Weaving the Past

Weaving the Past offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary history of Latin America''s indigenous women. While the book concentrates on native women in Mesoamerica and the Andes it covers indigenous people in other parts of South and Central America including lowland peoples in and beyond Brazil and Afro-indigenous peoples such as the Garifuna of Central America. Drawing on primary and secondary sources it argues that change not continuity has been the norm for indigenous peoples whose resilience in the face of complex and long-term patterns of cultural change is due in no small part to the roles actions and agency of women. The book provides broad coverage of gender roles in native Latin America over many centuries drawing upon a range of evidence from archaeology anthropology religion and politics. Primary and secondary sources include chronicles codices newspaper articles and monographic work on specific regions. Arguing that Latin America''s indigenous women were the critical force behind the more important events and processes of Latin America''s history Kellogg interweaves the region''s history of family sexual and labor history with the origins of women''s power in prehispanic colonial and modern South and Central America. Shying away from interpretations that treat women as house bound and passive the book instead emphasizes women''s long history of performing labor being politically active and contributing to even supporting family and community well-being.