Parallelism, Power, and Practice: Women in 15th-18th Century Mesoamerican Households Public

Abstract

As Hernán Cortés and his small legion of Spanish conquistadors invaded Mesoamerica (a region that ranges from present-day Mexico to Honduras), they brought with them genocidal violence and the desire to force the Spanish culture on the indigenous people of this area. As the Spanish Conquest continued, the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries were a time of immense change and hardship for the indigenous people of Mesoamerica, especially indigenous women. This thesis contributes to the historiographical understanding of women’s power during this difficult period as they made the best of a society that built off gender inequalities in the pre-Hispanic period and enforced a heightened sense of patriarchy as it manifested in Spanish culture. While many previous scholars have focused more singularly on how women were subordinated by the imposition of the Spanish Conquest or actively found ways to exert power, this thesis hopes to contribute to a growing body of work that demonstrates the complexity of indigenous women’s experiences in Mesoamerica. In this paper, I suggest that Mesoamerican women created, reinforced, and cultivated places of power within the household whether in the pre-Hispanic or colonial periods. Indeed, even during the substantial changes brought by Spanish colonialism, women continued certain pre-Hispanic practices within domestic work and marriage while adapting to and adopting aspects of the Spanish colonial system as they exerted power and agency to sustain, protect, and serve their communities, families, and selves.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Historiography ................................................................................................ 1

Chapter 1: Women in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Households and Domestic Work ........ 13

Chapter 2: Women and Marital Practice in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica ............................. 33

Chapter 3: Continuity and Change: Indigenous Women in Colonial Mexico ...................... 42

The Colonial Period, The Household, and Domestic Work ...................................................... 44

The Colonial Period and Marital Practices .............................................................................. 58

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 64

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 67

Primary Sources ........................................................................................................................ 67

Secondary Sources .................................................................................................................... 68

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	History
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	History, Latin American
Mot-clé	Women Indigenous History
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Yanna Yannakakis, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Emory University Dr. Karen Stolley, Emory University

Dernière modification

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Parallelism, Power, and Practice: Women in 15th-18th Century Mesoamerican Households ()	2025-04-08 10:22:21 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions