From the very beginning women were working and weaving from marriage. An Aztec woman's ambition fro birth was to be married. Women were entitled and chosen for marriage unless they chose to devote their lives to temple service. (They became priestesses & worked for the local temples) A woman was to be a virgin at her marriage and women were exhorted to honor lineage by their love,devotion, and loyalty to their husbands. It was a woman's fate to become married and to forever a house wife. There was no option of going to college or having a career, a woman's job in the Aztec culture was to be a house wives. She could however run a small business out of her home. For example, basket weaving or fruits that have been gathered. A wives entire purpose in life was to care for the home, children, and husband. Shortly after the marriage it was expected that a new wife was soon to be expecting! A pregnant woman was then seen as a revered possessor of commodity. War was even a symbol of childbirth. The baby was a "captive" in the womb, struggling to be victorious. The woman, too, was in a battle. If a mother were to die in child birth she was then glorified in the same way of a warrior who died in battle!
Birth:
A child was welcomed into their world and their religious system with a hymn for the new child to the goddess of the child birth went like this:
Down there, where Ayopechcatl lives, the jewel is born, a child has come into the world.
It is down there, in her own place, that the children are born.
Come, come here, new-born child, come here.
Come, come here, jewel-child, come here.
(from the Codex Florentino)
An Aztec Women's Rights:
Own Property
Ask for justice
Obtain divorce for cruelty
Could marry again after divorde, but not after death.
(Death while marriaged meant that a woman was a widow until she too died.)
Women could be divorced for not being able to have children and adultery.
Down there, where Ayopechcatl lives, the jewel is born, a child has come into the world.
It is down there, in her own place, that the children are born.
Come, come here, new-born child, come here.
Come, come here, jewel-child, come here.
(from the Codex Florentino)
An Aztec Women's Rights:
Own Property
Ask for justice
Obtain divorce for cruelty
Could marry again after divorde, but not after death.
(Death while marriaged meant that a woman was a widow until she too died.)
Women could be divorced for not being able to have children and adultery.