My thoughts on Testaments, wills & etc…

What kind of thing have did woman in the distant past really have to own?  The answer is not much.  Around the time of the Spanish conquest one would think that upon death, indigenous women would have nothing to pass down to future generations.  This is a misconception, though.  The tradition of passing down of will and testament was brought by the Spaniards to the indigenous people but the indigenous were happy to comply to this form of cultural preservation.

The indigenous woman, upon dying actually had a decent amount of land and other material things to pass down to daughters and grandsons.  I am a bit confused as to why the actual sons were looked over in testament and will of women until the Spanish tradition slowly changed that.Regardless of this, the main point is to try to understand why the indigenous women did adapt to the Spanish form of will and testament.

This is easy to understand. It was simply to preserve their own culture.  By following the Spanish form of testament, the Nahuatl people passed down pieces of their culture that could stay within family and other indigenous people.  It seems that most of the accounts of testament and will were recorded in Nahuatl language with further proves this idea of cultural preservation.

I have a couple thoughts on the  naming patterns of the indigenous Nahautl.  First, it almost seems that they were trying to keep any away any chance that their history could be traced.  I say this because the the common switches between first and last names among the people.  As if this was not confusing enough, they decided on middle names too, that would often be changed.  I realize that much of this was based on marriage and the idea of status level based on having a good solid Spanish last name but the continual name changes throughout life seems to me, a little bit excessive.