How does honor contribute to defining a person? That question is one that is discussed in today’s world but has also been discussed throughout history. The book Private Passions and Public Sins by Maria Emma Mannarelli focuses on the status of men and women in seventeenth century Lima, Peru. Mannarelli, an associate professor of history at the University of San Marcos in Lima, discusses the frequency and significance of illegitimacy and extramarital relationships during this time in Lima. For women in the seventeenth century their honor was greatly influenced on if they were married, widowed/divorced, or not married at all. “According to the prevailing morality, female honor arose from a woman’s retiring nature, virtue and sexual modesty,
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Unmarried women in these societies were mainly judged on either the status of her parents or based on the status she held herself to. Mannarelli defines it as, “according to the prevailing morality, female honor arose from a woman’s retiring nature, virtue, and sexual modesty, and on her virginity, if she was single, or her fidelity, if she was married. It was based, in other words, on how she behaved with respect to men” (69). In this society, if women respected men they were usually treated well. That’s respecting them in every aspect of life not just in small events. Single women not only had a low honor themselves but if they happened to have a child, the child had a much lower honor than her. Mannarelli demonstrates this when she states, “when single men maintained relatively stable relationships with single women, illegitimate natural children were the result” (81). Having a child out of marriage in this society immediately made the child illegitimate to the rest of the people. Meaning the child would never, unless the parents married, have the same chances as a child whose parents are married. Not being able to get married would greatly lower the honor of women. Mannarelli states, “when Dona Francisca saw ‘Don Laureano would not marry her, she wept bitterly, since Don Laureano had caused her to lose her honor and good reputation’” (107). Don Laureano was a 40-year-old captain and Dona Francisca took care of cleaning up after him and his mistresses for many years. For single women the most important aspect of their life that they could control was respecting men in all ways of
Unmarried women in these societies were mainly judged on either the status of her parents or based on the status she held herself to. Mannarelli defines it as, “according to the prevailing morality, female honor arose from a woman’s retiring nature, virtue, and sexual modesty, and on her virginity, if she was single, or her fidelity, if she was married. It was based, in other words, on how she behaved with respect to men” (69). In this society, if women respected men they were usually treated well. That’s respecting them in every aspect of life not just in small events. Single women not only had a low honor themselves but if they happened to have a child, the child had a much lower honor than her. Mannarelli demonstrates this when she states, “when single men maintained relatively stable relationships with single women, illegitimate natural children were the result” (81). Having a child out of marriage in this society immediately made the child illegitimate to the rest of the people. Meaning the child would never, unless the parents married, have the same chances as a child whose parents are married. Not being able to get married would greatly lower the honor of women. Mannarelli states, “when Dona Francisca saw ‘Don Laureano would not marry her, she wept bitterly, since Don Laureano had caused her to lose her honor and good reputation’” (107). Don Laureano was a 40-year-old captain and Dona Francisca took care of cleaning up after him and his mistresses for many years. For single women the most important aspect of their life that they could control was respecting men in all ways of