Gender and power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Gender and power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica
University of Texas Press, 2000
- : hc
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-259) and index
Contents of Works
- Gender, performance, power, and representation
- Negotiating sex and gender in formative Mesoamerica
- Narratives of gender among the Classic Maya
- Transforming gender: Classic to Postclassic Maya
- Becoming human: body and person in Aztec Tenochtitlan
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Gender was a fluid potential, not a fixed category, before the Spaniards came to Mesoamerica. Childhood training and ritual shaped, but did not set, adult gender, which could encompass third genders and alternative sexualities as well as "male" and "female." At the height of the Classic period, Maya rulers presented themselves as embodying the entire range of gender possibilities, from male through female, by wearing blended costumes and playing male and female roles in state ceremonies. This landmark book offers the first comprehensive description and analysis of gender and power relations in prehispanic Mesoamerica from the Formative Period Olmec world (ca. 1500-500 BC) through the Postclassic Maya and Aztec societies of the sixteenth century AD. Using approaches from contemporary gender theory, Rosemary Joyce explores how Mesoamericans created human images to represent idealized notions of what it meant to be male and female and to depict proper gender roles. She then juxtaposes these images with archaeological evidence from burials, house sites, and body ornaments, which reveals that real gender roles were more fluid and variable than the stereotyped images suggest. Rosemary A.
Joyce is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
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