HOW DO WE STUDY THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA?

1. 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

2. 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 16TH CENTURY, THEIR CITIES HAD BEEN ABANDONED, AND MANY LIVED IN RURAL SOCIETIES.

3. WOMEN AND THE CONQUEST OF LATIN AMERICA-INDIGENOUS WOMEN MESO-AMERICAA MAP OF MESO-AMERICA http://www.ancientmexico.com/content/map/index.html

4. 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 wife’s 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

5. 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 pregnancies—evidence that women breastfed for 3-4 years to prevent another pregnancy • Women defied Spanish by keeping embroidered dresses

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

7. 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 16TH 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. SPANISH WOMEN AND THE CONQUEST • WHEN DID THEY COME? • 1509-1518 ONLY 308 WOMEN 60% FROM ANDALUCIA • 1520-39 845 (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)

14. SPANISH WOMEN’S 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