Marriage, or Something Like it February 21, 2010

Allyson M. Poska, in her article “When Love Goes Wrong: Getting out of Marriage in Seventeenth Century Spain,” challenged some preconceived notions of relationships, divorce, and pre-marital sex early Spain.  The Catholic Church’s official position on marriage and divorce was fixed during the reformation at the Council of Trent. Through a decree entitled the Tametsi , the Church established a uniform set of rituals meant to be followed across the globe. Before this decree, it had been the practice in Europe that all a couple needed was a “consensual marriage promise and sexual intercourse,” to be legitimately married. Now, however, the Church declared a couple must announce publicly on three separate occasions their intentions to marry at least two weeks prior to the actual wedding. Then the marriage must take place in the presence of a priest, much like the ceremonies we experience today. Divorce was not an option according to Catholic Doctrine, and chastity especially among women was to be closely guarded. The position the Catholic Church took on marriage was not new, and there had been many similar decrees in the past, even among smaller parishes, but it turns out enforcing these decrees was a whole other matter entirely.

                Poska focuses her article on a small diocese in northwestern Spain called Ourense. This was a village far from the governing hand of Rome and the secular powers of Spain. After the reconquest of Spain, most cities were left to govern themselves much as they had before, with some amount of autonomy.  Ourense was no exception and took the decrees sent from Rome with a grain of salt. Tradition after all, is not easily dislodged, especially when it allowed women and men the freedom of choice and the laxity of divorce should one’s partner prove to be undesirable. Though the Tametsi would eventually take hold, it would be some time before communities across the board paid them heed. There were attempts to regulate and enforce the doctrine through means of the Inquisition and “regular Parish visitations,” but with the people and even some of the priests themselves holding onto tradition the task was not easy.

                I think the common belief among historians was that there was a strict moral standard women of early Spain were expected to adhere to, and this might have been the case for the upper class, but the majority of people lived a much freer lifestyle. Sexual activity among couples merely promised to each other was readily accepted and such a promise, whether made in front of a priest or not would hold up in court. That is not to say that the people blatantly ignored the Church’s decrees but that they allowed room for human error within relationships. It was often the case that a couple would make a promise to each other, live together, and have children and then one person decided they, in fact, did not want to marry. In such a case the woman usually went before a judge or priest where the father of any children would pay money for their care and was then absolved of any ties to the woman and vice versa.  After the separation was taken care of both partners were free to marry another.

                Though technically divorce once officially married was not possible, it was often found that couples who had married were living separately with no condemnation from the community. In order to better enforce the Catholic Church’s stance on marriage Episcopal visitors were sent to the towns and investigated couples said to be married but living separately. The married couples would then be forced to return to each other and often faced fines. If someone were to disobey such as order they would possible face denunciation before the inquisition.

                Poska states it is difficult to know exactly how frequently these sorts of situations occurred, but it was clearly generally accepted enough to question the previous assumptions made about relationships in seventeenth century Spain.

The African Slave Trade February 15, 2010

 John Thornton makes some enlightening claims in his article on “Slavery and the African Social Structure.”  It is easy for me to view all forms of slavery as a racial issue, which makes it difficult to understand how Africans helped support the slave trade with the Portuguese. Despite the fact that they would sell slaves from other tribes, to subject another human being to such treatment and willingly help perpetuate the practice is difficult to fathom. Thornton claims that the European view of slavery and the African view of slavery differed a great deal. In Africa, much like in the native cultures of South and Latin America slaves were captured enemies, usually the result of war, but in Africa slaves were also the main source of wealth. Individuals could not buy land in the sense that we understand so “their only recourse was to purchase slaves, which as their personal property could be inherited and generate wealth for them.”  It was not a matter of the color of their skin and inferior intellectual or moral abilities but a means to gain wealth and subdue one’s enemies. Although the idea of owning another human being, whatever the reason is a disgusting and humiliating experience, the slave trade started by the Portuguese and practiced in the “New World” was something else entirely.

A white Portuguese doctor documented the treatment and suffering of slaves in Africa before they even reached Brazil. He wrote “only the imagination can give an idea of the treatment that the slaves suffer when they are put in those libambo,” which was a chain that bound the slaves. He writes of their horrible treatment, lack of proper nourishment and water, and the fact that their “human nature is entirely overlooked.” However among the slaves he notices “charitable and obliging qualities which are not seen among the backlanders or any other free people. Though ten to twelve thousand may reach the coast, only six to seven thousand are taken to Brazil.

Despite racists overtones the lack of humanity and appalling treatment of the Africans was noted by several prominent white members of the community once the slaves that survived reached Brazil.  One clergyman describes the scene at the slave market at Valongo in Rio de Janeiro. He likens the process to that of a “butcher feeling a calf,” with no other thought the physical capabilities and profit the slave can bring. The slaves were bought and sold with no regard to the fact that these men and women were human beings. Some went to work on plantations, others to be domestic slaves, or trained in some occupation in town, but there were some women who experienced a different fate. Slave prostitutes in Brazil were a common place commodity, even though technically attempts were made to impede the practice. Anything that could be done to demoralize or present the slave as subhuman was done. Slaves were renamed with Christian names upon arrival; women were hired out as wet nurses and subject to the every whim of their master, and human beings were treated as livestock. The wealth Spain gained from their new colonies was built on the backs of the people they conquered and the abhorrent practice of slavery.

The Florentine Codex February 8, 2010

What has become known as the Florentine Codex is a history of the Nahuat speaking people, written down by a Franciscan, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun. He began his work around the 1540s by gathering speeches and interviews from the various members of the society, and was written in Nahuatl. Sahagun’s purpose in completing such as arduous task has been explained by his desire to “extirpate idolatry” and preserve the traditions and language of the Mexican Indian culture. Although the Spanish had come to Mesoamerica, the culture had yet to be greatly affected by the notions of Christianity and European society, so what Sahagun recorded is mostly the life of the Mexica Indians pre- Spanish conquest.  

The excerpts from the midwife’s speeches in Book VI have proven to be extremely enlightening in ascertaining the gender roles both males and females were expected to perform. I believe it gives a startlingly clear picture of how that society saw and defined gender. While giving birth, the mother, if she was a noble woman, was attended to by possibly two to three midwives who bathed the mother and cleaned the house. Once the baby was born the midwife “shouted; she gave war cries, which meant the woman had fought a good battle, had become a brave warrior.” This image reinforces the warrior motif so prevalent in that society. Everything, even the smallest gesture or chore could be given meaning relating to some kind of battle. The women, though confined to certain roles were considered warriors within their sphere, battling evil and taking captives in their own way. The gender parallelism that defined Mexica culture can be described in terms of warfare.

Immediately after birth, the child whether male or female was placed into their clearly distinctive and defined roles. The midwife, even as she is cutting off the umbilical cord gives a speech to the child explaining their fate and duty. The male would die either in sacrifice to the gods or in battle, and his umbilical cord was entrusted to the warriors to be buried field “where warfare was practiced.” The female’s umbilical cord was buried by the hearth, to signify that she would remain at home and not wonder off. The male’s destiny lay in battle, where he would perform his duty to the sun, and the girl’s heart was to remain at home, fighting her battles with a broom and a loom.

While women were expected to remain at home and perform typical “women’s work,” I believe it is more about how society perceived the work. It is clear by the midwife’s speech that neither the male nor the female was considered more important than the other, and that the female by staying home was not in any way inferior. She was a brave warrior, as evident by the midwife’s cry of victory after a birth. Women did not stay at home because they were believed to be incapable of anything else, they remained at home to perform the necessary duties that ensured the survival of their community and the safety of their husbands.