The Many Meanings of Poverty: Colonialism, Social Compacts, and Assistance in Eighteenth-Century Ecuador

by Cynthia E. Milton

Overview

This book analyzes the diverse understandings of poverty in a multiracial colonial society, eighteenth-century Quito. It shows that in a colonial world both a pauper and a landowner could lay claim to assistance as the "deserving poor" while the vast majority of the impoverished Andean population did not share the same avenues of poor relief. The Many Meanings of Poverty asks how colonialism shaped arguments about poverty—such as the categories of "deserving" and "undeserving" poor—in multiracial Quito, and forwards three central observations: poverty as a social construct (based on gender, age, and ethnoracial categories); the importance of these arguments in the creation of governing legitimacy; and the presence of the "social" and "economic" poor. An examination of poverty illustrates changing social and religious attitudes and practices towards poverty and the evolution of the colonial state during the eighteenth-century Bourbon reforms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804751780
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	09/07/2007
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Cynthia E. Milton is Canada Research Chair in Latin American History at the Universityé de Montréal. She is coeditor of The Art of Truthtelling about Authoritarian Rule (2005)

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Preface     xv
Introduction: Colonialism, Social Compacts, and the Taxonomy of Poverty     1
The City and People of Quito
The City of Quito     17
Living on the Edge: Survival Strategies of the Urban Poor     35
Society of Compacts: The Social Poor
Defining the "Solemn Poor": "Wordplay and Petitions of Poverty in Colonial Quito, 1678-1782     65
Prostrate before the Feet of the King: Widows, Widowhood, Pensions, and Colonial Compacts     99
Society of Compacts: The Economic Poor
Children on the Fringe of Empire: The Limits and Uses of Juvenile Welfare     125
Putting the Colonial (Poor) House in Order: The Wretched Poor and the Bourbon State     153
When Societies Meet: The Blurring of Social Compacts
Shifting Compacts of the Traditional Poor: Widows as Viudas and as Pobres     191
The Broadening and Narrowing of the Solemn Poor: Poor Spaniards, the Wretched, and Collapsing Privileges, 1783-1800     215
Conclusion: The Erosion of Charity, Boundaries, and Colonial Compacts     245
Appendix     257
Notes     261
Glossary     321
Bibliography     325
Index     349

Editorial Reviews

"The reach and ramifications of this book are broad. It is one of several new works that assess the social impact of the Bourbon reforms, and, by opening the doors to Quito's poor house, it contributes to reinvigorated institutional histories of Latin America... To write a history of poverty in colonial Spanish America is a truly ambitious endeavor. The Many Meanings of Poverty is a valiant attempt at this monumental task, and the only word to describe many of its findings is: rich."

Florida International University, Eighteenth-Century Studies - Bianca Premo

"Cynthia E. Milton's book ... adds an additional layer of explanation to Egas's interpretation of who comprised the 'truly poor.' In a richly detailed and throughly researched scrutiny of the various faces of poverty in late colonial Quito, Milton examines how society drew distinctions between the deserving and not-so-deserving poor."

H-Net Reviews - March Becker

"This makes Quito, I think, the ideal setting for Cynthia Milton's welcome exploration of what poverty meant in late colonial Spanish America The Many Meanings of Poverty is clearly a major contribution to the historiography of colonial Ecuador, which after years of neglect has attracted innovative work in areas such as gender, law, and demography."

The Journal of Latin American Studies

"The reach and ramifications of this book are broad. It is one of several new works that assess the social impact of the Bourbon reforms, and, by opening the doors to Quito's poor house, it contributes to reinvigorated institutional histories of Latin America... To write a history of poverty in colonial Spanish America is a truly ambitious endeavor. The Many Meanings of Poverty is a valiant attempt at this monumental task, and the only word to describe many of its findings is: rich."—Bianca Premo, Florida International University, Eighteenth-Century Studies


"Cynthia E. Milton's book ... adds an additional layer of explanation to Egas's interpretation of who comprised the 'truly poor.' In a richly detailed and throughly researched scrutiny of the various faces of poverty in late colonial Quito, Milton examines how society drew distinctions between the deserving and not-so-deserving poor."—March Becker, H-Net Reviews


"This makes Quito, I think, the ideal setting for Cynthia Milton's welcome exploration of what poverty meant in late colonial Spanish America The Many Meanings of Poverty is clearly a major contribution to the historiography of colonial Ecuador, which after years of neglect has attracted innovative work in areas such as gender, law, and demography." —The Journal of Latin American Studies

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