In the early sixth centuries, after Technotitlan, the capital of Atzec is fall to Spain (1996), the local census is taken by Spanish. However, real situations of family cannot be reflected from these exotic way they were using. There are many young children are engaged in marriage too, but their number was underestimated at that time. It was Pedro Carrasco that leads the scholar to focus on this problem (Robert McCaa, 1997). It was also him recognized that the most important character is joint family (cemithualtin), which means that every members in one family is quite related with complex relationships. Because of high mortality and childlessness, the compound of Nahua family is common. You can see a family more than triad (husband, wife, and children). A family can be dyad, like a family lack father or children. It can be not only connected with conjugal relation, but also parents—in—law and their children. These children has their own family. Sometimes, therefore, a family with over ten people living in the same residence or household (calli)(Robert McCaa, 1999). Joint family were referred to as a unit of combination of people who were affinally or consanguineously related. Thus, generally, any combination can be contained here. But a senior head is always necessary, which is often a male in the household, to control and protect the whole. These family structure is quite general at that time. The mixed—up conjugal families include both patrilineal and matrilineal nuclear small families, which means both husband and wife’s sibling’s family and parents can live together in the same house. Everyone is an equal part of the joint family. They product together, they eat what they produced together, members of the family were fed as a unit. In the modern Nahua, things are different. There is more likely to be a nuclear family. When a man got married, he can live with his parent, and he get a land from his parents, until he has his own home, while girl has to leave home to live with her parents—in—law. Unless, the girl is the sole child the patents has. She live in her patents house with her husband. These can cause a temporary extended family (Nahua of the State of Mexico). Talking about the distribution of heritage, quite like the past, male usually benefit more and enjoys the priority than female. When there is a land from parent, the son, instead of daughter in siblings, will own it preferentially. The only possible source for daughter to get land is her husband, given by his parents. When lands are deficient, the eldest descendent, no matter a son or a daughter, gets the precedence. (Nahua of the Huasteca—Marriage and Family)What’s more, the youngest son has an opportunity to inherit the house with his provision for parents. In ancient time, after being invaded by Spain, a country whose a great amount of people are Christian, the relation of two genders are affected seriously by the view on this issue in Christianity. However the effect of colonial culture was not so deep that the local ideas on gender relation disappeared entirely.
In ancient time, after being invaded by Spain, a country whose a great amount of people are Christian, the relation of two genders are affected seriously by the view on this issue in Christianity. However the effect of colonial culture was not so deep that the local ideas on gender relation disappeared entirely.
The mode of family today is not like what it used to be, the production and consumption is often in a nuclear family scale. In the daily works, women and men cooperate together to contribute in different aspects. Two genders work together when they make handicrafts and when selling these products out, men will work on it and women stay at home. Generally, men works on agricultural staffs, collection, and go out for sales. For women, they prefer to work on housework, taking care of babies, and also cultivations and harvesting as long as they still basically do not leave their house (Nahua of the State of the Mexico). Women work either as domestic servant or agricultural labor.
Citation:
David K. Jordan. Aztec Chronology. 1996. University of Chicago. Retrieved 2015 from: http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/aztecchron.html
Nahua of the Huasteca--marriage and Family. (n.d.). Retrieved 2015 From: http://www.everyculture.com/Middle-America-Caribbean/Nahua-of-the-Huasteca-Marriage-and-Family.html
Nahua of the state of Mexico. (n.d.). Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.everyculture.com/Middle-America-Caribbean/Nahua-of-the-State-of-Mexico-Kinship-Marriage-and-Family.html
Robert McCaa. Child Marriage and Complex among the Ancient Aztec. 1997. Colonial History Workshop. University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.hist.umn.edu/~rmccaa/NAHUAEN3/nacolhst.htm
Rober McCaa. The Nahua Calli of Ancient Aztec: Household, Family, and Gender. 1999. Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.hist.umn.edu/~rmccaa/calli/calli.htm
