Gender Relations: Mesoamerica.

1. It’s the America in the postclassical era with the Native
Americans…remember that chapter? Here, let me refresh your
memory. (:

2.  Each community has a ‘ayllus’ who
controls the land
 A vast majority of men were peasants and
herders.
Women worked in fields, wove cloth, and

cared for the household(just like the other
societies we learned about!)
 Like the Aztecs, the Incas held the sun to
be the highest deity…and had many other
gods and goddesses both the men AND
women worshipped…comprende?

3.  This goddess
represented imperial
authority to all women
 Despite ideology of
gender equality in Incan
society, they created a
gender hierarchy that
paralleled the
dominance of Inca state
over its subject people.

4. Women were an essential part of Incan

society to care for the children, but marriage
life was strenuous with other household
duties.
Incan women were typically married at the

age of twenty . In Incan society, monogamy
was not strictly enforced, however, due to
economic regulations men could only have
one wife. (Some men wanted to be rebels
and had more than one wife. Though, only
his principle wife is the one he weds. The
others are considered his wives(who were
won in games), but have no wedding
ceremony.)
Trial marriages were typical within Incan

culture. A man and woman would agree to
marry for a few years, if they don’t match,
then they simply find someone else.
Divorce between a married couple could

only occur if the woman is childless.
Women would almost always marry men in

the same social class as them.
Typical Aztec Marriage
Business like , yeah?

5. In the Incan society, a wedding was

looked at more as a business-like
agreement, marriage was an
economic agreement between two
families. (Think about how in Asia,
women married to unite two
families with a military alliance,
kind of similar, huh?)
 Once a woman was married, she
was expected to collect food and
cook, watch over the animals and
the children, and also make trips to
the market, in other words, the
household chores, like what YOUR
mommy does for YOU.
 A woman’s household obligations
would not change after she became
pregnant. When she did find out
she was pregnant she prayed and
made offerings to the Inca god,
Kanopa.

6. Incan women might have been workers

in weaving shops, which were overseen
by men, even though weaving was
traditionally a female occupation.
 Women might also have been
prostitutes, but Incan women prostitutes
were social outcasts and could not even
reside near or have contact with female
non-prostitutes. (Instead they lived in
houses under a supervisor who was Aztec & Incan Women = renowned weavers
appointed and paid by the government.)
 Like the Aztec women, Incan women
could also be healers and midwives, and
they were known to be able to make
abortions.
 Women in the Inca and Aztec societies
fared a similar life, still, like other places,
subordinate to men.

7. When they were still young, nothing much was

expected from them, other than staying close to the
family unit.
From the moment they were born, they were

instilled with the qualities of being respectful,
hardworking, quiet and obedient (Hey, that sounds
kind a familiar...). Their tasks in life were to marry,
have children and run the household.
By the age of four, she was taught how to spin as to

make cloth, an essential task of all women in the
Aztec society.
The mother, the wife, their job was to be devoted

and give all their energy to the smooth running of
the house, lives of quiet poverty and their destiny
was laid out before them.
Aztec women were not given many choices. As soon

as they were born, they were told softly quot;you must be
in the house as the heart is in the body. you must be
like ashes and the hearth.quot; (Anton 1973)
The girls as they grew up, they could easily be beaten

if they didn’t obey and follow the moral codes.

8. Diana wins. (: