Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Acknowledgements for Literary Material and Illustrations
- Note on Nahuatl
- Maps
- Epigraph
- Introduction
- Part I The City
- Part II Roles
- 3 Victims
- 4 Warriors, Priests and Merchants
- 5 The Masculine Self Discovered
- 6 Wives
- 7 Mothers
- 8 The Female Being Revealed
- Part III The Sacred
- Part IV The City Destroyed
- A Question of Sources
- Monthly Ceremonies of theSeasonal (Solar) Calendar: Xiuitl
- The Mexica Pantheon
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Artefacts
6 - Wives
from Part II - Roles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Acknowledgements for Literary Material and Illustrations
- Note on Nahuatl
- Maps
- Epigraph
- Introduction
- Part I The City
- Part II Roles
- 3 Victims
- 4 Warriors, Priests and Merchants
- 5 The Masculine Self Discovered
- 6 Wives
- 7 Mothers
- 8 The Female Being Revealed
- Part III The Sacred
- Part IV The City Destroyed
- A Question of Sources
- Monthly Ceremonies of theSeasonal (Solar) Calendar: Xiuitl
- The Mexica Pantheon
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Artefacts
Summary
Thou wilt be in the heart of the home, thou wilt go nowhere, thou wilt nowhere become a wanderer, thou becomest the banked fire, the hearth stones. Here our lord planteth thee, burieth thee. And thou wilt become fatigued, thou wilt become tired; thou art to provide water, to grind maize, to drudge; thou art to sweat by the ashes, by the hearth. [The umbilical cord was then buried by the hearth.] It was said that by this she signified that the little woman would nowhere wander. Her dwelling place was only within the house; her home was only within the house.
Florentine CodexThese 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.
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- Information
- AztecsAn Interpretation, pp. 216 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014