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Imagining Cihuacoatl: Masculine Rituals, Nahua Goddesses and the Texts of the Tlacuilos

Publication ,  Journal Article
Sigal, P
Published in: Gender and History
November 1, 2010

'Imagining Cihuacoatl' examines the conundrum of the multiple identities of the 'serpent woman', a Mexica goddess, analysing her relationship with other goddesses in the Nahua pantheon. She and the others were marked in a particular sexualised and gendered manner in the Nahua world. This article argues that Cihuacoatl and the fertility goddesses cannot be conceptualised in a symbolic universe that has binary divisions between male and female, nor can they be analysed by the methods currently employed in the social and cultural history of sexuality. This article follows images of various goddesses of warfare and fertility from pre-conquest and early post-conquest texts, suggesting ways in which the Spanish attempted to reconceptualise all of them into a framework of demonic sin. 'Imagining Cihuacoatl' will interrogate the sexual performance involved in Nahua ritual, lost in the translation not just from Nahuatl to Spanish but from a system that linked sex with rites of fertility to one that linked sex with sin. 'Imagining Cihuacoatl' shows that Gayle Rubin's call to develop a theory of sexuality separate from gender is a project fraught with contradictions, and one that remains incomplete. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Gender and History

DOI

EISSN

1468-0424

ISSN

0953-5233

Publication Date

November 1, 2010

Volume

22

Issue

3

Start / End Page

538 / 563

Related Subject Headings

  • Gender Studies
  • 2103 Historical Studies
  • 1699 Other Studies in Human Society
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Sigal, P. (2010). Imagining Cihuacoatl: Masculine Rituals, Nahua Goddesses and the Texts of the Tlacuilos. Gender and History, 22(3), 538–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01610.x
Sigal, P. “Imagining Cihuacoatl: Masculine Rituals, Nahua Goddesses and the Texts of the Tlacuilos.” Gender and History 22, no. 3 (November 1, 2010): 538–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01610.x.
Sigal, P. “Imagining Cihuacoatl: Masculine Rituals, Nahua Goddesses and the Texts of the Tlacuilos.” Gender and History, vol. 22, no. 3, Nov. 2010, pp. 538–63. Scopus, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01610.x.
Sigal P. Imagining Cihuacoatl: Masculine Rituals, Nahua Goddesses and the Texts of the Tlacuilos. Gender and History. 2010 Nov 1;22(3):538–563.
Journal cover image

Published In

Gender and History

DOI

EISSN

1468-0424

ISSN

0953-5233

Publication Date

November 1, 2010

Volume

22

Issue

3

Start / End Page

538 / 563

Related Subject Headings

  • Gender Studies
  • 2103 Historical Studies
  • 1699 Other Studies in Human Society