458 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
communities; and second, because most indigenous women in highland Chiapas
were, and continue to be, monolingual. Women’s knowledge of and contact with
mestizo society and government was minimal. Even women actively involved in pol-
itics in the urban areas had no prospect of gaining public office or suffrage.
After the 1940s, constitutional councils came to stand for a new kind of power
in indigenous communities: a totally male elite, strongly secularized, and with much
greater economic resources than the majority of the population. The complemen-
tary presence of women, customary in the native cargo systems, was lost within the
new councils. Women’s presence continues today only in the cargos related to spir-
itual matters, particularly the festival of carnival and festivals in honor of the Catholic
saints (Eber 2000).CONTEMPORARY MESOAMERICAN
GENDER RELATIONS
Machismo
Machismo, variously defined, but always implying a hypermasculine ideal in which
manhood rests on controlling or dominating women, continues to shape gender
roles and relations in contemporary Mesoamerica. Although in this chapter we focus
on women’s experiences, it is important to note that machismo also shapes power re-
lationships among men. For example, effeminate men are particularly vulnerable to
prejudice and violence because they do not appear or act manly. They defy the strict
boundaries of women’s and men’s roles, that dictate that men should be active, dom-
inant and independent while women should be passive, submissive, and dependent
(Carrier 1995; Lancaster 1992). The focus on masculinity and strict gender roles
throughout Mesoamerica places homosexual men and women in the difficult posi-
tion of keeping their sexuality a secret while fulfilling traditional gender roles in
public. Nevertheless, in some areas, such as Yucatán, young men in their teens and
twenties are not ostracized for engaging in homosexual relationships (Wilson 1995).
Despite the persistence of a macho ideal, many scholars have found the concept
of machismo too general to embrace diversity and change across categories of class,
ethnicity, and race (Navarro 2001). Today men in a range of social and ethnic groups
in both rural and urban areas spend significant amounts of time in activities that
were not considered manly before, for example, caring for children and doing house-
hold chores such as shopping and cleaning (Guttman 1998). And as we show next,
women are increasingly assuming roles that were traditionally filled only by men.
Most women continue to be economically dependent on men and to have less
access to job training and education. These conditions often mean that women who
have no way to support themselves or their children will put up with abusive behav-
ior from their spouses. Domestic violence against women and children, common in
the region, is one of the most serious consequences of machismo, leading to psy-
chological and physical trauma for victims, and sometimes even to death.
Students of Mexican and Central American societies argue that machismo and
paternal irresponsibility are less of a problem among indigenous people (especially