HOW DO WE STUDY THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA? WE LOOK AT DIVERSE GROUPS OF WOMEN BEFORE AND AFTER THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE CONQUESTS LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN REPRESENT MANY ETHNICITIES AND CULTURES IN BOTH MESO-AMERICA AND SOUTH AMERICA THEIR SOCIETIES VARIED FROM IMPERIAL STRUCTURES TO HUNTING AND GATHERING GROUPS WE WILL FIRST EXPLORE THE MAYAN EMPIRE IN EASTERN MESO-AMERICA

MAYANS BEFORE THE CONQUEST BETWEEN 200 B.C. AND 900 A.D. THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION FLOURISHED IN EASTERN MEXICO, WESTERN MEXICO, GUATEMALA. MAYANS LIVED IN CITIES DOTTED WITH PYRAMIDS, TEMPLES, AND BALL COURTS. THEY HAD A SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE OF MATH AND ASTRONOMY. BUT THEIR HIGH CULTURE DISAPPEARED BETWEEN 600 AND 900 A.D. WHEN CONQUERED BY THE SPANISH IN THE 16 TH CENTURY, THEIR CITIES HAD BEEN ABANDONED, AND MANY LIVED IN RURAL SOCIETIES.

WOMEN AND THE CONQUEST OF LATIN AMERICA-INDIGENOUS WOMEN MESO-AMERICA A MAP OF MESO-AMERICA ntent/map/index.html

WOMEN IN YUCATAN BEFORE THE CONQUEST Historian Inga Clendinnen found documents indicating: –Ritual life determined the status of women –Families were matrilocal (husbands came to live with wifes family); women retained their own names –Women guarded domestic shrines and ritual fire within the home –Female labor consisted of weaving and caring for village maize –Women lived separate and subordinate lives, NOT segregated and subjugated, i.e. women lived fairly well

Yucatecan Women After the Conquest –Women experienced more change after conquest than men –More rigid division of labor –Women had to weave plain cloth for tribute –Forced until 1561 to leave families and serve as domestic servants to Spanish families –Priests criticized patterns of matrilocality and female kin interference –Women forced to marry at earlier age. Led to more pregnanciesevidence that women breastfed for 3- 4 years to prevent another pregnancy –Women defied Spanish by keeping embroidered dresses

THE CHINA POBLANA DRESS OF YUCATAN-A REMNANT OF FEMALE RESISTANCE TO THE SPANISH CONQUEST

WOMEN AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU PERUVIAN SOCIETY AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST: –RULED BY THE INCAS WHO CONSOLIDATED THEIR RULE SHORTLY BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH CONQUERORS IN THE 16 TH CENTURY –THEIR EMPIRE EXTENDED FROM COLOMBIA TO THE NORTHERN PART OF MODERN ARGENTINA –HELD TOGETHER BY ROADS, THE PAYMENT OF TRIBUTE AND A STRONG CENTRAL AUTHORITY –INCAN KINGS MAINTAINED FAMILY CONTROL BY MARRYING THEIR SISTERS: THE KING REPRESENTED THE SUN AND THE QUEEN THE MOON

MACHU PICCHU-THE GREAT INCAN CITY DISCOVERED IN THE 19 TH CENTURY

SOCIAL HIERARCHIES BEFORE THE CONQUEST RULING FAMILY (INCAS) INTERMARRIED FAMILIES ORGANIZED IN CLANS AND THE INCANS LINKED THE EMPIRE TO THESE CLANS ACCORDING TO IRENE SILVERBLATT, INCAS USED THEIR CONNECTION TO THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN AND THE MOON TO LINK CONQUERED POPULATIONS TO THEM AND TO THEIR CAPITAL OF CUSCO THIS GAVE WOMEN A PARALLEL RELIGIOUS CONNECTION TO POWER THROUGH THE MOON

VESTAL VIRGINS SOME WOMEN SERVED AS SACRED VIRGINS SELECTED BY CLANS, MANY MARRIED INTO NOBILITY, AND OTHERS SERVED RELIGIOUS DEITIES THEY BECAME WIVES OF INCAS/WIVES OF THE SUN SILVERBLATT ARGUES THAT THIS, TOO, EMPOWERED SOME WOMEN BY LINKING THEM TO IMPERIAL RELIGION AND FAMILIES

WHAT HAPPENED TO WOMEN AFTER THE CONQUEST? NON ROYAL WOMEN HAD NO WAY TO LINK UP TO THE POST COLONIAL STATE EXCEPT THROUGH RAPE, CONCUBINAGE, AND OCCASIONAL MARRIAGE ENTRY TO CATHOLIC NUNNERIES WAS RESTRICTED TO WHITE WOMEN, ALTHOUGH IN MEXICO SOME AZTEC ROYAL WOMEN WENT INTO THEIR OWN CONVENT WOMEN LOST ACCESS TO PROPERTY OWNERSHIP NUCLEAR FAMILY AND PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY REPLACED CLAN TIES

SPANISH WOMEN AND THE CONQUEST WHEN DID THEY COME? – ONLY 308 WOMEN 60% FROM ANDALUCIA – (6.3% OF ALL SP.) WENT TO MEXICO AND SANTO DOMINGO, 30% MARRIED FAVORITE DESTINATIONS? –PERU (954); New Spain (784), Cartagena (173), New Grenada (117), Cuba (69), Santo Domingo (78), Upper Peru (32), Quito (32) Chile (23)

SPANISH WOMENS CONTRIBUTIONS TO LATIN AMERICAN CULTURE? FOODS: WHEAT, OLIVE TREES, RECIPES HELPED ACCULTURATE INDIAN WOMEN TO SPANISH CULTURE AND LEARNED FROM THEM AS WELL BECAME IMPORTANT JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENTS OF FEMALE CONVENTS REPRODUCED CHILDREN WHO INHERITED PROPERTY AND STATUS PARTICIPATED IN THE CREATION OF NEW FAMILY NORMS IN THE NEW WORLD