On the Inclusion of “Other” Women: Women and Race in the Early Modernities

Abstract

The time frame that spans the late medieval period to the end of the dominance of European imperial powers in the Americas is complex, and that complexity demands scholars employ global and decolonial analytical frameworks. Thus, rather than referring to this era as “the early modern period,”which invokes the supremacy of Western societies, I will refer to it as “the early modernities” to insist on the simultaneity of transformations and individual experiences around the world. This turn to the pluralization of modernity, otherwise known as the early modern global, is now well on its way, and while it allows the disruption of chronological, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries, it still lacks the contributions of women of color to its complexities. Although feminist scholars have advanced our knowledge of women in the early modernities, the tendency to highlight only influential European women is still prevalent. This type of scholarship admittedly bypasses questions of race and assumes a common history of marginalization.Writing from the vantage point of a global modern world, with the intention of opening new non-Eurocentric perspectives, we should not miss the opportunity to write about Indigenous, Black, and other women of color in the earlymodernities. Researching about these women is not an easy task, as records about them are often incomplete and require a painstaking reconstruction of their social relationships. Yet, it is also a gratifying