450 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
morality were called into question. Given the choice, they might have elected the
path of domesticity and patriarchal protection.Women’s Responses to Patriarchal Domination
From the beginning of Spanish colonization, women resisted colonial rule. In some
cases, indigenous women fought alongside men in the battlefield against the Span-
ish invaders. Aztec women led indigenous rebellions against colonial rule, perhaps
because men worked far away from their communities. Women often insulted and
vilified colonial authorities. But as the Church and state tightened their controls
over women, it became increasingly difficult for women to negotiate their positions
in society.
How were women able to maneuver within the limited space afforded them? In
addition to political protest and outright rebellion, women sought to gain a mea-
sure of control over their lives by practicing witchcraft; seeking direct communica-
tion with supernatural beings through trance; and occasionally entering convents.
These activities provided a respite from the constraints of colonial society. However,
colonial authorities deemed any manifestation of power by women as disruptive and
negative. Women suffered the consequences of attempting to subvert the natural
and divine order requiring them to be obedient and submissive.
Women practiced witchcraft in part to gain influence over husbands or lovers.
Abandoned wives, women whose husbands engaged in extramarital affairs, and those
who wanted to retaliate against abusive husbands performed love magic themselves
or used the services of women with esoteric wisdom. In this way, they hoped to en-
tice their husbands back, “stupefy” them, or force the breakup of their relationships
with other women. Marginalized women, such as Indian and caste women, were re-
puted to have extraordinary magical powers. By manipulating secret powers, women
established interethnic and interclass networks; passed on secret concoctions, for-
mulas, and prayers; and assisted other women to deal with oppressive situations
(Behar 1989; Few 2002).
Spanish officials devalued and trivialized witchcraft, thus dismissing an important
source of women’s power. Fortunately for women, because the Spanish Inquisition
regarded love magic as superstition—delusion grounded in ignorance—it was treated
leniently. On the other hand, the effectiveness of Church teachings led women to in-
ternalize the notion of the evil nature of women’s magical faculties and to reject
their empowering effects. In documents of the time, women declared explicitly that
they would rather put up with abusive or unfaithful husbands than commit the sin
of entering into compacts with evil supernaturals and thus challenge the divine order.
Notwithstanding, love magic continued.
During the Colonial period, many nuns and common women attempted to en-
gage in direct communication with Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the saints, and demons.
These women usually fell into raptures or trancelike states in which they heard voices
or had visions of heaven, hell, or purgatory. When these women lived in a controlled
environment, such as a convent, they were viewed as “mystics.” Confessors enjoined
women mystics to go about their lives quietly. Colonial ideology contended that