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.
Those excerpts from Book VI definitely seem to support the view we’ve been looking at in class, that of the woman doing “war” at home. I also found it interesting the ritual of the midwife, and the locations for burying the umbilical cord and placenta. I agree that the excerpts support the idea of gender parallelism, and a society where the roles of men and women were different, but each was seen as contributing significantly to the cosmos and order of things. Just as men were battling on the battlefield, women were waging war against the forces of disorder in the household. The midwife accounts definitely confirm that viewpoint.
Do you really think that there is equal treatment in discussing the male and female after birth and celebrating each’s births?
The male’s is discussed with words and comparisons of glorification, while the midwife emphasizes weariness when describing the female.
Is this not hierarchical? While the women’s work was of course deemed important to the society, do you not think the men were considered more important/revered?
Once again it is important to note that while Sahagun’s writings give a glimpse of pre-colonization by the Spanish, his work was translated from male members of the noble class. It is their version of the female aspect of life. I do like how their are little hints throughout his work and would love to know whether it was Sahagun’s doing or the natives.
Looking at it from a different viewpoint, the midwife explained how hard the woman’s work was, yet does not place that much emphasis on how hard the man’s battles would be. This in of itself shows how hard the women would work in their daily “battles”, which to me, means that the person who works and battles the hardest, contributes the most to society.