The Nahua calli of ancient Mexico: household, family, and gender

1
The Nahua calli of ancient Mexico household,
family, and gender
It is simply untrue as far as we can yet tell
that there was ever a time or place where the
complex family was the universal background to
the ordinary lives of ordinary people.Peter
Laslett, Family Household in Past Time, 1972
2
A neolithic, complex household from Ancient
Mexico (1540) 13 people, 4 generations, 5
marital units
3
1540 4 lateral extensions, Only 1 complete
conjugal family 3 incomplete (2 widowschildren)
4
1990, 450 years later An example of a
patrilateral household from rural Morelos (5
conjugal unions)
(not kin)
5
Competing theories of family history (regarding
co-residence)

• Evolutionary, 4 stages
• Foragers co-residence not limited to family or
  kin
• Neolithic, agriculturalists compound
  multi-family
• Ancient to early modern complex, extended
  family
• Modern nuclear family
• High mortality simplified family structures in
  the past (Peter Laslett, 1972) It is simply
  untrue as far as we can yet tell that there was
  ever a time or place where the complex family was
  the universal background to the ordinary lives of
  ordinary people.

6
There once was a place, where the complex family,
the classical family of Western nostalgia, was
the rule.

• Nahua agrarian villages, early 16th
  centuryuniversal early marriage (lt13 years
  female)high mortality (e0 lt20 years)
• Household system joint, complex, or compound?
• Gender relations parallelism symmetry or
  hierarchy subordination?

7
Source The Book of Tributes S. L. Cline (1993)

• Census listings made by Aztec scribes, writing in
  Nahuatl, according to prehispanic conventions
  (translated by Cline).

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(No Transcript)
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Museo de Antropología, Mexico City Here is the
home of one named...
translated
microdata
...transcribed
10
Nahua population and land register
Darkened faces dead
Lines are used to connect kin rather than to
separate households
Codex Santa María de Asunción, 1550
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Cemithualtin (those around a patio) the
importance of kin

• Nahua households (cemithualtin) those who
  live in a house people who live in only one
  house those from a patio, etc.
• 99 live with kin 47 as spouse or children of
  head 52 as extended kin of head.
• 1 have no kin ties with the head (3 orphans,
  20 servants and 1 Indian slave).

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Table 1. Explicit and inferred kin relationships
with 19 occurrencesHuitzillan and
Quauhchichinollan villages, circa 1540

• Relationship Frequency (total n 2,486)
• child 596 mother-in-law 40
• spouse 316 brother-in-laws spouse 38
• head 315 sister-in-law 37
• brother 158 daughter-in-law 36
• brothers spouse 88 nephew 34
• son-in-law 77 brother-in-laws child 33
• brother-in-law 76 sisters child 33
• sister 67 mother 26
• grandchild 56 cousin 19
• brothers child 51 niece 19

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Household and family definitions

• Household classes with only 1 conjugal family
  nuclear pa, ma, /or childextended some
  non-nuclear, unmarried kin
• Household classifications for 2 conjugal
  familiesJoint - families connected by kin of
  same sex, under single headComplex -
  tangled, intricate, diverse, multipleCompound -
  fusion, blending or amalgam of parts
  hierarchy

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5 conjugal families, 4 generations, 3 married
brothers, 2 widows, 1 unmarried woman and a boy
15
Table 2. Multiple households were the norm among
rural Nahua

• Household type Households (Percent) Individuals
• Simple 13.4 7.2
• No children 1.9 0.5
• Children 11.5 6.7
• Extended 13.4 10.1
• Upward 1.9 1.0
• Downward 0.3 0.2
• Lateral 6.7 4.9
• Combinations 4.5 3.9
• Multiple 72.1 81.1
• Upward 0.3 0.3
• Downward 15.1 14.6
• Lateral 26.3 26.6
• Combinations 30.4 39.5
• Polygamous 1.0 1.6
• Total (n) 312 2,486
• Illegible (n) 3 17

16
Nahuatl sense of jointdiffers from classic
definition of family historians Joint -
families connected by kin of same sex, under
single head

• They pay the tribute jointly.
• They all produce what they eat jointly.
• Their wives make it jointly.
• They just do their tribute together.
• They just share the tribute.
• They just do it jointly.
• He just feeds them all as a unit.
• All of them do the tribute jointly.
• They just produce his tribute jointly.

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The different houses
Sahagún, Códice Florentino, 1580
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Colotic calli It means it is unpretentious, a
lowly house.
Commoners house(choça o cabaña)
14 meters square
Sahagún, Códice Florentino, 1580
19
Icnocalli (casa humilde)the unpretentious
house, or the house of the humble orthe poor.
Sahagún, Códice Florentino, 1580
20
Excavated residences those of one patio
M.E. Smith, Archaeological Research (1992)
21
those of one patio note grouped ground-level
houses
M.E. Smith, Archaeological Research (1992)
22
Table 3a. Headship designation by frequency of
occurrence. District identities of households
and head

• freq Key Explanation
• 165 H Here is the home of ... Here is ....'s
  home.
• 47 R Here is the householder named ...
• 39 S Here is the home of some people...
  The household head is named... or The head
  of the household is named... or The
  householder is named...
• 25 T The tribute payer is named...
• 20 . illegible
• 6 m migrant (Here are some people
  who...came from afar)
• 6 G one who governs (tlatoani) one named
  ... is in charge
• 1 b one who belongs to the tlatoani
• 1 g Here is the one who guards things for
  the tlatoani
• 1 n Here is a nephew...
• 2 C Here is a tribute collector...
  ...tribute boss
• 1 a Here is a goodly maiden...

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Table 3b. Headship designation by order of
appearance in district

• Here is an altepetl named Huitzillan (H1-H41)
• GbH.HHHHHH.HHH.HHH.HHHHHHHmHmH.HHHHm.HHHH
• Quauhchichinollan people (Q1-Q66)
• GgRSSSSSSSSTSSSSSHHHHHSSSSRSSSSSSSHSTTTTSSTT.TTTTT
  T.TTTTTTTT.T.TTT
• District illegible (Q67-Q135)
• GHRRRRRHHRR.RRRRRR.RRRHHRRRRRRRR.RSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH
  HHn.HHHH.mHHHHHHHHH
• Tlacochcalco (H1-H18)
• HHHHHHHHHHCHHHHHHH
• Coloteopan (H19-H 35)
• GHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
• District illegible (H36-H62)
• GHHHHHHHHHHH.HHHHHmHHHH.HHm
• Xanyacac (H63-H72)
• CHHHHHHHH
• ...cenhuitzco (H73-H139)
• SSSSRRRRRRRRRRRRR.RRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHHHHHHH
  HHHHHHHHH.HHHHHHa

Key Here is...H - HomeR - HouseholderS -
Some people household headT - Tribute
payerm - migrant
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Household H-38 9 people, 3 generations, 2 widows
25
Table 4. Position of married individuals in
rural Nahua households was strongly structured by
gender

• Relationship Male Female
• Head 306 1
• Spouse 1 309
• Son/daughter 36 75
• Other kin 323 285
• Brother/sister 98 26
• Brother/sister-in-law 63 106
• Son/daughter in law 75 36
• Brother/sister-in-laws spouse 14 38
• Father/mother 3 3
• Father/mother-in-law 8 8
• Other 62 68
• Not related 11 11
• Total married (includes 2nd wives) 677 681

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Rules of household headship (inferred), the 3Ms

• 1. Male (311 of 315 households)
• 2. Married (97) or recently widowed (3).
• 3. Most sons resident (or the eldest son
  resident).

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The Codex Mendoza life at age 13 and 14 years
Girls
Boys
13
14
unmarried
married
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Marriage (at 15)
15
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Child Brides and Patriarchy in Ancient Mexico
Codex Mendoza, 1540
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1540 vs 1990Persistence of Mexico profundo?

• Pre-hispanic survivals?
• Virilocal stem families?
• Residence around the paternal home?
• Or transformations?
• The world Mexico has lost extended families are
  now rare
• But family and kin ties remain important

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1540 4 lateral extensions, Only 1 complete
conjugal family 3 incomplete (2 widowschildren)
32
1990, 450 years later An example of a
patrilateral household from rural Morelos (5
conjugal unions)
(not kin)
33
Table 5. Household Composition in Rural Morelos,
1540 and 1990,and in the Federal Republic of
Mexico, 1990

• 1540 1990 1990
• Rural Morelos Republic
• Relation to Head
• Head 13 20 19
• Spouse 13 16 16
• Son or Daughter 24 54 53
• Other kin 49 6 7
• Not related 1 4 5
• Total 100 100 100
• N (sample size) 2,503 1,633 801,981

34
Gender relations parallelism symmetry or
hierarchy subordination?

• Situs Tenochitlan (Mex. City) or the
  countryside?
• Parallelism, symmetry and complementarity with
  less hierarchy?
• Or patriarchy subordination, domination, and
  submission?
• Evidence
• Widows, just a little old woman.
• Married women in the household (Table 4).

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Debate Condition of Nahua Women

• Leon-Portilla (1958) prominent and of great
  social recognition
• Nash (1978) subordination emerged with
  predatory empire
• Rodriguez-Shadow (1991) devalued and dominated
• Kellogg (1995) gender parallelism
  complementary and symmetrical

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Nahua gender relations over the life course
assymetry, hierarchy, subordination

• I. Naming patterns
• II. Marriage
• girls 12.7 years
• boys 19.4 years
• III. Household only male heads
• IV. Widowhood a female affair
• V. Division of labor

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Gender and earthly names among the ordinary
(rural) Nahua at contact a linguistic thicket

• Names provide a compendium of the history of a
  civilization--Tibon.
• Why are the names of ordinary Nahuas excluded
  from history?
• What do gender differences in names suggest about
  relations between the sexes?

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Ordinary womenwe dont even know their
names.--Blanco, 1991The Nahua Naming Ceremony
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The Midwife Bathes the Newborn Babe
And all during the time that she bathed the
baby, a pine torch stood burning. It was not
extinguished.
And then they there gave him a name, they there
gave him his earthly name.
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Earthly Names Ceremony differs by gender
Boys waitingto snatch the umbilical cord
offering and eat it.
Strict division by gender from birth.
41
And as she washed it all over, its hands, its
feet, she gave a talk to all...
Its hands, it was said, she cleaned of thievery.
Everywhere on its body, its groin, it was said,
she cleaned it of vice.
42
The naming ceremony began at sunrise and
concluded with a banquet
Then she raised it as an offering in the four
directions then she lifted it up, she raised it
as an offering to the heavens.
43
From classic texts, elite male names few
female names, fewer names of ordinary people

• Sahaguns General History, Persons and Deities
  436 names, but very few are female names.
• Tax records reveal names of ordinary people,
  including females few share names with deities
  (of 661 names in tribute lists only 47 occur in
  Sahaguns General History).

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Names in a Tlatoani (chiefs) Family

• Don Tomas illegiblezatzin.
• Females dona Maria TonallaxochiatlAna Tlaco,
  Maria Xocoyotl, Magdalena Tlaco, Cocoyotl, Maria
  Tlaco, Marta Xoco, Teicuh (2), Necahual,
  Magdalena Teyacapan.
• Males Pedro Tecuetlaca?, Pedro Omacatl,
  Cocoliloc

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4 most common names for each sex. What are the
differences?

• Females
• Teyacapan 315 (First one)
• Tlaco 182(Middle one)
• Teicuh 182(Second one)
• Necahual 151(Quiet one)

• Males
• Yaotl 74(Rival/Enemy)
• Matlalihuitl 63(Rich Feather)
• Nochhuetl 52(Ideal Bean)
• Coatl 48(Serpent)

1201 females 87 unique names
1303 males 574 unique names
46
Common names 6th-10th most frequent by sex

• Females
• Xoco 53 (The Last one)
• Centehua 42(Ones Woman)
• Xocoyotl 38(Youngest one)
• Tlacoehua 22(Second daughter)
• Cihuaton 15(Littlest female)
• Tepin 15(Elder Sister)

• Males
• Tototl 19(Bird)
• Quauhtli 18(Eagle)
• Tochtli 17(Rabbit)
• Zolin 16(Quail)
• Matlal 12(Indigo Plant)
• Xochitl 12(Flower)

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Frequency of Common Female Names
48

Common Male NamesNote low frequency of most
names
49
Inequality of marital conditionfewer never
married females, more widowers, concubines, etc.
50
4. Widowhood is a female conditionwidowers
quickly remarry widows do not (cannot?)
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Household composition

• Brothers of heads of 135 coresiding, 98 were
  married and 2 recently widowed.90 older brothers
  were heads 8 younger.
• 26 mothers lived in households headed by sons
  40 mothers.by sons-in-law
• 1/5 of residents were related to the head through
  marriage (affinal kin tie).

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Conclusions

• 1. Nahua households were large (ave. 8) and
  complex (75 contained two or more conjugal
  families)
• 2. Mortality, rather than braking, accelerated
  the formation of complex families.
• 3. social constraints were of greater importance
  than mortality Nahua offspring formed new
  households after the birth of a child, not simply
  with marriage.

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Conclusions, social flexibility

• 1. Marriage norms and family forms are social
  constructions and are highly plastic, even in
  ancient Mexico.
• 2. Marriage age (including informal unions) has
  increased greatly over the centuries, from as
  little as 13 years in rural Morelos five
  centuries ago to as much as 22 years by 1930, and
  24 by 1990.
• 3. Likewise, complex families have declined from
  75 to 15 in 1930, and 6 in 1990.

54
Conclusions earthly names of ordinary
country-folk

• Male names individualized, symbolic, diverse
• Female names categorical, birth order, boring
• Gender relations instead of parallel and
  symmetry, divergence and asymmetry

55
Nahua gender relations patriarchy, assymetry,
oppression

• Division of labor strongly gendered
• Households only males are heads
• Average age at marriage girls less than 13
  yearsboys greater than 19 years
• Widowhood a female matter
• Gendering of names firm rules

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With conquest and colonization heightened
inequalities

• Division of labor strongly gendered,
  heightened by inequalities of class
• Households greater proportion of female heads
• Average age at marriage females rose to
  17-18 yearsmales rose to 21-23 years
• Widowhood more likely to head household
• Gendering of names Christian saints

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End
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Museo de Antropología, Mexico City Here is the
home of one named...
translated
microdata
...transcribed
59
Table 1. Explicit and inferred kin relationships
with 19 occurrencesHuitzillan and
Quauhchichinollan villages, circa 1540

• Relationship Frequency (total n 2,486)
• child 596 mother-in-law 40
• spouse 316 brother-in-laws spouse 38
• head 315 sister-in-law 37
• brother 158 daughter-in-law 36
• brothers spouse 88 nephew 34
• son-in-law 77 brother-in-laws child 33
• brother-in-law 76 sisters child 33
• sister 67 mother 26
• grandchild 56 cousin 19
• brothers child 51 niece 19

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Table 2. Multiple households were the norm among
rural Nahua

• Household type Households (Percent) Individuals
• Simple 13.4 7.2
• No children 1.9 0.5
• Children 11.5 6.7
• Extended 13.4 10.1
• Upward 1.9 1.0
• Downward 0.3 0.2
• Lateral 6.7 4.9
• Combinations 4.5 3.9
• Multiple 72.1 81.1
• Upward 0.3 0.3
• Downward 15.1 14.6
• Lateral 26.3 26.6
• Combinations 30.4 39.5
• Polygamous 1.0 1.6
• Total (n) 312 2,486
• Illegible (n) 3 17

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Table 3a. Headship designation by frequency of
occurrence. District identities of households
and head

• freq Key Explanation
• 165 H Here is the home of ... Here is ....'s
  home.
• 47 R Here is the householder named ...
• 39 S Here is the home of some people...
  The household head is named... or The head
  of the household is named... or The
  householder is named...
• 25 T The tribute payer is named...
• 20 . illegible
• 6 m migrant (Here are some people
  who...came from afar)
• 6 G one who governs (tlatoani) one named
  ... is in charge
• 1 b one who belongs to the tlatoani
• 1 g Here is the one who guards things for
  the tlatoani
• 1 n Here is a nephew...
• 2 C Here is a tribute collector...
  ...tribute boss
• 1 a Here is a goodly maiden...

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Table 4. Position of married individuals in
rural Nahua households was strongly structured by
gender

• Relationship Male Female
• Head 306 1
• Spouse 1 309
• Son/daughter 36 75
• Other kin 323 285
• Brother/sister 98 26
• Brother/sister-in-law 63 106
• Son/daughter in law 75 36
• Brother/sister-in-laws spouse 14 38
• Father/mother 3 3
• Father/mother-in-law 8 8
• Other 62 68
• Not related 11 11
• Total married (includes 2nd wives) 677 681

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Table 5. Household Composition in Rural Morelos,
1540 and 1990,and in the Federal Republic of
Mexico, 1990

• 1540 1990 1990
• Rural Morelos Republic
• Relation to Head
• Head 13 20 19
• Spouse 13 16 16
• Son or Daughter 24 54 53
• Other kin 49 6 7
• Not related 1 4 5
• Total 100 100 100
• N (sample size) 2,503 1,633 801,981