Volume 2, Issue 2, 1999
Luna Nàjera
Pages 112-122
Engendering Ethnicity
The Economy of Female Virginity in Guatemala
Interweaving personal narrative and theory, this essay frames the valorization of female virginity in Guatemalan ladino society within the context of ethnic conflict between ladinos and Mayan Indians. A consideration of what is at stake in the premarital loss of virginity for ladino women can illuminate interrelationships among nationalism, the engendering of ethnicity, and women’s bodies.