The only other never-married resident is a fifteen year old male, son of the widowed sister of the head's uncle's wife. The head's mother, widowed "ten years ago," also resides in the household. The head also has a daughter born last year, but the presence of a female child was less important in determining headship. Headship rests not with the oldest generation in the household, of which three conjugal units are represented here, but with the middle generation, the only married male with an unmarried resident son, a seven year old. The diagram also reveals the remarkably aggregative character of Nahua households, incorporating large numbers of both consanguineous and affinal kin. Surprisingly few unmarried older teenagers appear in these listings. Here, we find no unmarried individuals above fifteen years of age. Household H38, is a reliable guide to Nahua rules about marriage, kin co-residence, and household headship. Here there are eight included in one house. Here is his provisions tribute: one quarter-length of a narrow cloak, and one turkey hen. Here is his tribute: every 80 days he delivers one quarter-length of a Cuernavaca cloak. She has a child, not baptized, named Coatl, now fifteen years old. Here is Matlalihuitl's sister-in-law, just a widow. Here is Cuilol's uncle, named Matlalihuitl, not baptized. Here is Cuilol's mother, named Xilotl, a widow ten years ago her husband died. The second is named Ilhuicacihuatl, not baptized, born last year. The first one, not baptized, is named Matapach, now seven years old. Here is the home of one not baptized, named Cuilol. The pictographic content and complexity of the Morelos censuses are illustrated in the following example from Cline's translation, household H38, containing nine persons in four conjugal family units, stretching over three generations: 549 provide intriguing data on rural Nahua marriageways, families and residence patterns during the first decades of Spanish conquest and colonization. Reporting a combined population of some 2,500 people grouped in 315 households, the surprisingly detailed entries in ms. 549 ( click here to see a household in the original Nahuatl), with its amazingly complete lists for two villages, Huitzillan and Quauhchichinollan, near Yautepec, Morelos. 551 was transcribed and translated into the German by Eike Hinz and his collaborators.Ī decade later, the ethnohistorian and philologist Sarah Cline published a transcription and polished, nuanced English translation of ms. 550 of the Archivo Histórico, Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, containing "tribute books" for nine places in the district of Tepoztlan. Ismael Díaz Cadena published a transcription and Spanish translation of ms. Pedro Carrasco, who first brought the Nahua censuses to the attention of scholars, used these unique documents to prove that joint families ( cemithualtin) was the most common form of family structure among the early sixteenth century Nahuas. The Morelos lists also offer unexpected insights on the long-running debate among family historians regarding the frequency of complex households in the past and the principal detriments to household complexity-whether in premodern times the greatest obstacles to the formation of extended families were high death rates, delayed marriage or neolocal residence rules. A close anlysis shows that child marriage was an iron-clad rule for females. While the Morelos lists do not satisfy all of the basic requirements of a modern census-age, for example, is not specified for married adults, sex must be determined for the unmarried, and young children are undercounted, by one-tenth to one-third-these lists are priceless for understanding Nahua society, marriage and family. Written on fig-bark paper ( amatl) by native speakers of the lingua franca of prehispanic Mesoamerica, these Nahuatl censuses rank among the most detailed in the world for their era. " is a common refrain in the amazingly complete, but little known, sixteenth century household censuses of ancient Mexico. That there was ever a time or place where the complex family was the universal background to the ordinary lives of ordinary people. It is simply untrue as far as we can yet tell (Spanish version published, with scholarly notes, in Historia Mexicana, jul-sep 1996, 3-70) Child Marriage and Complex Families (cemithualtin) among the Ancient Aztec (Nahua)Ĭolonial History Workshop, University of Minnesota, Jan.
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