Women of Discord
Female Power in Aztec Thought
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8958864 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Caroline Dodds Pennock (0000-0001-7237-4675, University of Sheffield, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 275-299 |
| Publication date | 2018-02-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x17000474 |
| OpenAlex | W2793307427 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 36 |
This article addresses the perennial debate over the origins and nature of female power by examining the significance of ‘Women of Discord’ in Aztec (more properly, Mexica) culture. Influential, but often troublesome, these formidable figures embody the complex significance of female power, rooted in women's privileged access to the awesome earth forces through childbirth. This chaotic energy lent cosmological and dynastic significance to the mytho-historical Women of Discord, but also led to a persistent female association with disorder which had tangible (and often overlooked) consequences for the lives of ‘real’ women in Aztec culture. This article explores the ways in which beliefs about the female capacity for disruption both reflected and shaped reality, ensnaring all women in a cycle of myth and history which made femininity a source of both authority and apprehension. Importantly, in Tenochtitlan ideas about ‘disorderly women’ did not lead inevitably to their practical subordination or suppression; women held practical markers of influence and esteem in Aztec culture. Thus, the Women of Discord challenge our assumptions about gender by offering a distinctive perspective on the ways in which femininity and fertility may be seen as disruptive, without necessarily debasing women or depriving them of individual agency
Agency (philosophy · Apprehension · Femininity · Mythology · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Subordination (linguistics · Archaeology and Natural History · Early Modern Women Writers · Gender Studies · History · Latin American history and culture · Psychology
The history of the Indies of New Spain
History and mythology of the Aztecs
Aztec warfare
Aztecs
Aztec imperial strategies
Female Dismemberment and Decapitation
Insights from the ‘Ancient Word’
La Malinche in Mexican Literature
Disorderly Women and Female Power in the Street Literature of Early Modern England and Germany
Disorderly Women and Female Power in the Street Literature of Early Modern England and Germany
A Remarkably Patterned Life’
La Malinche in Mexican Literature. From History to Myth
Bonds of Blood
Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica
The Flower and the Scorpion
The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs
Decapitated Lunar Goddesses in Aztec Art, Myth, and Ritual
Till Death Do Us Part
The Metaphorical Underpinnings of Aztec History
The “Coatlicues” at the Templo Mayor
Into the Archive
Women and Political Power
A Hill on a Land Surrounded by Water
We People Here
Chimalpahin and the Kingdoms of Chalco
Moctezuma's Daughter
The Woman's Room
Aztec Thought and Culture
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2023 (3) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |