HIS 464 Week 3

Going over a few of the Nahuatla speeches and dialogues, and the class lechers, has given me some in site of how men and women in Mesoamerican society lived. Reading the sixth dialogue speech called Grant of a house site in the Nahua Tetzcoco has helped me understand the hospitable nature they can have. This is shown when Ana’s older brother Juan Miguel lets her family live in this house for a month. They also are very grateful for him letting them live with in his house. Ana also seem to have an understanding that having her family live with him can be some what of a burden, and asked for a piece of land so they could build a hut for her family. This is nice but to me seems some what unfair because they have the same father, Saint San Miguel, but she dose not own any part of the land, and only her older brother owns it. It tells me that in the Mesoamerican society the fathers passed on the land to the sons and not the daughters. Which I am assuming that the sons inherit everything and the daughters married a man and got her wealth from him. Another thing that I have learned about the Mesoamerican society is that they must have elders permission to get large tasks done. This is shown when Juan Miguel has to ask other men if he could allow him to give up some of his land to give to his younger sister and her family. It tells me that they land owners never had complete control of their own land and the elders must approve many things. One last thing I have learned from the “Grant of a House site in the Nahua Tetzcoco” is the fact the Mesoamerican women seemed to be very domestic, because in the story, Ana, was the one who cooked for the men who were coming. This shows that the influence of the Spanish society had began to grow in the Mesoamerican land. Some of the things that I have enjoyed in the Grant of a house site in the Nahua Tetzcoco story is how willing people were buy her brother letting her sister take some land for her family, and the rulers giving Ana’s family the right to do so, without having to do something for them in return of the grant. Another thing I liked from the story is the face that they all seemed to be willing to help each other out, and were not so barbaric. I have enjoyed reading the Nahuatl speeches and dialogues, because they have given me a better insight on how the people in Mesoamerica lived in the 1500’s