Anchoring an Empire - Gender and Ethnicity in Colonial Panama

Anchoring an Empire is a bottom-up exploration of how gender and ethnicity shaped the lived experience of Spanish subjects across the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century isthmus of Panama. Focusing on understudied historical actors, Bethany Aram sheds light on how indigenous Americans, Afro-descendants, and Europeans contributed to critical debates on race and gender. From the Caribbean port cities of Nombre de Díos and Portobello, to Panama Viejo on the Pacific coast, free, enslaved, and in-between women and men managed to become arbiters of Spanish and competing interests. Those who lived and died in these cities sustained them as hubs of interaction, communication, and commerce. Whether victims, beneficiaries - or both - of the slave trade, these individuals found ways to meet and to exploit the region's episodic demand for housing, provisions, and other services. Their expertise grounded global transport and trade, with a lasting impact on processes of mobility and globalization.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. 'The secrets of the land.' knowledge, nutrition and survival; 2. Elusive returns. native Americans and Africans between slavery and freedom; 3. Hospitality on the trans-isthmian trek. the comforts of home; 4. Marriage and mobility; 5. Space and status. the purpose of precedence; 6. Immaculate conceptions; Conclusions; Select Bibliography.

About the author

Bethany Aram is Professor of History at Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla. She is the author of Queen Juana 'the Mad' (2005) and Leyendas Negras y Doradas en la Conquista de América (2008).

Product details

• Authors: Bethany (Universidad Pablo De Olavide Aram, Aram Bethany
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2025
• EAN: 9781009595353
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0959535-3
• No. of pages: 221
• Series: Cambridge Latin American Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Panama, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Men's Studies, HISTORY / Latin America / Central America, HISTORY / Latin America / General, Colonialism and imperialism, Latin America – Mexico, Central America, South America, History of the Americas, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, c 1500 to c 1600, Gender studies: men and boys