Sexualities, Identities, and Calidades on (Social) Trial: Indigenous Women and the Uses of Justice in Cases of Delitos de Lujúria, Platina Region, 18th Century

The paper examines Indigenous women's uses of justice through litigation involving delitos de lujuria (crimes of lust) in the colonial Platina region, comprising present-day southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the Argentine provinces of Misiones, Entre Ríos, and Corrientes. Cases of rape, kidnap, procuring (lenocinio), and bigamy are analyzed through women’s legal history and transnational gender history. The study foregrounds women’s agency and the knowledge they circulated, exploring normativities emerging from conflicts adjudicated before secular and ecclesiastical tribunals. The classification of behaviors as delitos de lujuria in the Early Modern Period was shaped by Tridentine norms regulating marriage and disciplining sexuality. In the Americas, however, these categories encountered societies marked by ethnic and racial diversity, altering both sexual expression and normative frameworks. Ecclesiastical and local actors attempted to reconcile Tridentine precepts with Indigenous matrimonial practices, preserving certain customs while seeking to eradicate others. When cases involving Indigenous individuals reached criminal courts, they activated distinct legal questions, invoking privileges formally granted to Indigenous peoples even as those privileges were contested. The adjudication of delitos de lujuria became a site where identities and calidades were negotiated not only by institutions but also by communities. This dynamic reflects a broader feature of criminal justice in the Iberian-American worlds: justice functioned less as an imposed institutional model than as a practice mobilized by local actors. Resorting to tribunals activated social dynamics that exposed interests and strategies, while access to justice operated less as an end than as a catalyst for collective responses. By foregrounding Indigenous women's legal strategies across multiple jurisdictions, the paper highlights how colonial justice depended on negotiation, translation, and community participation, ultimately demonstrating that litigation over delitos de lujuria reshaped understandings of family, sexuality, and authority throughout the Platina region. These cases reveal justice as a lived, contested, and profoundly social practice.