Ontological status of indigenous women since the Colonial Period in Mexico

Abstract

The European invasion of Mesoamerica was one of the most emblematic moments for Mesoamerican women. The establishment of the categories of race and gender instituted a relative ontological hierarchy depending on correspondence with the identities imposed themselves as superior, enjoying “ontological fullness”: the white, high-status man. From this point on, ontological distance pervaded the entire Mesoamerican population; however, the women of these lands were placed in total antithesis to the privileged ontology, unlike native men (that the gender category empowered them in their private lives) and the white women who arrived with the occupation (who shared race with the colonizers). Therefore, it is proposed that the current patriarchal and racist violence against Indigenous women stems from the articulation of various forms of domination originating during the Colonial period. The objective of this article is to analyze how the ontological status of Mesoamerican women changed significantly and progressively from the time of colonization onward. The theoretical–methodological approach is based on decolonial feminist theory and research that examines primary sources through the lens of gender. The discussion begins with decolonial feminisms, which show that before the Spanish invasion, the feminine in Mesoamerica enjoyed a different position from the one that was constructed after the arrival of Europeans. Subsequently, an analytical exercise is carried out to distinguish how the new social order was constituted, one that led Indigenous women into such an unfavorable position. It is concluded that the racial and gender hierarchies imposed during the colonial period created, for them, a double antithesis of whiteness and masculinity, resulting in increased inequalities and a complex, violent context for survival. Part of this ontological construction still persists today.