Determining the Boundaries of Virtue: the Discourse of Recogimiento Among Women in Seventeenth-Century Lima

Abstract

This article explores the meanings of the concept of recogimiento, a virtue related to honor and physical enclosure as it was expressed in the marital litigation testimonies of women of all racial and class backgrounds in Lima between 1650 and 1700. Elite, humble, and nonwhite women alike claimed honor as part of their identity in ways that were distinct from concepts of male honor and definitions of sexual purity. Married women attempted to define the boundaries of virtue along broader lines that included contributions to the household economy. In addition, women's self-definition of recogimiento included connotations of a sense of virtue and proper behavior in both private or household settings and in the public sphere where they worked.