“She Was What They Call a ‘Pepe’”: Kinship Practice and Incest Codes in Late Colonial Guatemala

Abstract

Incest taboos have long been intriguing to anthropologists because they are apparently common to all human societies. The definition of incest in the Spanish American colonies was codified in law, but not all residents abided by such regulations. This article focuses on incestuous crime in late colonial Guatemala, a region that is underrepresented in incest literature. It shows how preoccupations with incest problematized aspects of kinship practice and discusses the ways colonial actors took advantage of kinship and incest during various crises in their lives. Overall, it demonstrates the power of incest codes to shape human interactions in colonial Guatemala.