They also prepared food, brewed chichi, prepared and harvested fields, card for children, and carried water. Men were responsible for many things, but their main responsibilities and their most important roles in life were believed to be soldiering and plowing their fields. Men also built houses, helped with the harvest, carried fire wood, and herded animals, and they even participated in spinning and weaving. However, their maleness was defined by the role of warrior and plowman.
5. What is Silverblatt's argument about how gender differences became gender hierarchies in Andean communities conquered by the Incas?
Despite the fact that so much of Andean culture was based on gender parallelism and equality, there were important gender-role differences that eventually became gender hierarchies. The main way this happened was that males within the family (and not women) represented the family in relations with the state, such as in relation to the census. The Inca generally were "hands-off" in their...
However, they did impose the same sorts of male-oriented official relations between families and the state on their subjects. Eventually, this difference accounted for differences on gender rights and status that elevated males over females in all societies over which the Incas ruled.
6. Give at least two examples of how women wielded power in pre and post Inca society in the Andes.
The Pan-Andean tradition of parallel descent originally allowed women to claim Andean resources. For example, they enjoyed the passage of right to the rich fields of the Cuzco area within their female lineage. Among the noble classes, Andean women were entitled to a separate share of the tribute that the peasants gave to the empire. Under the Incas, men and women began to acquire different designations of personhood in relation to the state: besides males representing the family, men were typically designated "soldiers" while their wives were considered "soldiers' wives."
