"A valuable study of late-18th-century family and social structure in urban Nueva Granada clarifies contours of domestic life in the colony. Utilizing data from Cartagena de Indias, Tunja, Medellín, and Cali, but not Bogotá, Rodríguez sketches patterns of fundamental phases and institutions of social life: childhood, old age, widowhood, and marriage, divorce, and annulment. Conclusions such as the overwhelming feminine makeup of widowhood, the continuing employment of the elderly, and domestic abuse as the principal cause of divorce demonstrate vital character of the home and illustrate important social attitudes within the body politic"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.