Gender In Maya Society
Ancient Maya women had an important role in society: beyond just propagating culture through the bearing and raising of children, Maya women involved themselves in economic, governmental and farming activities. The lives of women in ancient Mesoamerica were not well documented: "of the three elite founding area tombs discovered to date within the Copan Acropolis, two contain the remains of women, and yet there is not a single reference to a woman in either known contemporary texts or later retrospective accounts of Early Classis events and personages at Copan," writes a scholar. The status of women in pre-Columbian Maya society can be inferred only from their burials. Maya societies include Toniná, a city which became matrilineal after the death of the powerful leader, Lady K’awil. She assumed the mantle of power after the failure of the two male leaders. Lady K'awil's reign is documented by murals which depict her seated on a throne with captives at her feet.
Read more about Gender In Maya Society: Food, Art, Gender Roles, Child Bearing
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“But there, where I have garnered up my heart,
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The fountain from the which my current runs
Or else dries up: to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
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—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)