Moon, Sun, and Witches : Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru

When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1532, men of the Inca Umpire worshipped the Sun as Father and their dead kings as ancestor heroes, while women venerated the Moon and her daughters, the Inca queens, as founders of female dynasties. In the pre-Inca period such notions of parallel descent were expressions of complementarity between men and women. Examining the interplay between gender ideologies and political hierarchy, Irene Silverblatt shows how Inca rulers used their Sun and Moon traditions as methods of controlling women and the Andean peoples the Incas conquered. She then explores the process by which the Spaniards employed European male and female imageries to establish their own rule in Peru and to make new inroads on the power of native women, particularly poor peasant women. Harassed economically and abused sexually, Andean women fought back, earning in the process the Spaniards' condemnation as "witches." Fresh from the European witch hunts that damned women for susceptibility to heresy and diabolic influence, Spanish clerics were predisposed to charge politically disruptive poor women with witchcraft. Silverblatt shows that these very accusations provided women with an ideology of rebellion and a method for defending their culture. The Myths And Cosmologies Of Non-western Peoples Are Not Just Histories, Relating The World As It Once Was, Nor Are They Pseudo-histories, Justifying The World As It Has Come To Be. Instead, They Are Tools Of Struggle: Ideologies Both Producing And Produced By The Effort To Create Society In Someone's Image. On Them Are Written The Memories And Hopes Of Forgotten People, Yearning For Power Over Their - And Others' - Lives. Such Is Irene Silverblatt's Argument As She Documents Religious/ideological Struggle In Pre- And Post-conquest Peru. Heavily Influenced By Marxist Anthropology And By Debates About The Social Construction Of Gender, She Examines Religious And Gender Ideologies In The Andes Prior To The Inca Conquest, During Their Short Reign (1450-1532), And After The Coming Of The Spanish. Though The Pre-inca Period Is Relatively Opaque Silverblatt Argues That The Sexes Were Relatively Equal. Men's And Women's Work, Men's And Women's Religion Each Upheld A Portion Of The Universe. Women Inherited From Women, Worshipped Female Gods And Directed Their Cults; Men Inherited From Men, And Ruled Cults Whose Gods Were Male. Gender Was The Dominant Screen Through Which These People Viewed Life - And Both Sides Could Play. The Incas Shared This Gender-defined Worldview, But Used It To Justify Their Conquest And Control. They Worshipped Viracocha, Whom They Claimed As The An-drogynous Pro-genitor Of Sun And Moon, Respectively The Ancestors Of Men And Women.--www.jstor.org (nov. 9, 2010). I. Producing Andean Existence -- Ii. Gender Parallelism In Local Communities -- Iii. Gender Parallelism In Imperial Order -- Iv. Ideologies Of Conquest In The Ayllu -- V. Transformations: The Conquest Hierarchy And Imperial Rule -- Vi. Under The Spanish: Native Noblewomen Enter The Market -- Vii. Women Of The Peasantry -- Viii. Political Disfranchisement -- Ix. Cultural Defiance: The Sorcery Weapon -- X. Women Of The Puna -- Xi. A Proposal. Irene Silverblatt. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 235-255. When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1532, men of the Inca Empire worshipped the Sun as Father and their dead kings as ancestor heroes, while women venerated the Moon and her daughters, the Inca queens, as founders of female dynasties. In the pre-Inca period such notions of parallel descent were expressions of complementarity between men and women. Examining the interplay between gender ideologies and political hierarchy. Irene Silverblatt shows how Inca rulers used their Sun and Moon traditions as methods of controlling women and the Andean peoples the Incas conquered. She then explores the process by which the Spaniards employed European male and female imageries to establish their own rule in Peru and to make new inroads on the power of native women, particularly poor peasant women. Harassed economically and abused sexually, Andean women fought back, earning in the process the Spaniards' condemnation as "witches." Fresh from the European witch hunts that damned women for susceptibility to heresy and diabolic influence, Spanish clerics were predisposed to charge politically disruptive poor women with witchcraft. Professor Silverblatt shows that these very accusations provided women with an ideology of rebellion and a method for defending their culture. Annotation "This is a rich and compelling analysis--well conceived, innovative, and dealing with important frontiers in several fields. It will stand as a very important contribution to anthropology, ethnohistory, Latin American studies, and women's studies."--Kay B. Warren, Princeton University