Abstract
In the eighteenth century, new theories of human anatomy, disease, and illness intersected with Christian doctrines regarding spiritual well-being, Spanish imperial understandings regarding race and dress of colonizer and colonized, and culturally distinct medicinal practices for treating physical and spiritual sicknesses. To explore these admittedly complex entanglements of bodies, souls, and clothing, I place the physical and spiritual body at the center of analysis. My intent is to obtain a fuller understanding of the complete colonial body at the eighteenth-century Spanish presidio of Los Adaes. Located along the easternmost border of Spanish Texas, how did the multiethnic inhabitants of Los Adaes treat, mend, and cover their bodies through dress, practices of faith, and medicine? What artifacts (clothing, amulets, religious medals, and medicines), texts, and images were embodied when people from disparate backgrounds and life experiences cared for themselves and others at Presidio Los Adaes?
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank George Avery and Hiram F. “Pete” Gregory for the opportunity to examine the Los Adaes materials. It was Gregory’s interpretation of curandería at the presidio that inspired my work on health and the body at Los Adaes and I am grateful for his continued insight. My larger study of colonial clothing and adornment, health, sin, and the body has benefited from discussions with Mary Beaudry, Trish Capone, and Christina J. Hodge.
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Loren, D. (2015). Dress, Faith, and Medicine: Caring for the Body in Eighteenth-Century Spanish Texas. In: Funari, P., Senatore, M. (eds) Archaeology of Culture Contact and Colonialism in Spanish and Portuguese America. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08069-7_8
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