"The Clattering Chains": Social Control and Sexual Transgressions in Colonial Guatemala

Consisting largely of natives, Africans, and mixed-race individuals, colonial Guatemala’s plebeians presented a threat to elite domination. Consequently, civil and ecclesiastic elites perceived an urgent necessity to control multiple aspects of the colony’s quotidian life, from commerce to sexual interaction. As elsewhere, matrimony for purposes of reproduction became the ideal to which everyone—unless they followed a religious vocation—was expected to adhere. Sexual interaction outside these narrow confines (especially once made public) represented a threat against social order, and plebeians were typically punished harshly for their transgressions. While elite Spaniards also engaged in acts of deviancy, they had a far greater chance of escaping punishment. To control sexuality, authorities employed expansive and amorphous categories of “impropriety,” ranging from the so-called crimes against nature (pecados contra natura) of sodomy and bestiality to the prohibitions against incest and sexual crimes against children.  This paper examines the ways that these “unnatural” crimes challenged the human/animal boundary, discourses of procreation and lineage, hegemonic notions of masculinity, and the notion of “childhood.” The body was a contested arena of social regimentation where authorities sought to bring the underclasses under heel. Yet, despite employing different forms of policing—organized patrols, gossip, and informants—elites failed to completely impose their visions on the population.  Competing definitions of acceptable sexuality formulated at the popular level vied with official discourse to create perpetual frictions and contestation to elite domination.