A furtive relationship. Honor and conjugal violence in Lima at the juncture of Independence (1795-1820)

Abstract

Although gender violence is a very old problem, and the media, social sciences, law and health sciences recognize its historical development, little is known about it. This is partly because it is believed that the problem belongs to a “recent” history, but also because the analysis of private life has been a task overlooked by the Peruvian historiography. In this sense, this article aims to confirm the historicity of the problem, demonstrating that the period under analysis was in a context of intensification of marital violence. This placed the Peruvian capital in a debatable leadership position in the Spanish American setting. Based on archival sources, especially the judicial ones, the article also seeks to examine an aspect of marital problems marked by violence: the issue of honor, since the conceptions of honor influenced almost all aspects of colonial life, transcended the strictly individual sphere, and had repercussions in the public sphere.