Social Status of Indian Women before and after Spanish conquest.

In the readings this week we focused on Andean Women and it seems their change after conquest and their marginalization from society, at least from history. Elinor Burkett points out several changes that led to this occurrence. She discusses the greater impact on rural women and also migration and social and economic biases.


The marginalization of Indian women was bad enough before the Spanish came, but after the conquest seemed only to get worse, especially for the rural Indian woman. Burkett claims there are two major reasons for this: the first being the modification of the tribute requirements under the Spanish. Under the previous system the community would pitch in to help take care of the widows and the elderly, however under the Spanish system it seemed that the majority of the labor fell to the widows. The labor expected of the men of age didn’t seem to change however widows were expected to perform the same work load as if they still had a husband and a fully productive economic unit. The second major reason for heightened impact on rural Indian women was the character of the labor demands. The division of work fell into the agricultural labor preformed mostly by men and the household duties still called “women’s work”. The new demands on women forced some of them to leave the rural areas altogether and migrate towards urban centers. Also, much of the migration done during this time was involuntary. Women were enslaved or married off to the Spanish.

Another issue of marginalization for women came from the Spanish “conquering” everything. The Spanish felt that women as well as villages could be conquered. They could intermarry with the indigenous tribes and take their offspring could take positions in both societies. Mostly the Spanish men felt that they could force the women into submission and simply take what they wanted. These Indian women were not only victims of their economic status but also based on their race and their sex, factors in which they couldn’t or were never given a chance to change. In many history classes we learn of the conquering Spanish and how great they were to come and civilize the native peoples but it seems the older we get I suppose the more history teachers think we can handle and thus go about completely changing everything we’ve always known. In reading the documents from this past week it seems the Spanish did nothing but take and pillage towns, villages, and women.

Gender and Sex

Before starting this course I was vaguely aware of the difference between gender and sex. I knew there was a difference but probably couldn't formulate a definitive answer on the difference. Now I can begin to fully understand and appreciate the difference. I can see that there are so many different genders in the world and none of them seems any easier to deal with than the other, meaning there are still so many questions associated with each gender. I am willing to keep all this in mind as we tackle the subject of Latin America as the course progresses The first week of class has been quite enlightening for me. Due to the fact that our opinions are shaped by our socialization, (family, religion, etc...) and the fact that I grew up here in east Tennessee with white middle class, southern Baptist parents I have had a fairly closed minded upbringing. Taking that into consideration when I formulate my responses to the readings and class discussions I would like to consider myself fairly open to new peoples and thoughts. The subject of Caster Semenya is interesting to me and as a woman I wonder if the tables were turned would it matter. At birth, especially in America if parents are presented with such a situation they are given a choice, to avoid later social conflicts. Caster’s parents made the choice of female and raised their daughter as such. During the Olympic testing it was discovered that Caster had high levels of testosterone and I wonder that if she hadn’t been beating the pants off of everyone would further testing have been done or the results of the original testing even mattered to anyone. She was raised female and was competing in the female races and it is my opinion that is where she should be and where she should be competing. If any other country had such a chance of winning would they not take full advantage of that? What about the girls in gymnastics? It is highly speculated that some of the girls of other countries don’t actually meet the age requirements. Does anyone pursue that further? What about all the steroid use? Is this case not the same as that? And yet in this case it seems that the world is concerned with only upsetting the delicate social balance set forth by generations of closed minded people without a clue of the actual meaning of gender or sex.