Rituals and Sisterhoods: Single Women’s Households in Mexico, 1560–1750

Abstract

Herodotus was the first to write of the AMazons , placing them in Pontus near the shore of the Euxine Sea, and describing their raids against scythes, Thrace, and the coasts of Asia Minor. No men were permitted to dwell in their country, though once a year the warrior women visited a neighboring nation for purposes of procreation, slaying all male children or returning them to their fathers, and recruiting the baby girls. Their name allegedly came from the Greek a-mazos (without breast), from their custom of amputating the right breast to make the drawing of the bow more convenient, but a variety of other derivations have been put forward. The explorer Francisco de Orellana, at Amazonas Forest, 1541, said that women at Maranhão River threw arrows against his expedition. This myth dissipated that because of these actions the women received the name of the Greek warriors. 1 Who were those "single-breasted" maidens, and what was their role in society? And how did their sexuality defy gender relations? Embarking on Isabel de Montoya's individual life history, and thereafter parting onto the vast landscape of singleness in early and mid-colonial Mexico, the goal of this book is to provide a fresh approach to lingering views on single, plebeian women in Latin American historiography in general, and in Mexico in particular. This book is dedicated entirely to single women of the lower echelons of society, whether they were Spanish, creoles, mulatas, or blacks. Indigenous single women during the period discussed amounted to as high as 39% of all mothers in rural areas such as San Martin Huequechula (state of Puebla); however, they are usually During the sixteenth century, according to Spanish law, men were relegated to the heads of families and filled most of the roles within the family and outside it: the

Agency, Protection, and Punishment: Separating Women’s Experiences of Deposit in Early to Mid-Colonial New Spain, 1530–1680

“…In an undated petition from Durango, a town in Northern Mexico founded in 1563, don Gerónimo de Pereira complained that his wife had remained deposited for four years. While this is one of the longer deposits in the cases studied here, protracted deposits were far from uncommon (Megged 2019). Moreover, Pereira claimed his wife enjoyed extreme liberty instead of decent enclosure: Many times, and on various bases, I have said to this tribunal that my wife's house of deposit, is, has been, and will be highly suspicious to me; I came to the tribunal to present a letter from one of the seducers, protectors, and insinuators in the case of my wife.…”

“…Mexico City's Hospital de la Misericordia was established in the early seventeenth century to receive and "correct" street prostitutes. Throughout the seventeenth century, it was used for this purpose by the criminal courts, but it also served as a remand centre for women seeking divorce until all women were transferred from the hospital to the recogimiento of María Magdalena in 1692 (Megged 2019). Over time, then, and by the end of the seventeenth century, the system of depósito grew more formalized and more carceral.…”

“…While class likely affected women's chances of deposit in a private home, such deposit seems to have correlated with other indices of vulnerability, such as age. Megged (2019) mentions two teenagers who experienced deposit to private homes. The first, Catalina Martín, was fifteen and sought deposit in 1555 to escape her violent husband.…”

Sin registro de ocupación: la omisión de empleo de las mujeres solteras en la Ciudad de México, 1790

“…Por ejemplo, María Gertrudis Fuentes, española doncella de 50 años, vivía agregada en la casa de don Pedro José Jiménez de Velasco y no se registró su ocupación; sin embargo, sabemos que esta mujer comenzó a trabajar en la Real Fábrica de Puros y Cigarros desde 1770, para desempeñar los oficios de empapeladora, envolvedora y guarda, y en 1784 la ascendieron a maestra mayor, no sabemos hasta cuando estuvo trabajando en esta fábrica, solamente tenemos el registro de que falleció el 17 de septiembre de 1806 a los 66 años 34 . Otro caso es el de las hermanas Bárbara y Mariana Soriano, españolas doncellas de 40 y 38 años, respectivamente, que vivían en casa de su primo José Medina, en el barrio de Santa Catarina, y también fueron cigarreras, aunque no lo manifestaron en el Censo 35 .…”

Historia judicial, historia del derecho. Los foros de justicia como intérpretes y traductores de los saberes normativos

“…El caso de María de Rivera está lejos de ser una situación excepcional, pues no era extraño que este tipo de relaciones se presentaran, de manera especial, en los centros urbanos de la Hispanoamérica virreinal. 44 Tampoco UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Revista Mexicana de Historia del Derecho, XLIII, pp. 51-84 era una situación extraña en el mundo rural, como es posible constatar en los libros de visita y en las visitas especiales a matrimonios mandadas por los prelados diocesanos.…”