Archaeologica.org

General question for anyone who might recommend a good source, book, or site.


I'm currently engaged in writing something about the Mexica corn God Centeotl (above, in theory). Usually he is referred to as male, although sometimes as female (the teo-tl suffix is neutral) and it seems likely was originally Centeocihuatl (corn Goddess with no gender confusion) - a much older Deity dating back at least to the Toltec era (and much further albeit in different forms). So I'm wondering, what possible reason could the Mexica have had for turning Centeocihuatl into a geezer, particularly when they continued to recognise a number of other corn related supernaturals (Chicomecoatl, Xilonen) as female without any problem?
I have a few vague theories to do with Centeotl being a composite of Centeocihuatl and existing male Gods Xochipilli and/or Xipe Totec, but this being the Mexica there may have been a subsidiary political reason I suspect.
Any theories, thoughts or recommendations? Does this remind anyone of a similar occurence within some other mythology? I need a good meaty book that probably has 'gender politics' in the title but where to start?

Failing that, feel free to post any sex change jokes that come to mind.[/img]

War Arrow wrote:
[...] I need a good meaty book that probably has 'gender politics' in the title but where to start?

A meaty book about 'gender politics' should start with Hatshepsut, imo.

I deleted the triple post, R/S.

Cheers

Personally I could probably offer some ideas related to general shifts in cultural attitudes, etc. but I really have no historical perspective about when the various Mexican dieties were "popular" as it seems gods tend have life spans until cultural changes or conquerers introduce other gods.

Forum Monk wrote:Personally I could probably offer some ideas related to general shifts in cultural attitudes, etc. but I really have no historical perspective about when the various Mexican dieties were "popular" as it seems gods tend have life spans until cultural changes or conquerers introduce other gods.

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.
Though having said that I've had another day of hitting the books since the first post and more or less answered my own question. I was kind of assuming some sort of Mexica rewriting of history (of which they did a lot) but there seems to be an overwhelming amount of fairly sound religious reasons why Centeotl occasionally got mistaken for a dame (plus in the various sources, he has about twelve different parents, some of which are his own kids in other versions - one variant seems to give him two dads and no mother - no wonder the poor sod had issues). Anyway, I still want to follow up the possibility of their being an additional political motive to this apparent sex change (just in case there was one) so as I say, any ideas or interesting parallels in other mythologies appreciated.

WA, sofar you used the words 'gender politics'. Which literally means something like 'political relations and relationships between males and females'. But I'm getting the strong impression now that you really mean 'gender change politics'.
That is something completely different of course!

If you mean 'gender politics' as 'political relations and relationships between males and females', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_Pope could be interesting.
But if you actually mean 'gender change politics' it isn't.

No - meant in the first sense, expecting something along the lines of the old classic of nice mummy Goddess replaced by patriarchal phallocrat - type of stuff (er... that wasn't intended to sound sarcastic but it seems to be an area that's prone to long debates that can often be distilled into an 'aren't men terrible, sisters' thing - which whether that's right or not isn't always very useful)... Susan D. Gillespie wrote some seriously fascinating stuff about patriarchy in Tenochtitlan and how an early female ruler (Ilancueitl) is either absent or a male ruler's wife in most accounts (the conclusion being who knows?) - anyway, I was kind of wondering along those lines but as I say I seem to have answered my own question.

If none of this makes sense to anyone please keep in mind I've been out of the on line loop a while. Well, that's my excuse.