The Aztecs and the Ideology of Male Dominance

Nash, June

doi:10.1086/493612

Cited by 75 publications

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“…For example, June Nash (1978) has argued that there was an ideology of male dominance over women within the Aztec empire, which she links to an Aztec imperial focus on warfare. Alliances could be made or broken through marriage, which made it a significant tool in imperial consolidation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Till Death Do Us Part

Diel

2007

Ancient Mesoam

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Though infrequent, the inclusion of marriage statements in Aztec histories reveals the political nature of matrimony for elite Nahua rulers in Late Postclassic-period central Mexico. The rules governing these elite marriages were so standardized that unconventional marriages particularly stand out as strong political declarations. This article focuses on four case studies-two marriages that violated already established political alliances and two marriages in which aggressions were taken out against the royal wives. These case studies reveal shifting alliances and political maneuvering that are not as clearly evident when looking strictly at Conquest history. Ultimately, these marriages illuminate increasing political tensions within the Aztec empire. Moreover, they reveal the potential, though largely hidden, role of noblewomen in Aztec politics. Clearly, the political stakes in these unconventional marriages were high; in the four cases studies presented here, each ends with the death of one of the spouses.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Till Death Do Us Part

Diel

2007

Ancient Mesoam

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“…Tribute is an important part of increased sociopolitical complexity (Service 1971:133-169). These sociopolitical changes that accompany increased complexity, tend to favour men who gain greater control over aspects of daily life (admittedly a complex issue, but see Musisi 1991;Nash 1978;Silverblatt 1988).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descent of Iron Age Farmers in Southern Africa During the Last 2000 Years

Badenhorst

2010

Afr Archaeol Rev

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Ethnographies from southern Africa indicate that patrilineal descent dominates Bantu-language speakers. With great differences in material culture suggesting sociopolitical and economical changes between the earliest farmers that settled in the region in the first millennium AD and those described from ethnographies, it is very likely that descent patterns did not remain static over the course of nearly 2000 years. With major sociopolitical and economical changes, it is not surprising to suggest that other forms of descent also existed amongst farmers of southern Africa in the past. Although it remains ambiguous to establish descent patterns from archaeological remains in the absence of human burials, in this paper I investigate herding practices and the nature of farming as ways to infer descent. The results indicate that at least matrilineal descent was common in southern Africa before the arrival of ancestral Nguni and Sotho-Tswana speakers in the region during the Late Iron Age in the second millennium AD. Other forms of descent were likely present alongside matrilineal descent during the Early and Middle Iron Ages, when widespread evidence for patrilineal descent is absent.Résumé Les tout premiers fermiers du premier millénaire et début du deuxième millénaire A.D. (Âge du Fer Ancien et Moyen) en Afrique australe étaient probablement des communautés matrilinéaires. Cette proposition se base sur une considération des pratiques d'élevage, sur la nature des systèmes agricoles, et la distribution des groupes matrilinéaires contemporains. Cela étant dit, les études ethnographiques indiquent que les groupes de langues bantoues vivant dans la région se distinguent par un mode de filiation patrilinéaire. Je suggère que ce système de descendance est un trait qui s'est développé lors du deuxième millénnaire A.D. (Âge du Fer Récent) en Afrique australe, une période marquée par l'arrivée des groupes ancestraux Nguni et Tswana dans la région. Cette interprétation diffère de celle articulée par Thomas Huffman dans son modèle du 'Central Cattle Pattern', qui avance qu'un mode dominant de filiation patrilinéaire existait déjà en Afrique australe durant le premier millénaire A.D., quand les premières communautés d'agriculteurs ont commencé à occuper la région.

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“…June Nash (97), writing on the Aztecs, suggested that women's activities in the public realm declined as the Empire matured. June Nash (97), writing on the Aztecs, suggested that women's activities in the public realm declined as the Empire matured.…”

Section: 'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Women in States

Silverblatt¹

1988

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Slave, come to my service!" "Yes, my master. Yes?" "I'll fall in love with a woman." "fall in love, my master. Fall in love! Who falls in love with a woman forgets his griefs and sorrows." "No, slave. I won't fall in love with a woman!" "Don't love, my master. Don't love.Woman is a snare, a trap, a dark pit.Woman is a sharp steel blade slitting a man's throat in darkness." Dialog between a master and his slave; Sumer, 10th century Be (12:23)The division of labor [in tribal society] is purely primitive, between the sexes only. The man fights in the wars, goes hunting and fishing, procures the raw materials of food and the tools necessary for doing so. The woman looks after the house and the preparation of food and clothing, cooks, weaves, sews. They are each master in their own sphere: the man in the forest , the woman in the house. Engels, 1972Engels, [1884, p.218The overthrow of mother right [matrilineality I was the world historical defe at of the fe male sex. The man took command in the home also; the woman was degraded and reduced to servitude; she became the slave of his lust and a mere instrument for the production of children.Engels [1884], 28:120 (emphasis in the original) That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me' Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a wuman? I cuuld wurk as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it-and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have born thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? ...If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! Sojourner Truth [1851], 149:94--95 427 0084-6570/88/1015-0427$02.00 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1988.17:427-460. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by University of Washington on 02/05/15. For personal use only. Quick links to online content Further ANNUAL REVIEWS SILVERBLATTThe problem,"women and the state," has deep, ambivalent, and subversive roots . I It emerged as an issue in the anthropology of the 1970s, when political and economic challenges to Western dominion began to invade scholarly consciousness. Feminist scholars called for a new look at the official record of past and present that had for so long denied women a voice and vision. They retrieved Sojourner Truth (third epigraph). Putting conventional wisdom on notice, fe minists began to tear apart its categories, which had muffled, trivialized, and degraded women's contributions to social process. While disturbed about how these categories had become the common sense of social science, feminist anthropologists also demanded that their discipline ...

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The Aztecs and the Ideology of Male Dominance

Cited by 75 publications

References 0 publications

Till Death Do Us Part

Till Death Do Us Part

Descent of Iron Age Farmers in Southern Africa During the Last 2000 Years

Women in States

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