Includes bibliographical references ( p.239-315) and index.
Contents:
Introducing the indigenous women of Latin America. Some introductory remarks ; Some useful concepts ; Some background on Latin America's earliest women -- Of warriors and working women: gender in later prehispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes. Women and gender among northern and central Mexican peoples: parallel organizations, hierarchical ideologies ; The postclassic Ñudzahui: elite gender complementarity ; The Maya of the classic and postclassic periods: the flexible patriarchy ; The Andes: women and supernatural and state power ; Conclusion -- Colliding worlds: indigenous women, conquest, and colonialism. Gender, sex, and violence in the conquest era ; Laboring women: paying tribute, losing authority ; Family and religious life: the paradoxes of purity and enclosure ; A rebellious spirit ; Conclusion -- With muted voices: Mesoamerica's twentieth- and twenty-first century women. Nahua women: complementarity within submissiveness ; Oaxaca: land of the "matriarchs"? ; Maya women: working, weaving, changing ; Conclusion -- Fighting for survival through political action and cultural creativity: indigenous women in contemporary South and Central America. Women in the Andes: revolutionizing tradition in the highland cultures of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia ; Women in the tropical lowlands of South America: egalitarian political structures, female subordination, and the fight for cultural survival ; Indigenous women in Central America: searching for empowerment in diverse circumstances ; Conclusion -- Indigenous women: creating agendas for change -- Organizations mentioned in the text and their acronyms.
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