These words were spoken by the Mexica midwife, in a culture which knew the power of words, to a newborn female baby: an unpromising introduction for a girlchild into a warrior society. The address lacks both the challenges and the glittering images of value (‘thou art an eagle, an ocelot; thou art a roseate spoonbill, a troupial') addressed to the boy-child destined to warriorhood. Rank did not mitigate female destiny: newborn females regardless of caste were all condemned, it would seem, to a destiny of un-relieved domesticity. At the naming ceremony which followed close on the birth the male child's hand was closed around a tiny bow, arrows, and a shield, signalling his warrior destiny, and the girl's around miniature spinning and weaving implements and a tiny broom, while each were presented with miniaturized versions of their appropriate adult garb. If his social duty was to be a warrior, hers was to be a wife. In what follows I want to explore the implications of that early dedication and the justice of our ‘natural' response to it.