THE SYMBOLICS OF BLOOD - MESTIZAJE IN THE AMERICA

Mestizaje, a significant process of identity formation in Latin Americ a based on presumed race mixture, rests on certain sustaining ideologi es about race, class, gender, and sexuality that are specific to Latin America. This essay attempts a preliminary discussion of how mestizaj e has affected marriage and gender relations in several Latin American regions as the marital/kinship pattern, together with its sustaining ideologies, changed over time. Questions are asked about differences i n beliefs held by different kinds of individuals (mestizos and ''white s,'' lower classes and elites, women and men) about mestizaje and the sexual and/or kinship relations appropriate between different races an d classes. Examination of a few well documented historical cases sugge sts that what lower-class mestizos believe about race, class, gender, and sexuality involves resistance to as well as acceptance of elite be liefs about them. It appears that there are also significant differenc es in beliefs held by mestizo women and men about appropriate female a nd male sexuality, though we have less information about this.