Gender Roles In Aztec Society

Marriage, while it was a step into adulthood and womanhood, was also just another way in which women were controlled by men. In Aztec society, marriage provided no equality among the sexes, since newlyweds would always move in with the groom’s family and the males could take as many secondary wives or concubines as they could sustain (Coe and Koontz 198). This sort of behavior denotes that females and males did not stand at the same level when it came to marriage rights since this was a patrilocal society. The ability of a male to take on multiple wives, also provided them with an irregular amount of power over the women in their marriage. By being patrilocal the Aztec society gave a higher importance to the males in a family and diminished

The following excerpt is from the Florentine Codex and it describes what a father would tell his maturing daughter, “Even if the humble nobility is in misery, look after it well, dedicate yourself well to the very womanly task, the spindle, the weaving stick. Open your eyes wide as to how to become an artisan, how to be a feather worker, how to make designs by embroidering, how to choose colors, how to apply colors, like your sisters, your ladies, our ladies, the noblewomen. Observe closely, apply yourself well to the combing, the warping, the measuring. Do not fail to know, do not be negligent, do not be careless,” (Restall, Matthew, Sousa, and Terraciano 210). Essentially what the father told his daughter was that she has to dedicate herself to becoming an excellent artisan and that weaving was going to be the central focus of her life. By doing this the father is reducing the possibilities of his daughter going against the social paradigm and is forcing her to start adjusting to the gender rules of the society. In response to the conversation between the father and the daughter the mother also decides to speak to the daughter and she says, “‘And as how you are to go, to walk, to come upon the road, you should not lower or raise your head; it means imprudence. You are to go directly. Also, you are not to act shamefully or to cover your mouth. You are not to stare or to become a firefly. Walk with great tranquility. Go, walk very peacefully,’” (Restall, Matthew, Sousa, and Terraciano 213). Basically the mother is micromanaging how the daughter walks and is telling her that she has to follow all these rule. My doing this the mother is demonstrating the strict norms that women in the society have to follow in order to belong and not be rejected. The two behaviors that the parents