Dichotomy Of Women In Aztec Culture

Aztec culture was governed by complex cosmology and a pantheon of gods and goddesses. Among the Aztec system of cosmology was the belief in 13 sky layers and nine levels of the underworld, each under the governance of a patron god or goddess. They further divided the world into four quarters by the four cardinal directions—east, north, west, and south—each with its patron gods and goddesses. Combined with Aztec society’s birth as a group of mercenaries, and its later evolution into a marshall society grounded on the idea of terror and tribute, traditional masculine values in Aztec civilization became highly valued thus placing women as second-class subjects. The subordination of women in Aztec militaristic culture transferred to Aztec cosmology which praised the unique God as male. Because in “pre-Hispanic times, Mesoamerica was full

She was considered as a great sorceress who ate hearts and grabbed the calves of people in order to trick them, lull them to sleep, and divert them from the good path”. When Malinalxochitl “ threatened Huitzilopochtli with magical powers and destructive spells”, Huitzilopochtli abandoned her. According to the myth, Malinalxochitl cried after Huitzilopochtli left her and she went to Texcaltepetl. Malinalxochitl tears imply inevitable female weakness and vulnerability without the male species. As well, similarly to the myth of Coyolxauhqui, Malinalxochitl myth serves as a deterrent to any defiance to male authority. Overall, Malinalxochitl thirst for power and control serves as propaganda to promote according to Aztec religion the desirable qualities for the female gender. However the goddess name "flower of the malinalli” projecting purity and innocence contradicts her evil nature described in the