Divided by blood

Race and religion in early-modern Iberia

Bibliographic Data

ID8961313
AuthorsMercedes García-Arenal (CCHS. CSIC, Madrid), Mercedes García‐arenal (0000-0001-9592-3585, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume61
Issue2
Pages253-277
Publication date2024-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00194646241241671
OpenAlexW4396227514
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited21

This article argues that the mass religious conversions that took place in early-modern Iberia from the end of the fourteenth century had enormous consequences, one of which was the increasing racialisation of religion. Jewish and Muslim minorities were forced to receive baptism, and although in principle the Church made no distinction among people who had been baptised, in practice the presence of large numbers of recent converts to Catholicism called this theology into question. In the process, as I will demonstrate in this article, religion was racialised, as many people became convinced that religion (both beliefs and ritual) was biological and was transmitted by blood. To support this argument, the article will focus, as a case study, on the discussion about whether to deny baptism to the children of Moriscos (converted Muslims) in the years preceding the general expulsion from Spain of the Moriscos (1609–11)

Ancient history · Argument (complex analysis · Baptism · Judaism · Middle Ages · Race (biology · Sociology · Theology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Medicine · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access