author of five books including Ideology and Inquisition: The World of the Censors in Early Mexico (2009) and Promiscuous Power: An Unorthodox History of New Spain (2018).
Review Quotes: 'Martin Nesvig has written a gripping study of the occult in early colonial Mexico. This book, the first of a projected trilogy, is a gripping collection of the histories of non-native women who had recourse to activities considered sorcery or witchcraft. This is a truly outstanding study that breaks new ground on nearly every page.' John F. Schwaller, Professor Emeritus, University at Albany (SUNY)