When the Spanish conquered Mesoamerica, they conquered cacao. Mixing the bitter cacao seeds with sugar and other spices – spices that were often also obtained through European conquest – the Spanish created a commodity that stimulated the European comestible market. Its luxuriousness grew first out of its expensiveness and rarity Read more…
Listen, download, watch on YouTube, or scroll down for the transcript. Related Episodes: Coverture: Married Women and Legal Personhood in Britain Marriage in America: A Brief History What’s in a Name? North American Naming Conventions and the “Death” of Patrilineal Lines Transcript for “Recogimiento: Virginity, Enclosure, and Female Virtue in Colonial Read more…
Conventional narratives tell us that medieval lepers were pariahs who lived out their days as rejected invalids, rotting away in decrepit asylums, quarantined from society. Some of this is true. The disease became so common in Europe, however, that medieval society was compelled to adapt to the presence of the chronically ill.