Ashley Elizabeth Kerr Sex, Skulls, and Citizens

Annotation

PROSE Awards Subject Category FinalistBiological Anthropology, Ancient History, and Archaeology, 2021 Best Nineteenth-Century Book Award, Latin American Studies Association Nineteenth-Century Section, 2021 Analyzing a wide variety of late-nineteenth-century sources, Sex, Skulls, and Citizens argues that Argentine scientific projects of the era were not just racial encounters, but were also conditioned by sexual relationships in all their messy, physical reality. The writers studied here (an eclectic group of scientists, anthropologists, and novelists, including Estanislao Zeballos, Lucio and Eduarda Mansilla, Ramon Lista, and Florence Dixie) reflect on Indigenous sexual practices, analyze the advisability and effects of interracial sex, and use the language of desire to narrate encounters with Indigenous peoples as they try to scientifically pinpoint Argentinas racial identity and future potential.Kerrs reach extends into history of science, literary studies, and history of anthropology, illuminating a scholarly time and place in which the lines betwixt were much blurrier, if they existed at all.