Background
Seed, Patricia was born on September 20, 1949 in Baltimore. Daughter of John Cathro and Pauline (Sullivan) Seed.
(Americans like to see themselves as far removed from thei...)
Americans like to see themselves as far removed from their European ancestors' corrupt morals, imperial arrogance, and exploitation of native resources. Yet, as Patricia Seed argues in American Pentimento, this is far from the truth. The modern regulations and pervading attitudes that control native rights in the Americas may appear unrelated to colonial rule, but traces of the colonizers' cultural, religious, and economic agendas nonetheless remain. Seed likens this situation to a pentimento-a painting in which traces of older compositions or alterations become visible over time-and shows how the exploitation begun centuries ago continues today. In her analysis, Seed examines how European countries, primarily England, Spain, and Portugal, differed in their colonization of the Americas. She details how the English appropriated land, while the Spanish and Portuguese attempted to eliminate "barbarous" religious behavior and used indigenous labor to take mineral resources. Ultimately, each approach denied native people distinct aspects of their heritage. Seed argues that their differing effects persist, with natives in former English colonies fighting for land rights, while those in former Spanish and Portuguese colonies fight for human dignity. Seed also demonstrates how these antiquated cultural and legal vocabularies are embedded in our languages, popular cultures, and legal systems, and how they are responsible for current representations and treatment of Native Americans. We cannot, she asserts, simply attribute the exploitation of natives' resources to distant, avaricious colonists but must accept the more disturbing conclusion that it stemmed from convictions that are still endemic in our culture. Wide-ranging and essential to future discussions of the legacies of colonialism, American Pentimento presents a radical new approach to history, one which uses paradigms from anthropology and literary criticism to emphasize language as the basis of law and culture. Patricia Seed is professor of history at Rice University. Public Worlds Series, volume 7
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( The sources for this study are diverse. Decrees of eccl...)
The sources for this study are diverse. Decrees of ecclesiastical councils, papal bulls, and canonical commentaries were investigated to identify the formal Catholic doctrines on marriage. Catechisms, confessional manuals for priests, and popular religious literature were consulted to determine how the church's formal teachings were understood and interpreted as guides for concrete action. The basic cultural attitudes toward marriage, love, and honor were studied in both popular religious literature and the drama and prose of Spain's Golden Age. The backbone of this study, however, consists of the actual records of prenuptial disputes that took place in the colony of New Spain. The geographical area from which the prenuptial disputes are drawn is the archdiocese of Mexico, which in colonial times embraced the highly populated central region of the Spanish colony of New Spain. About three-quarters of the documentation originated in Mexico City itself; the remainder came from urban areas outside the city. Two types of records form the documentary base of the study. The first and largest category is that of ordinary marriage applications, which were made by every couple who wanted to marry and were the first official step toward marriage. Every couple had to appear before the local priest (or simply his notary in the larger parishes) to declare that both parties were free to marry and intended to do so. Often couples were accompanied by witnesses who were prepared to swear to the truth of the statements. It was in the course of these ordinary applications that couples informed church officials in their own words of any opposition to their wedding, and it is from these first applications that most of the evidence concerning marriage conflicts originates. A second and much smaller body of documentary evidence consists of the records of lawsuits and formal appeals to church officials to halt or permit marriages. Such cases represent only a small fraction of the incidents of opposition and tended to involve only the wealthiest families, who could afford such actions. In addition to reading nearly all the surviving marriage license applications for Mexico City of the colonial period (approximately 16,000 applications), the author examined a major portion of the approximately 300 extant formal lawsuits over prenuptial disputes for the archdiocese of Mexico during the colonial period. For the final period covered by the study, when the church ceded its control over prenuptial disputes to the crown, the author examined the appeals to the central royal court in the viceroyalty of New Spain, called the Audiencia of Mexico. Although its jurisdiction extended beyond the boundaries of the archdiocese, the Audiencia was the secular unit that corresponded most closely to the archdiocesan one.
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Seed, Patricia was born on September 20, 1949 in Baltimore. Daughter of John Cathro and Pauline (Sullivan) Seed.
Bachelor of Arts, FordhamU., 1971. Master of Arts, University Texas, 1975. Doctor of Philosophy, University Wisconsin, 1980.
Lecturer Ohio University, Athens, 1979.
Assistant professor College Charleston, South Carolina., 1980-1982. Assistant professor of history Rice University, Houston, 1982, associate professor, 1987.
Visiting researcher National Anthropology Institute, Mexico, 1976-1978.
Lecturer Ohio University, Athens, 1979. Assistant professor College Charleston, South Carolina, 1980—1982. Assistant professor history Rice University, Houston, 1982—2005, associate professor, 1987—1994, professor, 1994—2005, University California, Irvine, since 2005.
Visiting researcher National Anthropology Institute, Mexico, 1976—1978.
(Americans like to see themselves as far removed from thei...)
( The sources for this study are diverse. Decrees of eccl...)
Fellow Tinker Foundation, 1984, National Endowment for Humanities, 1981, 86, Social Science. Member American History Society, Latin American Studies Association, Conference Latin American History.
Married George E. Marcus Seed, June 22, 1984.