Mexica and Nahuatl Dialogues.

Well, The first thing that I noticed after reading several of the dialogues was that I felt like I was reading the bible.  The writing was though, very concise and clear (at least the majority of them).  Even on the first page of dialogues I could see the obvious use of gender roles that this society so firmly relied on.  I noticed this in the “Congratulations to a married couple”.  This piece declares for the man to not be lazy and lie in sleep, but to attend the fields and farm to feed the family.  And the woman, get in the house and sweep because that’s what the Lord wants you to do.

The Motives of this piece are fairly obvious.  First, be holy and do not live in sin. there is a straight and narrow path that the Lord has set for the new couple and their livelihood relies on them following it.  Then, in a nutshell stick to your roles that society has placed on you but say believe it is for the Lord.  Since this couple is recently married it seems as if this piece is one last attempt to make sure that they follow their gender roles and conform to the ideal view of matrimony.

The perspective of this dialogue, although written by a noble, seems to me like a parent speaking to the new couple.  The speaker’s tone suggest that he or she has, at some point in his or her life, conformed and performed these roles and assigned tasks to maintain functionality of the family.

This is a relatively short text and is straight to the point that it is trying to declare.  It does give the information that is needed by the intended reader. At this time in history and from this piece it seems that the institution of marriage was primarily based on the work to be done for the Lord and household rather than on the foundation of love.  I may have interpreted this wrong but if this is the case than I would be surprised simply because of the overwhelming Christian influence in the writing.

Does this sound similar to the idea of the battle against war for the men and the battle against chaos for the women?  As for the content of this particular passage, I think it is strongly influenced by the gender roles but the actual dialogue and writing is surprisingly clear and easy to read.  I notice the conviction of their religion and how often they speak of the health from the Lord.  The writing is extremely religious and polite while maintaining the ideas of “do this because you are a man, and do this because you are a woman”. Sometimes I feel like the people knew they had to do things just because they had to do them rather than having to be told it was for the Lord or to battle chaos (concerning the woman keeping the house neat and orderly).  But like today, its about conforming to an idea and this culture stuck to its ideas firmly.