WORK/FARMING:
http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/webpages/women08/mayan.html
http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Maya.html (scroll down)
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/3boltonmayafluency3.ht
m
http://www.ambergriscaye.com/earlyhistory/ag.html
ASSIGNMENT: Include two classified ads for jobs in Mayan culture. Write an article
about the importance of both women and men in the work force.
1. Describe a job men would do.
2. Describe a job women would do.
3. What skills would be needed to be a successful Mayan citizen during this time?
4. Draw a picture of the kinds of tools used by Mayans.
Women of the Mayan Empire were of the basic model
of the homemaker you would expect from early
Mesoamerican societies, with some minor exceptions.
The Mayan culture based part of its religion on female
gods and thus they were more likely to honor and
revere their women. In the early ages of the reign of
the Mayas, there were even instances of women who
took control of the areas they lived in and became
early ruling queens. One such instant was that of Lady
K’awil, who took control of her region of Tonina after
two male leaders failed in their reigns and were
forcibly removed to make way for Lady K’awil. The
region also took on matrilineal, rule passed down
through the female line, ruling as a result of the
success and prosperity that she brought to her city
and people. This situation and others were depicted in
the art that was held within the tombs of the women,
Lady K’awil herself had a painting of her in her throne
and servants cowered at her feet. Most women,
though, did not have nearly the experience especially
as the Mayan Empire grew into a state where the men
took control and limited the amount of work that
women were allowed to do in their society. The
majority of women were relegated to work within the
home mostly to do with providing food and clothes for
the family. In the case of food, women were allowed
to help work the fields and bring in the harvest in a
small capacity when it was necessary. They would
also be in charge of cleaning the meat off of the
animals that the men had killed; especially deer; and
in some cases it is documented that the women were
placed in charge of keeping and raising deer at their
home for the men to kill. This was speculated to have
resulted from the small amount of land and food
resources in the area to support the deer population
needed for the hunting by the men. They were not
allowed to be the ones to kill the deer. Once they had
the food, it was time for the women to prepare it for
eating or storage. The women would clean the venison
from the deer skin and prepare the agricultural goods
for the meal, or to be stored for later, or even to
prepare for selling to other people. With the food
prepared for meals, it was the work of the women to
serve the men their meal and to wait until it was their
turn, when the men were done, to have their women-
only meal time.
Within their religion, the women were assigned the
task of preparing and maintaining the religious
shrines within their homes. This was their only
connection with their religion, despite the female
deities. This was essential to them as they were not
allowed to enter into the religious temples of their
towns and thus could not practice their religion as
required. It has been said that when the boys were
learning how to hunt, the girls stayed at home to learn
how to keep the religious shrines in their required
condition for their families to worship. The women, as
can be expected, were the people placed in charge of
raising children in the Mayan home. The women were
resigned to stay in the home and to look after the
children and teach them the worldly knowledge that
parents have always been in charge of teaching to
their children. In the realm of children, women were
also the people who acted as the midwives for women
and children through the pregnancy, child birth, and
child rearing processes.
Much like their counterparts in the Inca Empire, the
women of the Mayan Empire were set at weaving
whenever they were not doing any other work. The
cloth, fabrics, and even tapestries that they produced
are revered worldwide through the years for their
intricate details and sturdy weaving. Even within the
Mayan Empire, the women who produced the high
quality woven materials were revered and respected
because of their skills. The weaving projects that were
produced by these women served many purposes as
they were used for clothing, bedding, religious use
and symbolism, and even some home decorations for
the upper classes to enjoy. Weaving is a time
consuming and very involved process, especially with
designs and patterns of the magnitude and detail
produced by Mayan women and thus it was necessary
for the women to spend all of their time not spent
elsewhere immersed in a loom. Another art form with
practical purposes that women took on as their work
was that of pottery and in the same fashion as
weaving, the final product of the work put into it by
the women made them pieces of artwork that are still
revered worldwide and over the course of years for
their style and durability. Some pottery found
suggested that there was a group of individuals who
would produce the pottery in their homes to be sold
off to other members of the community. This suggests
that there were women who had regular jobs outside
of producing and providing for the family in domestic
work, as they would be the ones to produce the woven
materials and the pottery that could be then sold or
traded to other members of their community or to
people in other areas based on some amounts of trade
within and outside the empire spreading their product
to be discovered in other areas.