The ideology of purity-of-blood (limpieza de sangre) divided
early modern Iberian society into two different classes: Old
Christians and New Christians. New Christians, i.e. Conversos (converted Jews) and Moriscos (converted
Muslims), but also their offspring, were thought to be inferior Christians and always tending towards apostasy. At the turn of the 17th century an increased interest in bodily markers to proof the presumed inferiority of the so-called New
Christians can be observed. The book focusses on the question how the apologists of the purity-of-blood statutes
used the idea of inherited bodily markers to promote a
genealogical racism in early modern Iberia. |