The banishment of the marvellous. Hermaphrodites and sexual mutants in Enlightenment Spain

Abstract

This article presents a historical synthesis in order to trace how the collective belief in the existence of hermaphrodites and sex-changes was slowly eroded in the changing medical and cultural context of Enlightenment Spain. In order to explain this change, three interlinked processes are outlined. First, the naturalization of the monster and the disappearance of the “marvellous” in Enlightenment science. Second, the consolidation of modern legal or forensic science and the rise of the medical specialist as the relevant authority in the determination of sexual identity. Third, the emergence of the notion of fundamental biological differences between the sexes. The article concludes by discussing the consequences of these shifts for early nineteenthcentury Spanish medicine.