Jalisco Female Figure

Seated Figure of a Woman

#ARTSOFTHEAMERICAS

CULTURE Jalisco, Western Mexico

MEDIUM Ceramic, pigment

DATES 300 BCE-300 CE

PERIOD Pre-Spanish #precolumbian

From the estate of Dr. Armin Sadoff, Beverly Hills, CA. Collected before 1960.

Women's common roles in all the societies within Pre-Columbian America include housekeeping, raising children, preparing food for the family, and weaving textiles. In addition to these duties, depending on the region, some women participated in political, economic and religious activities. Some of the North American cultures were matrilineal, where women often had power in politics. Also, in societies such as Maya and Aztec, women participated in the market by manufacturing cloth. Women's role in Inca was somewhat different from that of other societies, for women in Inca society had a duty of providing the government storehouse one piece of clothing every year. Few selected women in the Inca, called "Chosen Women" had important economical and cultural role within the society. 

What is significant is that women in Pre-Columbian America had comparatively important role in their society than that of other regions in the same period, such as Korea and Europe. They had distinctly separate role from men, but rather than being viewed as inferior to men, their roles were considered as complementary to the role of men and a necessary component of their society.