{"title":"Malintzin’s Origins: Slave? Or Cultural Confusion?","authors":"Rosamund E. Fitzmaurice","doi":"10.1215/00141801-10443447","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n One of the most famous figures in the conquest of Mexico, Malintzin, also known as La Malinche and Doña Marina, has been described in ethnohistorical accounts as an interpreter who came from slavery. But what if this assertion of Malintzin’s origins was a result of cultural confusion, or simply untrue? This article closely examines ethnohistorical sources and their description of Malintzin’s origins. Could cultural bias or cultural misunderstanding be present within them? How might these biases affect our reading of Malintzin’s supposed slave status? The article explores the role of exchange, political marriage, gift giving, and polygyny in Maya and Aztec culture to add further context to Malintzin’s transfer from Indigenous to Conquistador society. It theorizes that Malintzin was never intended to be given to the Spanish invaders as a slave but rather as a bride.","PeriodicalId":51776,"journal":{"name":"Ethnohistory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ethnohistory","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-10443447","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
One of the most famous figures in the conquest of Mexico, Malintzin, also known as La Malinche and Doña Marina, has been described in ethnohistorical accounts as an interpreter who came from slavery. But what if this assertion of Malintzin’s origins was a result of cultural confusion, or simply untrue? This article closely examines ethnohistorical sources and their description of Malintzin’s origins. Could cultural bias or cultural misunderstanding be present within them? How might these biases affect our reading of Malintzin’s supposed slave status? The article explores the role of exchange, political marriage, gift giving, and polygyny in Maya and Aztec culture to add further context to Malintzin’s transfer from Indigenous to Conquistador society. It theorizes that Malintzin was never intended to be given to the Spanish invaders as a slave but rather as a bride.
期刊介绍:
Ethnohistory reflects the wide range of current scholarship inspired by anthropological and historical approaches to the human condition. Of particular interest are those analyses and interpretations that seek to make evident the experience, organization, and identities of indigenous, diasporic, and minority peoples that otherwise elude the histories and anthropologies of nations, states, and colonial empires. The journal publishes work from the disciplines of geography, literature, sociology, and archaeology, as well as anthropology and history. It welcomes theoretical and cross-cultural discussion of ethnohistorical materials and recognizes the wide range of academic disciplines.