María Elena Martínez Book sku-10145805 463054602567

María Elena Martínez's Genealogical Fictions is a hardcover Latin American History Books title, sku-10145805, UPC 463054602567. It is the first in-depth study of the relationship between limpieza de sangre, the Spanish concept of purity of blood, and colonial Mexico's sistema de castas, a social hierarchy based primarily on ancestry. The book traces the concept from socio-religious tensions in early modern Spain, where it was initially used against Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity, to its adaptation in the Americas to create and reproduce identity categories based on descent. Martínez examines its use over time by the state, church, Inquisition and other institutions in colonial Mexico. She argues that its religious, genealogical and gendered meanings, along with the archival practices it encouraged, shaped the region's patriotic and racial ideologies.