This book started with a symposium at King’s College London in which papers were discussed and gaps identified. Invitations to other researchers followed, which contributed to the creation of a multidisciplinary group of scholars interested in gender studies. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, linguists, and specialists in literature and cultural studies were involved in fruitful areas of dialogue and exchange over methods and approaches. It has been a pleasure to work with such a diversified, open, generous and knowledgeable group of colleagues.
Brill kindly agreed to consider publishing the proposed volume, and I should like to thank the series editor, George Bryan Souza, and the anonymous reviewers, who helped to shape the considerably revised final manuscript. Helen Hancock played an important role as a stimulating and competent copy editor and proof reader, since most of the authors were not native English speakers.
The contributors responded extremely well to successive challenges. They engaged with gendering from different disciplinary viewpoints, and they reflected deeply on their case studies, presenting the rich cultural and historical dynamic of the diverse, intercontinental, Portuguese-speaking world. I believe this volume contributes to an ongoing debate on gender as a category of analysis, highlighting the importance of different frameworks, practices and possibilities in time and place, and structured by the major issues of European expansion and indigenous response.
Finally, I should like to thank the Camões Institute (and the Camões Centre at King’s) for its support of initiatives launched by the Charles Boxer Chair, particularly the symposium that initiated the preparation of this book. With this support, we have been enabled to create a small collection of books in English addressing crucial issues in the history and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world.
Francisco Bethencourt