Vortragende: Ann Ostendorf (Spokane)

Titel: The Racial Liminality of Colonial North American Romani Women

Tool: Collaborate, Gastlink: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/01379e54a88f436785d4e03181a562c5

Zeit: Mittwoch, 11.11.2020, 18:30

Moderation: Stephan Steiner

Abstract:

This presentation explores how racializing imperial structures
considered Romani women in colonial English, French and Spanish North
America from the late seventeenth through late eighteenth centuries. The
position colonial officials afforded Romani women in local hierarchies
remained colored with assumptions imported from Europe. However, altered
social conditions in the colonies positioned enslaved Africans and
autonomous tribes as the greatest threats to a stable social order. This
dulled, though did not instantly erase, the perceived danger of Romani
social deviancy. These women’s sexual choices, particularly those
involving Native American and African-descended men, brought them under
the scrutiny of colonial administrators tasked with defining and
policing racial boundaries. In policing Romani women’s sexuality
representatives of empire confirmed their racial liminality. Those women
considered Gypsy, Bohemian, and Gitana by colonial English, French and
Spanish administrators held racial potential rather than securely
embodied race–their actions, especially their sexual choices,
determined where they, and their descendants, might racially situate.
Through their sexual choices, these women confronted and contributed to
developing colonial racial orders. The perception of Romani racial
liminality in North America only gradually disappeared.

Lebenslauf:

Ann Ostendorf is Professor of History at Gonzaga University
in Spokane, Washington. She researches and teaches in diverse areas of
early American history and has a special interest in race, culture and
Louisiana. Her recent work investigates the lives of colonial North
American Gypsies.

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