Aztec Women Essay

Reading Response 1: Aztec Women It is very clear that the power of women in the Aztec Empire shows a steady decay beginning at the time of the Aztec migration. Although the signs of this decline were already showing, it seems to me that the arrival of the Spaniards from overseas was what set it into full motion. It is believed that in early Aztec times, women held supreme authority and royals were determined through matrilineal descent. At the point of the Aztecs’ first 100 years of residence in the central plateau, there was a shift in the organization of their tribe, moving from clans to classes. Goods were redistributed to families in correspondence to their needs. During this time, women were no longer the rulers, but men and women

The church and crown strived to control marriage and reproduction amongst the colonists and aboriginal people. Eventually, race and origin became involved in legal marriages and new definitions for successors were created. For example, the child of a black man and an Indian woman (mestizo) was considered to be illegitimate, and were forced into the lower classes in their society. As time went on, many Indians became enslaved by the colonists. The Law of Burgos, stating that the Spanish officials were required to provide the Indian slaves with food, sleeping arrangements, and clothing, was passed to control this practice. It also declared that beating would not be permitted and that neither women nor children could be forced to work. However, this law was obliterated by the corregimiento, an arrangement of order through officials appointed by the crown. This system demanded services of the women as well as male labor, and led to countless abuses of female labor. Lastly, the Spaniards completely ignored the Indian women’s role in craft production and agricultural work and substituted men into the craft market positions. In trade schools, boys would learn to be craftsmen and teachers, while girls would only learn housekeeping and cooking