A View from Gender Perspective to the Maya Prehispanic's Government Model

Abstract

The prominent role of some women who held power was invisible, due to androcentric approach for nearly a century dominance in research on prehispanic maya society. However, from gender studies, anthropologists question the exclusion of women in the field of power. Also, discussed the hierarchic model of gender relations and some prefer the heterarchic model, which describe communities whit multiple fields of powers and status, in which the roles of men and women are parallel or complementary.

Various representations of women in prehispanic art suggest the possibility that women had access to power, exercise by themselves or sharing. In this paper, we study and compare the images of fifty-four vassels, from the collection of Justin Kerr, and stone monuments with various epigraphic, archaeological and ethnological data to examine the application of heterarchical model in prehispanic maya society.