Abstract
This paper explores aspects of African diasporas beyond the context of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The author examines genetic evidence that calls for a syncretic history of Spain. Exploring the fusion of cultural practices with respect to gender and power as found in the fifteenth-century marriage contract between Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragon, this paper further analyzes the historiography of the Christian expansion on the peninsula, the Berber legal system that arrived in Iberia with the Islamic conquest, and the Visigothic legal system that dominated in Aragon. The author further examines evidence of cultural fusion of African Berber customs in a Germanic zone, by focusing on the domestic practices and elements of material culture illustrated by the conduct of Isabel I and her brother, Enrique IV, and by analyzing the customs reflected in Isabel and Fernando's marriage contract.
Recommended Citation
Robinson, Marsha
(2006)
"From Microscope to the Marriage Contract of Castile's Trastamara Dynasts Isabel and Fernando: Evidence of African Berber and Germanic Cultural Fusion,"
African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter: Vol. 9:
Iss.
4, Article 9.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adan/vol9/iss4/9
