throughout the Colonial period. The nobility saw their wealth diminish as they lost
control over resources to Spaniards and as community lands were appropriated by
non-Indians. Also, some of the wealthier nobles were siphoned off into mainstream
society as high-ranking women wed Spaniards and raised children who identified
with the dominant culture. But in many parts of colonial Mesoamerica, marked sta-
tus differences between nobles and commoners were retained (Figure 5.9).
Another long-term effect of colonial rule was the breakdown of traditional fam-
ily systems in favor of a nuclear family model promoted by both Church and state.
This process proceeded at different rates in different areas, with some aspects of ex-
tended family and lineage organization surviving to the present in rural regions.
Colonial authorities believed that the Indians would be easier to supervise and
control if divided into small nuclear households. The authority of the elders would
be reduced if their adult children were separated from their influence. Also, since
tribute levels and labor drafts were assessed on the basis of how many male heads of
household resided in the community, it worked to the Spaniards’ advantage if young
Indian men married and set up their own homes. Priests, seeking to keep young peo-
ple from engaging in premarital sexual relations, also encouraged them to marry
young, in their midteens, or even younger for girls. With the Church controlling the
wedding ceremony and imposing new restrictions on the choice of marriage partners,
family elders found their authority over kin even further undermined (Figure 5.10).
Colonialism also had an impact on gender relations. The trend toward male-
headed nuclear families reduced some of the autonomy that native women had tra-
ditionally enjoyed as members of extended kin groups. The age difference between
wives and husbands widened. A young girl of fourteen or fifteen, living alone with a
husband a few years older, did not have the same power base as a woman of twenty
wed to a man her own age and surrounded by a network of supportive relatives. Over
a period of generations, the balance of power shifted somewhat in favor of male
dominance. However, gender relations in native communities tended to remain more
egalitarian than those that prevailed in Spanish and mestizo contexts.
This shift can be seen, for example, in Nahuatl documents from Central Mexico
analyzed by anthropologist Susan Kellogg. Records from the sixteenth century show
Nahua women being very active in the colonial courts, acting as plaintiffs in lawsuits
and presenting their own testimony. In their wills, they pass property to a wide vari-
ety of relatives including siblings and cousins, that is, members of their own family
who were not related by blood to these women’s husbands. In the seventeenth cen-
CHAPTER 5 THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN MESOAMERICA 207Finally, we also see a native woman acting independently and negotiating the local politi-
cal scene to her own and her family’s advantage. True, as sister of a councilman Ana had an “in”
with the officeholders, but rather than letting her older brother speak for her, she presents her
own case. Her husband stands by and lets her do the talking. She knows the right things to do
and say, and is duly rewarded: Having asked for land on which to build a “little hut,” she is allowed
to choose the site herself and is promised a sturdy house with a stone foundation. (Adapted
from Lockhart 1991:66–74)