The Role of Mayan Women
Although the Mayan religion is male dominated, Mayan women are respected and sometimes honored. They work hard to maintain the household by cleaning and keeping the family together. They are experts in handicrafts through weaving and wheel pottery. Mayans are most famous for their vases, which contain many images of females. Women are also respected in marriage. The husband came to live in her family’s
household until he proves himself to be a worthy husband. A woman can divorce her husband after a year
and remarry. Yet they cannot look directly at men and could not have a high
status or enter a temple; nevertheless some women in elite families were
exported for marriage in foreign families as a political trade.
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Mayans look to the gods to help make their life better. They make sacrifices to Tlazoteotl, the Mayan Goddess known as the “Great Mother,” who helps with the growth of corn and fertilize other crops. Another Mayan Goddess is Xochiquetzal, also known as the “Beautiful Flower,” who represents young women and their sexuality. Xochiquetzal is known for all things beautiful such as song, dance, happiness, and flowers. She is also the protector of artists, painters, embroiderers, weavers, sculptors, and silversmiths.
Just recently in 2012, there is new research that re-examines the role of Mayan women. Shankari Patel was given permission to research the uncatalogued artifacts in the British Museum. She found that there are thousands of artifacts of the Mayan society that was removed from the region. Patel found spindle whorls that women used to weave cloth, and female icons used in funeral rituals. She says that women were also healers and specialized in midwifery. The importance of Mayan women were forgotten and set aside during the colonization of Spain as Spaniards dislike female leaders and brought Catholicism because they did not favor the polytheistic ways of the Mayans.
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