Alteridad indígena en América: cabello largo masculino y ausencia de vello. Entre la raza y género

Indigenous otherness in America: long male hair and absence of body hair. Among races and genders

Abstract

Abstract

Long male hair is a distinctive trait of various indigenous cultures of the American continents, a characteristic that was related from a European and later a white mestizo viewpoint with the savagery and sexual behavior of the indigenes. 1 In the same way the lack of facial or pubic hair among the indigenes created a feminized imagery of the American continents and their populations, that is, a fertile land to be conquered and dominated. Today these ideas have not been fully overcome, especially considering the context of various indigenous cultures which still maintain long and braided hair as part of belonging to a certain culture. The work is based on relating the interventions of race and gender in America to unravel how corporal-visual space contributed to forging the understood images of the continents and the indigenous subjects, as well as their racial identity and differentiation.