Intimacy: Coloniality And Interraciality

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“Intimacy,” this word brings images of candle lit dinners with a significant other or physical closeness. In the realm of historical analysis, intimacy is central to gendered analysis. Despite its prominence, the definition and application of intimacy in history varies widely and changes with the methods and scope of each study. In Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power by Ann Laura Stoler, Illicit Love by Ann McGrath, and One Bright Spot by Victoria Haskins, “intimacy” is central to the authors’ analysis of colonialism and interracial interaction, however each author examines different definitions and applications of “intimacy” on the colonial world. Critiques of colonial practices often focus of the effects of colonial legal policies on indigenous people groups; however, in Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power, Anne Stoler shifts her focus to the colonizing women in the Dutch East …show more content…

For this study, intimacy is defined and close emotional and sexual relationships between men and women. Focusing on sexual and relational intimacy highlights the colonial tension that existed between colonial powers and indigenous people. She uses case studies of individual relationships to show the complexities of these “illicit” relationships. Sexual relationships are the most “intimate” and personal connections, but in the realm of marriage, these relationships were highly public and confronted the racial tension and political policies. For the 1825 marriage of Harriett Gold, a white New England woman, and Elias Boudinot, a Cherokee man, the posting of their marriage bans led to riots in which Gold’s brother burned the couple in effigy because they upset the security and perceived safely created by racial distinctions between “respectable” Anglo-Americans and the indigenous people of the

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