Honor, Status and Law in Modern Latin America

Vol. 15 No.10 (October 2005), pp.925-928

HONOR, STATUS, AND LAW IN MODERN LATIN AMERICA, by Sueann Caulfield, Sarah C. Chambers, and Lara Putnam (eds). Durham: Duke University Press, 2005. 344pp. Cloth. $89.95. ISBN: 0-8223-3575-1. Paperback. $24.95. ISBN: 0-8223-3587-5.

Reviewed by Kif Augustine-Adams, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. E-mail: adamsk@lawgate.byu.edu

In their new book, Sueann Caulfield, Sarah C. Chambers, and Lara Putnam collect thirteen articles explicating transformations and relationships among law, honor, status and modernity in Latin America. Their cogent introduction highlights the centrality of certain themes to all the essays—“the rise of liberal ideologies, shifting ideas about public and private spheres, the growing intervention of the state in defining and arbitrating individual reputations, and the enduring role of patriarchy” (p.1). Gender and sexuality are significant categories of analysis in a number of the articles as well. The thirteen articles are divided into three groups: Liberalism, Status, and Citizenship; Popular Uses of the Law; and The Policing of Public Space. These three divisions are useful as an initial organizing tool, but should not impede consideration of the fruitful grounds for comparison between sections. For example, Olívia Maria Gomes da Cunha’s presentation of the stigmas of dishonor through forensic identification and criminal records in the “Policing of Public Space” section resonates with Laura Gotkowitz’s identification of verbal marks of honor and dishonor in the “Popular Uses of the Law” section. The formal sources of stigma are different, but the harm is similar. Six essays speak to Brazil (with five on Rio de Janeiro alone), two each to Puerto Rico and Bolivia, and one each to Peru, Mexico, and Costa Rica. By its structure and through the coherency of its themes, the collection facilitates comparative work, while providing a richly detailed view of honor, status and modernity in Latin America.

Like the editors, the essay authors are all historians, with the exception of one cultural anthropologist. I was pleased to see that the University of Michigan Law School supported, and several law professors participated in, the initial conference in 1998 from which the book derives. Bridging the distance between law and history as academic disciplines is important, particularly where law and its sources are the subject of historical inquiry. As one would expect given the book’s title, most of the articles rely on court cases, legal codes, and legislation as primary sources. The two articles whose primary sources are music and literature – José Amador de Jesús’ explication of the musical plena in Puerto Rico and Sidney Chalhoub’s interpretation of the literary works of Machado de Assis – stand out for this difference. Several of the essays come close to being legal history, particularly Keila Grinberg’s discussion of definitions of status and citizenship in the Brazilian civil code and Cristiana Schettini Pereira’s analysis of court cases regarding pandering in Rio de Janeiro. All of the essays present [*926] fascinating analyses of honor, status, and modernity, but individuals with legal training might have asked slightly different questions. This is not to fault the essays, but to identify opportunities for law professors and lawyers to be more involved in history and the fertile possibilities that exist to understand law in that endeavor.

Although significant delays are not unusual in the world of academic publishing, it is easy to lament the passing of so much time between the initial conference in 1998 and the publication of the book in 2005. Much has happened in the historiography of Latin America in those seven years, including the publication of nearly one-half of the thirteen articles in longer forms in other venues. As I read, I kept wondering what the differences were. Was I missing something from the alternative versions? If the ideas expressed in the articles merited book-length treatment or needed surrounding chapters by the same author to provide context, could I really get the full argument in abridged form? Perhaps these shorter articles germinated the longer chapters, books, and journal articles, but their subsequent, rather than prior, publication puts the serious scholar on notice that there is something more out there that merits her attention. Scholars will want to go beyond the articles in this collection to the more expansive treatments of the same subjects which five of the authors have published in English (Chambers 1999; Gotkowitz 2003; Putnam 2002, Ch.5; Caulfield 2000; Barragán 2003). Likewise, scholars who read Spanish or Portuguese may turn to Rossana Barragán’s (1999) Spanish-language book on Indians, women and citizens in Bolivia, and Sidney Chalhoub’s (2003) Portuguese-language book for further discussion of their subjects.

That said, the editors have provided a substantial service to professors by pulling this particular set of articles together in a single English-language volume, reasonably priced at least in the paper-back version. The articles average just over 22 pages in length, making them easily manageable as student course readings. The writing is generally accessible and colorful. Lara Putnam’s apt quotations from insult cases in Port Limón, Costa Rica, at the turn of the 19th century are especially delightful. I will never look at a yam the same way again. For student readers, a basic familiarity with Spanish or Portuguese would be helpful, but not absolutely necessary, for terms of art – alcalde, cargo, plena, rapto – which rightly remain in the text in the original language, but with rough English equivalents in parenthesis following their first use. The articles, initially written in Spanish and Portuguese, flow smoothly with little of the stiffness that sometimes occurs when academic articles move from their original language into another. Getting something this well-written in English when working with articles and sources in at least two other languages, demonstrates considerable work and attention to detail.

The book itself is user-friendly and well-done; the index is not. If I had not plastered my review copy with multi-colored post-it notes and written prodigiously in the margins, I would be hard pressed to find specific references again. Which author identified relationships with Chinese as [*927] especially subject to dishonor? With no separate entry for Chinese and nothing relevant under “race,” the index does not tell me. (In case you care, it is Lara Putnam again on pages 161, 162, 163, and 166). Was marriage or marital status relevant to the transformation of honor, law, and status in modern Latin America? I know it is. Nonetheless, the index entry for “marriage” mentions only deflowering suits and virginity, citing for both the same pages in a single article, Sueann Caulfield’s discussion of freedom and virginity in Rio de Janeiro from 1920 to 1940. The “marriage” index entry does not reference Laura Gotkowitz’s article on trading insults in Cochabamba, Bolivia, even though a central theme is failed marriage arrangements; it does not identify the heading “Race, Class, and Marriage” in Brodwyn Fischer’s article on insults, class, and social legitimacy in Rio de Janeiro’s criminal courts; it does not suggest the relevance of marriage to the resolution of rapto (robbing) cases in Eileen Findlay’s tale of sex and honor in late-nineteenth century Puerto Rico. Having read the book (and thanks to yellow-means-marriage-post-it notes), I know where to turn for the relevant discussions, but someone encountering the book for the first time would not. The index should support both the initial reading and encourage repeat use of the book by providing a decent guide to the book’s content. It is not just that the index fails to reference pages for important ideas, the system is affirmatively cryptic. To find Gotkowitz’s discussion of failed marriage arrangements, see the index entry for “insult suits,” “sexual purity” subheading. In contrast, to find Fischer’s explication of the relevance of race, class and marriage, see the index entry for “slander suits,” “honor” subheading. The index entry for slander suits cross-references the entry for insult suits, and vice-versa, but still. In future editions, the index could easily be improved to provide more ready access to the riches of the text. For now, that textual richness is worth the hassle. Just make sure to get your own copy, so you can mark it up.

REFERENCES:

Caulfield, Sueann. 2000. IN DEFENSE OF HONOR: MORALITY, MODERNITY, AND NATION IN EARLY-TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRAZIL. Durham: Duke University Press.

Chalhoub, Sidney. 2003. MACHADO DE ASSIS, HISTORIADOR. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

Chambers, Sarah. 1999. FROM SUBJECTS TO CITIZENS: HONOR, GENDER, AND POLITICS IN AREQUIPA, PERU, 1780-1854. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Barragán, Rossana. 2003. “The Spirit of Bolivian Laws,” in Gyanendra Pandey and Peter Geschiere (eds). THE FORGING OF NATIONHOOD. New Delhi: Manohar.

Barragán, Rossana. 1999. INDIOS, MUJERES Y CIUDADANOS: LEGISLACION Y EJERCICIO DE LA CIUDADANIA EN BOLIVIA (SIGLO XIX). La Paz : Fundación Diálogo.

Gotkowitz, Laura. 2003. “Trading Insults: Honor, Violence, and the Gendered Culture of Commerce in Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1870s-1950s.” 83 HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 83-118.

Putnam, Lara. 2002. THE COMPANY THEY KEPT: MIGRANTS AND THE POLITICS OF GENDER IN CARIBBEAN COSTA RICA, 1870-1960. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

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For more information about this book, go to Duke University Press