Drawing on over 300 prosecutions of sex acts in colonial New Spain between 1530 and 1821, Zeb Tortorici shows how courts used the concept "against nature" to try those accused of sodomy, bestiality, and other sex acts, thereby demonstrating how the archive influences understandings of bodies, desires, and social categories.

Drawing on over 300 prosecutions of sex acts in colonial New Spain between 1530 and 1821, Zeb Tortorici shows how courts used the concept "against nature" to try those accused of sodomy, bestiality, and other sex acts, thereby demonstrating how the archive influences understandings of bodies, desires, and social categories.