Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica

By Rosemary A. Joyce

Book Overview

Gender was a fluid potential, not a fixed category, before the Spaniards came to Mesoamerica. Childhood training and ritual shaped, but did not set, adult gender, which could encompass third genders and alternative sexualities as well as male and female. At the height of the Classic period, Maya rulers presented themselves as embodying the entire range of gender possibilities, from male through female, by wearing blended costumes and playing male and female roles in state ceremonies.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292740646
• ISBN13: 9780292740648
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"