Key Pages
Main GroupGeoffrey G. McCafferty and Sharisse D. McCafferty;
Dept. of Archaeology, University of Calgary
Particular sub-groups develop specific means of coded communication, verbal as well as visual, that are used to transmit in-group messages at the same time that the coded system excludes out-group participants. This paper will consider the topic of female discourse in Postclassic Mexico, using elements of material culture, indigenous illustrations, and ethnohistoric sources.
The Spanish priest and chronicler, Bernardino de Sahagún, commented in his 16th century Florentine Codex about the Aztec midwives who muttered unintelligibly (to him) in their ‘women’s speech.” The androcentric Colonial accounts provide scant opportunity to study female sub-culture, but the archaeological record holds more promise. Spindle whorls function in the transformation of raw fiber into thread for textile production, and ethnohistoric sources from Mesoamerica demonstrate that this practice and the associated tools were strongly associated with female identity and female ideology. In a study of over 1000 spindle whorls from Postclassic Cholula, an array of design motifs were encountered. We argue that these represent a particularly female pattern of symbolic communication, and attempt to ‘crack the code’ with reference to other forms of Mesoamerican visual communication. For example, a particular quadripartite pattern is identified as a tehuehuelli when represented on the shield of the war-god Huitzilopochtli, but the same term is used to describe the “small shield” held in the hand of a woman in labor as she becomes a metaphorical warrior preparing to “capture a baby.” The tehuehuelli pattern is commonly found on Cholula spindle whorls, and other whorl patterns also share shield patterns, including those carried by warrior goddesses. We argue that these and other whorl motifs represent a specifically female symbolic discourse relating to important issues of female ideology including reproduction and domestic power.
The concept of female discourse takes on an even more political dimension when we consider the role of Malinche in the Spanish Conquest and particularly the Cholula massacre. Malinche, also known as Doña Marina and Malintzin, was the infamous consort of conquistador Hernán Cortés. As a disenfranchised princess from the southern Gulf Coast who had likely been sent away to join a goddess cult temple, she was well-schooled in a range of arcane knowledge, certainly including languages, negotiation, military strategy, and female religion. Malinche skillfully manipulated the Conquest until arriving at Cholula, the highland stronghold of her Olmeca-Xicallanca ethnic group. Indigenous artists depict Malinche adorned in symbolic elements of the goddess as she directs the attack on the temple of the ethnic rivals to her clan, and Tlaxcalan chronicler Diego Muñoz Carmargo even notes that the native allies of the Spanish removed their traditional war helmets to wear twisted grass, a literal reference to malintzin (“precious twisted grass”).
This paper will build on the insights of female symbology from the spindle whorl analysis to explore the underlying meanings associated with Malinche’s active role in the Spanish Conquest.
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