Impact of the Spanish Invasion on Andean Women

This week in class we discussed how important gender parallelism was in the culture of the Andeans. Everything was divided into distinct, completely separate male and female spheres. Men and women were seen as completely opposite as represented by the separate spheres that each sex represented such as sun and moon, lightning and rain, morning and evening, and sky and earth. These views worked for these people and constituted a nice flow for the workings of everyday life.

Lines of descent were according to sex. Daughters were linked primarily to their mothers and sons to their fathers, forming matrilines and patrilines. Likewise, surnames were passed on from one gender parent to the same gender child. There were also parallel lines of inheritance where the mother passed down her lands to her daughter upon marriage and death. These lands received by women, remained the woman’s own property upon marriage. Effective labor units involved both the male and female working together on different tasks within the home and community. There were distinct line of these male and female tasks that were essential for the maintenance and reproduction of the household, society, and the empire itself.

However, everything changed when the Spanish invaded the Andes. The Spaniards strove to immediately uproot everything of the Andean society for the sole purpose of their own wealth and prestige. According to Spanish law, women were legally minors. In order for women to obtain goods or property, they had to obtain permission from their male “tutors”, or husbands, and could not dispose of it on their own. On the other hand, land received by women from their mothers or anyone could be sold by their husbands without their permission. If that wasn’t demeaning enough, women were sometimes locked up by colonial administrators and forced to weave and spin for their own profit. They were essentially used as slaves not only for economic gain but for sexual use also. While women were seen essentially as equals sexually in the pre-Spanish invasion and permitted to engage in sexually activity, as long as both parties were willing, they were now seen as sex-slaves and concubines to the Spanish conquistadors. Many of the men that did not abandon their families because of the harsh conditions of the militia service took advantage of this new society of male dominance. They now had a sense of ownership of their female relatives, essentially pawning them to the intrusive, destructive Spaniards.

It is really sad to see the decent that women underwent during the invasion of the Spaniards. Everything was working cohesively for them and their families until the Spanish turned everything upside-down. Women equality is supposed to constantly move forward and it is disheartening to see it take a huge step back for the furtherance of Spain and its greedy conquistadors.

Week 1

This week’s reading by Mary Elizabeth Perry, With Stones and Roasting Spits: Moriscas and a Multidisciplinary Methodology for Studying Women in Golden Age Spain, was very thought provoking a really opened my mind to people of different beliefs and why they have those beliefs. It also got me thinking as to how much I judge other cultures and presume I know why they do certain things, when in actuality, there is no way to understand pure motives and beliefs unless you are an actual member of that culture or group. More specifically, the issue Perry brings up about women in certain cultures that wear veils. She writes that in the 16th century, Christian authorities banned Moriscan women from wearing their veils. These authorities believed they were doing the women a favor by freeing them from the men’s authority and control. The Christians and so many people in today’s world view veils as some kind of restraint and use of power by men. While much of that may be true, there is so much more to it than that. Those women who wore veils, no doubt, felt most comfortable with one on her head for personal modesty preferences. It also held symbolic cultural significance for the women who were being forced to put away their own identity and customs and conform to a different, unwanted Christian culture. The veils signified tradition that their hearts continued to cling to and was a way for the women to silently show their opposition to the persecution by the Christians.

Today, when we look at pictures of veiled Muslim women in the Middle East, we feel sorry for them just because they do not fit our contemporary views of how women should dress; sexy. We subconsciously think that those women wish that they could dress more “fashionable” or “beautiful” but are restrained by their domineering husbands. While it is true that Muslim women dress almost completely covered because of their religion, which is male dominated, it is their culture, they do not know anything different, and it is what they are most comfortable in.

This article has really got me thinking about how I compare other cultures to my own and judge the “rightness”, so to speak, of the things they do by my own traditions and the way I was taught. It caused me to broaden my views of other cultures and not to judge them “right or wrong” according to my beliefs, but instead to consider different worldviews and try to understand where they are coming from.