The Florentine Codex

What has become known as the Florentine Codex is a history of the Nahuat speaking people, written down by a Franciscan, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun. He began his work around the 1540s by gathering speeches and interviews from the various members of the society, and was written in Nahuatl. Sahagun’s purpose in completing such as arduous task has been explained by his desire to “extirpate idolatry” and preserve the traditions and language of the Mexican Indian culture. Although the Spanish had come to Mesoamerica, the culture had yet to be greatly affected by the notions of Christianity and European society, so what Sahagun recorded is mostly the life of the Mexica Indians pre- Spanish conquest.  

The excerpts from the midwife’s speeches in Book VI have proven to be extremely enlightening in ascertaining the gender roles both males and females were expected to perform. I believe it gives a startlingly clear picture of how that society saw and defined gender. While giving birth, the mother, if she was a noble woman, was attended to by possibly two to three midwives who bathed the mother and cleaned the house. Once the baby was born the midwife “shouted; she gave war cries, which meant the woman had fought a good battle, had become a brave warrior.” This image reinforces the warrior motif so prevalent in that society. Everything, even the smallest gesture or chore could be given meaning relating to some kind of battle. The women, though confined to certain roles were considered warriors within their sphere, battling evil and taking captives in their own way. The gender parallelism that defined Mexica culture can be described in terms of warfare.

Immediately after birth, the child whether male or female was placed into their clearly distinctive and defined roles. The midwife, even as she is cutting off the umbilical cord gives a speech to the child explaining their fate and duty. The male would die either in sacrifice to the gods or in battle, and his umbilical cord was entrusted to the warriors to be buried field “where warfare was practiced.” The female’s umbilical cord was buried by the hearth, to signify that she would remain at home and not wonder off. The male’s destiny lay in battle, where he would perform his duty to the sun, and the girl’s heart was to remain at home, fighting her battles with a broom and a loom.

While women were expected to remain at home and perform typical “women’s work,” I believe it is more about how society perceived the work. It is clear by the midwife’s speech that neither the male nor the female was considered more important than the other, and that the female by staying home was not in any way inferior. She was a brave warrior, as evident by the midwife’s cry of victory after a birth. Women did not stay at home because they were believed to be incapable of anything else, they remained at home to perform the necessary duties that ensured the survival of their community and the safety of their husbands.