17. 1000-1600 Gender Dynamics in New Worlds

The power women held in several ancient societies often goes ignored when considering ancient global societies. In some cases, women played vital religious, ceremonial, and sometimes government roles. They were the backbone of the domestic sphere in many cases and upheld the empires they lived in through their work.

​Across great swaths of ocean from the Afro-Eurasia world entire civilizations were thriving in what today we know as Mesoamerica, Oceania, and South Africa. The civilizations were isolated from one another and the rest of the world, so cultural diffusion did not play a major role here. But interestingly, a lot of the similar cultural developments seen in the "Old World" are also found in Mesoamerica and Oceania. For those in the "Old World'' these territories were unknown, but technology was developing at a rate that would allow for exploration and sustained connection to far away places.

Oceania:
People of Pacific Oceania created enduring cultures that didn't have large cities, states or empires. They settled in the islands of southeast Asia, Micronesia, and Melanesia as late as 50 thousand years ago. Polynesia, which goes further into the Pacific was likely unsettled until closer to 3,500 years ago. Societies in general were arranged around patriarchal chiefdoms ruled by councils, so chiefs didn’t have much of an elevated status, but some islands, like the Hawaiians, had powerful patriarchal rulers with thousands of warriors at their disposal. 

Melanesian women saw strict gender stratification, where Polynesian women, further out at sea had greater political influence. Women in Oceania were, like the rest of the world, considered dangerous and foul, especially during menstruation. The word “taboo” is derived from the Polynesian word for menstruation or, “tapu,” which means a holy prohibition– something not to be touched. Whether this was intended as a condemnation or an elevation, is lost to the history of colonization. Like most of the world, Oceania peoples idealized motherhood as nurturing, sheltering, cleansing, fertile, and chaste. They simultaneously displayed a sense of terror toward the dangerous, mystical, and carnal feminine qualities. One scholar observed, "Sensualism, eroticism, and a high level of sexual activity are actively cultivated throughout the area. Homosexuality is unstigmatized. Relations between men and women are relatively harmonious and mutually respectful.” 

traditional Polynesian mat, wikimedia commons

depiction of the goddess Hina, Bridgeman Images

As everywhere, Polynesian women were heavily involved in productive labor including food production, and making mats and clothes. Agricultural labor was divided between the sexes. In some places, men cleared land and women planted. While in other places, crops were divided by gender: men maintaining cash crops like bananas and women tending staple crops for sustenance. Aboriginal women labored in the water all day, fishing and gathering underwater roots. On the islands of Hawaii, for example, women built offshore dams to trap fish by the shore and provide their community a consistent food supply. They labored daily in their canoes and on the beaches all while caring for babies. ​

​Religious life in Oceania was polytheistic. Gods and goddesses had intricate relationships that impacted human life. One common miss throughout Polynesian cultures, was about a woman named Hina. She established women's work. In the story, she falls for a handsome chief from faraway lands and swims to him across the ocean abandoning her family. In another version she is seduced by eel while bathing and the demi-God Maui intervenes by killing the eel. She buries her lover and a coconut tree grew up from it. The Maori in New Zealand had a similar story where the eel was chopped into so many pieces, it turned into the various species of eel. In her grief, Hina fled to the moon where she remained. A common Oceanic belief is that the moon is the true husband of all women. 

Polynesian peoples definitely made it to the west coast of South America and brought back sweet potatoes and other goods, but it would be later people from distant lands to create a sustained connection across these cultures.

---

Teotihuacan city-state, wikimedia commons

Little Known Mesoamerican Cultures:
The Americas have been settled for tens of thousands of years by human beings. After likely prehistoric crossings on a land bridge, city-states and empires thrived as far back as 2000 CE under the Maya, Olmecs, Chavin, and the Norte Chico– preceding the Aztecs and the Incas by a millennia.

Without many of the large domesticated animals found in the Old World, labor and production would function differently here. Like much of the ancient Old World, they practiced polytheistic religions featuring male and female gods and goddesses, and many who defied the binary. They had writing, a robust calendar, social structures, systems of exchange, and robust pyramids and city centers. And as we’ve learned elsewhere in this series, wherever these standards of “civilization” exist– so do expectations for women. 

While much is known about the Aztec and Incan gender dynamics, less is known about some of the major empires and city states that preceded them like the Maya, Teotihuacan, Chavin, Olmec, and Moche.

The Mayan people constructed city-states that were home to up to 50 thousand people built as far back as 2000 BCE in present day Guatemala and Yucatán region of Mexico. They thrived up until 900 CE making important discoveries in math and navigation, recording historic events in writing.

Teotihuacan was the largest city-state in Mesoamerica, in modern day Mexico. It was home to around 100 thousand people and boasted massive temples including the Pyramid of the Sun, possibly believed to be the site of creation itself. Very little is known about how the city was governed because they did not have dynastic art and writing like Maya did. This great city got its name from the Aztec empire that would follow it calling it "the city of the gods."

---

section of wall from Lady Cao's tomb, flickr

In the Andes mountains, several distinct cultures emerged: the Chavin, Tiwanaku, Wari, and Moche civilizations. The Chavin didn’t develop an empire, but rather left a ritualistic cult that used hallucinations. They left us some pretty epic paintings of jaguar-humans! The Tiwanaku and Wari lived near each other on the interior but didn’t mingle. They left impressive agricultural and irrigation systems as well as highways that the Inca would later build on. 

A little more is known about gender dynamics and in Moche civilization, which flourished between 100 and 800 CE. They had complex irrigation systems that grew maize, beans, squash, and cotton. They also used hallucinogens in their ritualistic practices. They had elaborate rituals where shaman-rulers would mediate between the world of humankind and that of the gods. They practiced human sacrifice, usually drawn from prisoners of war. There's an absence of written text, so a lot of what we know about the Moche people comes from grave sites for the elite, which boast jewels and goods to rival the Ancient Egyptian grave sites. Their ceramic pottery have portraits of lords and rulers and images from the lives of common people. These include a erotic or sexual encounters between men and women, as well as gods with humans. 

“Lady Cao” as she became known, was a remarkable woman whose gravesite was uncovered in 2005. She was clearly of the elite as her burial resembled that of sites of other male rulers. She was ornamented in tattoos, nose rings, and other jewels and had grave goods including jewels, weaving tools, and a vessel depicting a nursing mother. She died in her twenties in childbirth and was carefully wrapped in hundreds of yards of cotton strips. Scholars believe she was a ruler because she had the same “masculine” images of war, staffs that were symbols of authority, and many weapons to accompany her in the afterlife. It's hard to know if she was a ruler in her own right, or just a relative of a wealthy person. The case for her being a ruler in her own right has been made stronger by the discovery of eight or more other sites also featuring elite Moche women. Experts believe that society was relatively decentralized– typically great conditions for female leadership. ​

---

Depiction of Mama Huaco, wikimedia commons

Inca:
Women held power in Inca society as queen consorts and some wielding power in their own right. In fact, the Incan empire traces its roots to a woman—Mama Huaco, the first Quoya or Queen. She ruled the empire outright. Other Quoyas that followed held varying degrees of power as the primary wife of the king, under the title “Queen of all women.” Quoyas presided over the kingdom in their husband’s absence, and acted as tiebreaker when the leadership was stalemated. Outside the heart of the empire, women even became “Kurakas,” or tribal leaders. 

But noble women having power does not mean equality of the sexes. Quite the contrary.

The Incan Empire had a strict hierarchy for women. The queen was at the top followed by the king's secondary wives. Next were noblewomen. Following them were a group of religious women called the Quechua Aclla Cuna, or “Virgins of the Sun.” They were a strictly female religious order, like a nunnery, that worshiped the moon goddess. These temple convents drew thousands of young girls around 8-10 years old who were beautiful and talented. They prepared food for rituals, maintained the sacred fire, and wove. The convents were managed by matrons known as “Mama Cuna.” The Coya Pasca was a noblewoman who ruled over them all and was believed to be the earthly consort of the Sun God. The girls served for almost a decade before they were sent off to one of three paths: became victims of sacrifice, became concubines, or wives of noblemen. ​

---

Statue of the Goddess Cihuateto, wikimedia commons

Outside these convents, women could inherit land and manage their finances. Concubinage and polygamy was common, but even secondary wives could manage their own finances and households. One secondary wife had 4,000 homes and over 300 servants to manage. But most women were commoners and labored as farmers, weavers, and housewives. Cloth was key to the economy, and thus women’s work was the backbone. Woven cloths recorded the historic chronicles of the empire– and thus women were the primary authors of Incan history. 

Aztecs:
The Aztec empire was loosely connected and unstable… not a great place traditionally, for women to thrive. The empire had massive cities with temples almost 200 feet high. 

In the domestics sphere, Aztec women cooked, cleaned, spun, wove cloth, and participated in ritualistic activities. Outside the home, they served in palaces, as priestesses in temples, traders and craftswomen in markets, and teachers in schools.

Religion for the Aztec was incredibly bloody, involving the human sacrifice of conquered peoples. The Aztec believed that their patron deity required human blood to keep the world from catastrophe. While there was an emphasis on gender parallelism, men occupied the highest ranks of Aztec religious life. Interestingly, some rituals involved “rebirth” of priests who covered themselves in blood and emerged from a sort of vagina. Women played a secondary role in public religious ritual. 

Despite the patriarchal nature of the growing empire, almost half of the spiritual calendar was dedicated to goddesses– perhaps harkening to their more egalitarian past. The Aztecs had numerous goddesses identified with fertility, nourishment, and agriculture – reflections, perhaps because these symbols held a more elevated status in the past. Interestingly, in Aztec mythology, the Earth Mother’s son killed his sister the Moon Goddess. In his rampage for power the son scattered her children. Is this the story of the patriarchal takeover in Aztec culture?

Eventually, Aztec female deities such as Coyolxauhqui, Coatlicue, and mainly Cihuateteo were required to be tended by women only. Priestesses conducted all rituals, from collecting offerings to developing complex practices. Cihuateteo had an essential role as the goddess of women who died birthing, the equivalent of men dying on battlefields and known as “Women’s War.” Midwives had a crucial role in Mesoamerican societies. Fertility and birthing were highly appreciated and revered and demanded complex religious rituals conducted only by priestesses. 

---

Women were routinely sacrificed in Aztec rituals. For example, every December, a woman was dressed as the Earth goddess and decapitated and her head presented to a priest. In June, a woman was dressed as the Goddess of Corn was sacrificed. In August, a woman chosen to represent the Mother of the Gods was decapitated and her skin was then ripped from her and worn by a priest in the following ceremony. 

Despite these horrors, women's roles were essential for the empire. Some were emperors' mothers who significantly influenced political and religious spheres. Others were central to consummate alliances. Fixed marriages were the norm for noble women who had no saying in their unions. 

Bantu Migrations:
Across the ocean in Africa, gender dynamics could not have been more different. 5,500 years ago the Bantu migration moved West Africans (speaking Bantu languages) southward into Africa. Among these people, gender relations varied greatly, but generally there was some equity and shared burdens within relationships.

Africa was historically underpopulated, so birth and rearing healthy children was essential to society's success. The effect of the value placed on birth was that women who birthed and cared for children were given a great deal of respect. Families centered around grandmothers, who provided the council and support to help the family succeed. 

The Bantu were matrilineal, passing wealth through the mother’s line and society was run in a heterarchy with leaders with shorter reach and councils governing. Queens are all over the traces of African records we have. In  some cases they were so powerful they had the authority to condemn the King to death, sometimes even when the king managed the government. Africa’s earliest empires were run matrilineally. In the Congo and Cameroons, women managed the market places. In Nigeria, a women’s council advised the Queen. 

The existence of queens does not mean society was egalitarian. In some cases African queens kept male concubines and killed them after sexual relations. The last Queen of the Ashanti, Nana Yaa Asantewaa, who ruled on the Gold Coast of Africa in modern day Ghana, was known to wipe out her entire male harem every once and a while. 

Empire creation and diffusion of Islam and Christianity into Africa led to more hierarchies and less hierarchy– placing influence on male supremacy. Elite women kept their status, while poorer women lost their respect within their clans. 

Conclusion:
Gender dynamics in these places were complex and varied. At the point of contact, as Europeans moved into the Americas, Oceania, South Africa, and other lesser known places to the “Old World” whatever gender dynamics existed there became disrupted. 
​
[Setting up the Inquiry] By the end of this era, so much remained in question. What parts of indigenous culture could survive contact? How would women navigate the sometimes harsher gendered expectations Europeans had?

BACK

NEXT

Draw your own conclusions

Learn how to teach with inquiry.

Power Point for Teachers

Include the basics in what you already teach.

Bibliography

Alwan, Christine, "Dependence on or the Subordination of Women? Examining the Political, Domestic, and Religious Roles of Women in Mesoamerican, Andean, and Spanish Societies in the 15th Century" (2013). Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies. 18.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/wgs_essay/18. 

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Chosen Women." Encyclopedia Britannica, February 15, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chosen-Women.

"Gender and Religion: Gender and Oceanic Religions ." Encyclopedia of Religion. . Encyclopedia.com. (June 22, 2022). https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gender-and-religion-gender-and-oceanic-religions. 

Groeneveld, Emma. "Women in the Viking Age." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified July 11, 2018. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1251/women-in-the-viking-age/.

Hunt, Sarah A., "Women of the Incan Empire: Before and After the Conquest of Peru" (2016). Student Research. 5.
https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/hist_studentresearch/5. 

Martins, Kim. "Polynesian Navigation & Settlement of the Pacific." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified August 07, 2020. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1586/polynesian-navigation--settlement-of-the-pacific/. 

Miles, Rosalind. The Women’s History of the World. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988.

Saidi, Christine. "Women in Precolonial Africa." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. 27 Oct. 2020; Accessed 29 Jul. 2022. https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-259. 

​​Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.

Primary AUTHOR:

Kelsie Brook Eckert

Primary Reviewer:

Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval

Consulting Team

Editors

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant
Professor of History at Maryville University. 

Chloe Gardner, Consultant
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University

Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant
Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

​Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval
PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University

Amy Flanders
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Ron Kaiser
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Chris Canfield
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy

Reviewers

Ancient:
Dr. Kristin Heineman
Professor of History at Colorado State University
Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon
Professor of History at Wilson College
Sarah Stone
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University
Medieval:
Dr. Katherine Koh
Professor of History at La Sierra University
Dr. Jonathan Couser
Professor of History at Plymouth State University
Dr. Shahla Haeri
Professor of History at Boston University 
Lauren Cole
PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University
Modern:
Dr. Jack Gronau
Professor of History at Northeastern University