machismo: an ideology and its practices that
place a high value on male dominance and
virility.
maestro de cantor: Indian official in charge
of liturgy and catechism; choirmaster.
maize: corn (Zea mays); the staple food of
Mesoamerica.
maquiladora: export manufacturing fac-
tories.
mayordomo: caretaker or custodian
(steward).
mendicants: members of Catholic religious
orders who live by a vow of poverty and are
dependent on donations, such as the Fran-
ciscans, Augustinians, and Dominicans.
mestizaje: the process by which a mestizo
population is created through biological
and cultural mixing.
mestizo: a person of mixed white, Indian,
and in many cases African descent; as used
in colonial castasystem, a mestizo would
nothave African ancestry.
Mexica: the Nahuatl-speaking group that
founded Tenochtitlan and came to domi-
nate Central Mexico; the Aztecs of
Tehochtitlán.
milpa: a plot of land planted with maize and
beans and often chile as well.
minifundio: a small rural estate or
farm plot.
modernization: the practice of emulating
European models for progress based on
the assumption that Latin American coun-
tries could catch up with Europe and the
United States through capitalist economic
development.
moriscos: Moorish converts to Christianity.
morphology: in linguistics, the system for
the formation of words in a language.
mulatto: person of mixed white and
African/African-American ancestry.
myth: a narrative, usually involving super-
natural forces, that accounts for historical
GLOSSARY 537and natural phenomena and expresses
deeply held cultural values.
nagual (nahual): the magical companion
animal or force of humans, and the indi-
vidual who is believed to have the power
to transform him/herself into that magi-
cal entity.
nativistic movement: an attempt by native
groups and their charismatic prophet lead-
ers to achieve religious and/or political au-
tonomy and recognition of ethnic identity.
These movements often turn violent when
efforts are made to suppress them by force.
obraje: textile workshop or factory, primar-
ily for woolens, in which forced labor is
typical.
obsidian: a volcanic glass-like rock used to
make sharp tools like arrow points and
knives.
orthography: in linguistics, the use of pho-
netic symbols to express sounds and words.
Paleoindian period: the period that began
with the earliest arrival of humans (40,000
to 20,000 years ago) in the Americas and
ended around 8000 B.C. This period was
characterized by populations with a no-
madic lifestyle.
patriarchy: a social system in which fathers
are dominant in the family relations.
peasant: a person belonging to a society or
sectors of society subject to providing sur-
pluses to a larger, dominant society; they
support themselves to some extent
through agricultural labor.
peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain and
living in the New World.
periphery: in world-system theory, the sub-
ordinate regions that supply the core with
resources.
petty commodity production: small-scale
production of agricultural or artisan goods
for sale in markets for profit.
phonology: the sound systems of a lan-
guage.