Sexual fantasies and older, indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural possibilities

and constraints

Cuauhtémoc Sanchez Vega

Acknowledgment to Karina G. López Rodríguez
for the translation of this paper

Eroticism is established in pleasure, sensuality, attraction

Between sexes, courtship. This cannot be fully appreciated
in Mesoamerican antiquity, which we are approaching
largely through sources strongly
conditioned by the perception of the conquering culture
(López Austin, 2010; pp: 33).

Introduction

The lives and sociocultural structure of indigenous communities in Mexico have been
extensively documented, as evidenced in documentary heritage of the National
Commission for the Development of Indigenous People. Few attention has been paid
to native people’s sexuality. However, when talking about the erotic lives of indigenous
people, attention has been placed mainly on teenage pregnancies, early marriages,
ignorance of the body and sexually transmitted infections. Consequently, the
experience of pleasure is neglected and emphasis placed on the reproductive age
population, erasing from the erotic panorama, the sexual and post-reproductive lives
of older indigenous people.

In light of the above-mentioned concerns, this chapter explores the sociocultural

phenomena that enable, nurture or condition expressions of sexual fantasies of
Purépecha women over 50 years, inhabitants of Purépecha indigenous communities in
the State of Michoacán, in northwestern Mexico. My analysis refers to information
contained in the oldest source of the prehispanic history of the state of Michoacán,
Mexico: the codex (collection of old manuscripts) called ‘Relación de las ceremonias y
ritos y población y gobernación de los indios de la Provincia de Michoacán’ [‘Relation
of the ceremonies and rites and population and government of the Indians of the
Province of Michoacán’] (Amezcua and Sánchez Díaz, 2015; Miranda and Le Clezio,
1980). This source is the recognised as the most authoritative by the scholarly
community for its knowledge of the ways of life and sociocultural organization of the
population settled in the Michoacan territory before, during and after it was
conquered by the Spanish Crown in the 16th century (Ibid).
From the codex, we gain insight into components of social and cultural organization
that, according to authors such as Weeks (1986), Rubin cited in Lamas (2000) and
Foucault (2007a, b), regulate erotic activity. With such considerations in mind, this
chapter answers several key questions: 1) what concrete and symbolic sociocultural
references persist, that make possible or impossible the experience of pleasure, sexual
desire and loving for Purépecha women? 2) What concrete and symbolic factors shape
the sexual fantasies of these women? 3) What novel factors of reported experience
reveal the content of sexual fantasies of Purépecha women who question women's
duty in that particular cultural social context?

The method of data analysis underpinning this chapter consists of a content review
from a critical feminist perspective through the proposals of Galarza and Luz (2011);
Hierro (2014); Mogrovejo (2016); Pessah, (cited in Mogrovejo, 2016), and Rosso (cited
in Mogrovejo, 2016). This method is applied to narratives about sexual fantasies co-
generated in-depth interviews which form the basis of later discussion, reflecting on
possible sociocultural influences that persist or are represents reconfigured thinking of
Purépecha women, the latter suggesting new ethics of pleasure, itself pointing towards
a more convivial model of sexual morality that positively acknowledges (Purépecha)
women’s pleasure.

The puzzle: the origins of practices associated with Purépecha sexuality

This section provides insight into aspects of history, culture and politics that have,
inevitably, shaped Purépecha life and sexuality. The codex already referred to:
“Relación de las ceremonias y ritos y población y gobernación de los indios de la
Provincia de Michoacán” (1988), contains invaluable information on the sociocultural
life of the inhabitants of Michoacen before Mexico’s conquest. However, it lacks
elements that give a clear account of the practices and sexual life of men and women
from Michoacan. Authors such as López (1998), Austin (2010), and Zavala (1980) have
examined its content of the codex and have identified three salient themes: 1)
marriage, endogamy and polygamy; 2) adultery/infidelity and traits of morality before
marriage (one of the most recurring themes in the codex); and 3) the political
relevance of kinship and its possibilities. In turn, such factors represent key
sociocultural influences on the sexual and erotic lives of Purépecha people in
prehispanic times.

Marriage, inbreeding and polygamy

The structure of Purépecha society attracted the curiosity of religious people and
largely because this structure involved ‘marriage within the neighborhood’ or
endogamy (Dávalos López, 1998):
 Others married for love without informing their parents and arranged among
themselves. Others from very young were appointed to marry them. Others
first took the mother-in-law when the daughter was little, and after the girl was
old, they left the mother-in-law and they took the daughter, whom they
married... Others with their female relatives, as it has been said, …left them and
took others when they did not make blankets for them or they had started
adultery" (La Relación de Michoacán [Michoacan’s relation], 1988; pp: 53).

The codex also reveals that marriages across status/caste: between lords, caciques
(community leader/s) and common people were not allowed: ‘When people were to
marry, relatives of the woman came down and they agreed with each other and the
priests did not go to them and give their adjustments’ of they lacked status (section De
la maneraen que se casaba la gentevaja [On the way in which those accorded low
status people got married], pp: 53). Indeed, marriage within the culture signified as an
act of prestige, particularly for the ruling elite, for whom it was important who they
became related to: an inappropriate choice could mean social repudiation: ‘...I who am
your Father did not walk in this way that you walk, you have done me a great affront,
throwing the earth in my eyes; I wanted to say I will not dare to appear among the
people nor will I have eyes to look at them because everyone will tell me to my face
and they will affront me for what you have done, he said more to his daughter’ (La
Relación de Michoacán [Michoacan’s relation]; section Los señores entre sí se casaba
de esta manera [gentlemen married each other this way]; 1988: pp 55).

Moreover, according to Dávalos López, (1998), the cazonci (community ruler)

maintained polygamous relationships for the political utility of this practice, which
helped ensure sufficient alliances to maintain a certain degree of trust, solidarity and
mutual aid with other community members. Above all, this arrangement helped secure
a sense of communal belonging and identity when marrying the daughters or sisters of
main lords with whom he had offspring, so that offspring was related to other lords or
caciques, guaranteeing the continuity of his lineage and domain: ‘…many ladies,
daughters of principals... In these the cazonci [sovereign/ruler] had many children and
many of them were his relatives and later some of these ladies married some
principals’ (La Relación de Michoacán [Michoacan’s relation], 1988:236; in Dávalos
López, 1998; pp: 82).

Adultery, infidelity and morality in marriage

As already mentioned in “La relación de Michoacán” [Michoacan’s relation] (1988), it is

made clear that marital ties play a central role in Purépecha people’s life, since
throughout the text there are references associated with the political, social, religious
and ontological importance of being Purépecha. Zavala (1980) has observed the
establishment of a divine connection between man and nature, and, therefore, the
actions of man/humankind are intimately related to divinity (curicaueri). Indeed, any
affront to marriage was to be regarded as an affront to divinity itself.

Further, among the religious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Michoacan, it was
considered that inappropriate behavior of the offspring directly affected the entire
family, so another of the recommendations that the religious gave to newlyweds was:
‘…be well married; look, don´t get killed for some adultery or lust that you will commit"
(Dávalos López 1998; pp: 151).

Indeed, the codex indicates adultery was one of the most commonly observed of
Purépecha sexual behaviors, and it was sanctioned in different ways; although
descriptions of the way in which they were punished change according to the
documents consulted, an evident aspect regardless of the version, is that women
compared to men were most sanctioned or even warned against such behavior; the
married woman who committed adultery and her lover were punished, but not the
single man who committed adultery with a married woman; according to evidence in
texts, only the woman who dared to break the marriage vow of fidelity that was
punished.

Political relevance of kinship and its possibilities

Passed a few days, the lord of Curinguaro called his sons and asked them,
“What we will do? Look, what do you think? Say it and I will listen to you…
Wouldn't it be good if you took your sister to him [Tariacuri]?” And the sons
said, “You have spoken well, sir. What should we say? Your opinion is great and
it is good and they agreed to give her to Tariacuri as a wife, ... “. (La relación
[The relationship], 1988; pp 191-192).

From the previous sections, and especially from the quote above, we can see that pre-
hispanic Purépecha society was based on the exchange of women (Rubin, 1986, in
Lamas, 2000). This practice signified as a form of commitment and reciprocity that
reinforced the structures of social bonding and was thought to enrich social
relationships and key social structures, from the family unit to the organization of
government.

Indeed, according to Rubin: ‘Kinship is organization, and organization gives power. But
who do they organize or what do they organize? To whom and over what do they give
power?" (pp: 53). For Rubin (ibid), most tribal societies were characterized by
maintaining a social system of great men, in which the exchange of women meant not
only a simple gift, but the greatest of gifts and the means of organization that
guaranteed social peace through alliances between groups of great men. Rubín's
thinking here appears reflected in the narration of the much-discussed origin of the
appropriate adjective to name the native habitants from the Michoacan region:
Purépecha or Tarasco:

A little while ago, three Spaniards came with their horses and arrived at the city
of Mechuacan [...] And the Cazonci made the Spaniards compose as they
composed their gods, with gold garlands and put gold roundels around their
necks, and to each one of them placed his offering of wine in front of him in
large cups, and offerings of bread and fruits... and before the Spaniards left,
they took two Indian women with them who asked the cazonci of their female
relatives, and along the way they got together with them and they called the
Indians who went with them the Spaniards’ tarascue, which means sons-in-law
in their language, and from there they later began to give the Indians this name
and instead of calling them tarascue, they called them tarascos" (La relación
[The relationship], 1988; pp: 91-92).

This story shows both the instrumental and concrete structure of the great men
through gifts and reception of the first Spanish in Michoque land, similar to the way in
which the Purépecha people treated their gods, including the delivery of the female
relatives of the cazonci. Culturally, it represented the meeting of two cultures,
modifying the language, relationships and social structure of those involved, such that
even today the denomination Tarasco versus Purépecha is still not entirely clear
(Franco Mendoza, M. 2007).

In line with Rubin's approach (1986, in Lamas 2000), ‘The exchange of women
concretely is the establishment of political positions, preservation of a lineage and
wealth, but also freedoms, possibilities and rights; rights that in exchange system, men
have over their female relatives, but that women do not have over their male relatives.
Hence, rights and freedoms were exclusive to men before and after the conquest of
Purépecha people, and men held power through the family organization and the
specific form of kinship, since consistently in “La Relación” [The relationship] (1988),
throughout this, it is men who choose women or who give women to other men.

Strictly speaking, the kinship system that works through the exchange of women
establishes as basic processes: obligatory heterosexuality and the asymmetrical
division of sex-gender; the first one described as:

Furthermore, in the marriages that are clandestine, they never use the word of
the present but of the future: “I will marry you” and their intention is of the
 present with copulation, because they have this way of speaking in their
language. (La Relación [The relationship], 1988: p57).
Given the foregoing discussion, it may come as no surprise that women in
Mesoamerican towns did not have access to formal political power. For Purépecha
women, such a possibility was apparently forbidden, and, similarly, they could not
choose their partners autonomously and most of their social activities were centred on
the care of offspring. Gendered power asymmetries did not stop manifestation at the
organization and distribution of formal power but also influenced the experience of
pleasure, and emotions involved in wanting, liking and feeling.

Arguably, the lack of erotic representations and writings on the prehispanic period
would not seem strange, due in part, to the very probable censorship initiated with the
conquest and followed by the sexual conceptions of the native people. According to
López Austin (2010), Fray Bartolomé de las Casas affirmed that the transgression for
excellence was sexual: "When they said sin, without addition, they understood by the
sin of the flesh, and that of fornication mostly" (pp: 33).

In “La Relación de Michoacán” [Michoacan’s relation] (1988:243-244), an episode is

described, unique in its kind for making direct mention of the expression of a woman's
desire:
Tariacuri tells his nephews, that a daughter of Zurunban named Mauina asked
that a tent or pavilion (called xupaquata) be made for her in the market with a
chamber made of dyed blankets, and there, sitting on many blankets as they
used to put the goddess Xaratanga, she sent for the beautiful young men who
passed through the market and all day she got together with them saying: if I
were a man, wouldn't I get together with a woman?... they wouldn't be lords of
Tariaran.

Tariacuri's express request was that the brothers should throw his sister into the river;
in addition to the specific assertion that none of the brothers would become lord of
Tararán because not only had they not sacrificed their sister, they had also tolerated
her behavior, which evidently tells us about desire and pleasure of this woman on the
physical plane, taking it even to a fantasy situation that surely transgresses the moral
structure of the exchange of women: the sexual/carnal desire between men.

Other prehispanic cultures, such as Nahuas societies, refer to women’s sexual potency,
as described by Dávalos López (1998), Austin (2010), and Zavala (1980). We find
something similar with Otomi (indigenous) women, as described by Davalos Lopez,
concerning how they dressed. In “La Relación” we cannot find any narrative that even
makes a reference to erotic elements or dressing of Purépecha women.
Sexual fantasies: key elements of experience

Cultures furnish various resources that are manifested in all domains of life through
specific practices and that establish the meanings of sex, sexuality and eroticism,
though there is some scope for nuance and adaptation through creativity. However,
sexuality has been constituted for thousands of years as a form of power and control
(Foucault, 2007a, 2007b and 2005c).

Plummer (in Weeks, 1998: pp: 31) informs us that each society and culture establishes
restrictions on sexual and erotic expression, for example, by age, sex, gender, sexual
preference, ethnicity etc., which prescribes who can engage or not in certain sexual
activities and who may or may not marry, express/manifest their desire, or flirt. But,
another set of restrictions tells people how to perform or ‘do’ sex, where, when and
how often. Such restrictions ordain which orifices or body parts to stimulate, highlight
or not, or even make in/visible. Such restrictions are generally regulated both in legal
systems or backed by a well-known moral structure grounded in society and culture.
Given the historical, political and social influences already explained, both kinds of
regulation appear integral to Purépecha culture.

The restrictions that Plummer establishes (in Weeks, 1998: pp: 31) focus their
attention on both concrete and practical aspects of regulation. However, there is
another element that is essential to address the central theme of this chapter which
concerns restrictions that society and culture establish for imaginative activity
(Vigotsky. L., 2015). In this category of restrictions, we find reproductive and
productive ones. The imaginative reproductive restrictions allude to those elements
that as individuals we are able to produce freely, countless times, but that are not
necessarily valued, validated, recognized by society, but, nevertheless, are very much
integral to our social and cultural background. For this type of imaginative restrictions,
collective creativity is fundamental, since its raw material is what is already known,
whether through personal experience or that of others, it is what we would call
crystallized imagination.

Productive imaginative restrictions refer to those elements that as individuals we are

also able to produce freely, but the difference is that they are nourished both by
elements of the crystallized imagination and by new elements that come from the
creative activity and dynamics of experimentation in spaces, backgrounds and with
unknown people, of questioning what is already given and established. Language, for
example, is a clear product, tool and technique for enabling such creativity.

For Vygotsky (2015), human creativity is always accompanied, promoted, stimulated or

well, manipulated, punished, or sanctioned by culture, that silent and sometimes
thunderous structure that interferes in lives of human beings even before birth
through of its laws, norms, concessions, myths, taboos, language, institutions and
restrictions. For Ribot (Vigotsky. L., 2015; pp: 37): ‘No matter how individual it may
seem, every creation always includes a social coefficient. In this sense, no invention
will be individual in the strict sense of the word, it always be a secret and unknown
collaboration’. Indeed, it is very difficult accurately to trace and even give a conscious
account of the origin of what we think, imagine or do. Hence, what we understand as
an autonomous creation is actually a product of our experience in the material and
historical reality that conditions our psychic reality (Aguinis, 1999).

Psychic life is practically nourished by fantasy (Aguinis, 1999), without this implying a
tacit separation from material and historical reality. Rather it is nourished and dynamic
thanks to the influences of material and historical reality, which serve to update,
rearrange, modify and even eliminate experiences and symbolic content and,
consciously or unconsciously, to reduce displeasure. The influences of material and
historical reality (social and individual) constitute a common thread that nurture
everything accumulated through experience and senses (Lizarraga-Cruchaga, 2016) in
memory (Shaie and Willis, 2003), nourishing fantasies, which are promoted by desire.

Furthermore, psychoanalytic literature refers to fantasies or daydreams, which are

narrations of the erotic content of the waking subject, make up the story and
representation of the intimate and sometimes ‘shameful’ content of that psychic life to
which the person has access in a conscious state (Aguinis, 1999). For Sanz (1999),
sexual fantasy is a faculty and resource of the human being to mentally eroticize
himself, which emerges from a desire or allows its formation; fantasy is constituted as
a mental process of thoughts and images that derive in physical sensations that can be
experienced in a pleasant way. For Moyano and Sierra (2014), sexual fantasies reflect
the direct relation with erotic and pleasurable stories and, consequently, sexual
satisfaction, which also highlight the social influences on their content, at least at the
level of gender.

Research Design

Participants: 20 indigenous women participated in the study, all of them speakers of

the Purépecha language, five of them monolingual, the rest bilingual (Purépecha and
Spanish), their native tongue being Purépecha. One participant took part in the
workshop as a translator, from Spanish to Purépecha and from Purépecha to Spanish.
She was also one of those interviewed as a key informant. The women participating in
this study were found in an age range between 50 and 82 years of age. Originally from
the communities of Erongarícuaro and Turícuaro, both being communities, which
belong to the municipal region of San Andrés Tziróndaro in the state of Michoacán,
Mexico.

Process: Reports of sexual fantasies were obtained at the end of a three-hour

discussion workshop about topics associated with sexuality in old age and aging. At
the end of the workshop, participants were asked to write a sexual fantasy and specify
their name and age. Participants were asked that whoever wanted to share their
fantasy (for research purposes) let us know, eight of them agreed to the request.

Data collection technique: documentary-analysis of documents and content; focused

interviews with key informants (Rapley, 2014, Valle, 2007).

Sample: a purposive sampling strategy was deployed by criteria: indigenous Purépecha

women, over 50 fifty years, monolingual speakers of Purépecha language and bilingual
speakers of Purépecha and Spanish. (Izcara, 2014).

Inclusion criteria for sexual fantasies: the narratives of those who at that time were
over fifty years old, being at least half a page and do not exceed a page and a half,
regardless of their content, were selected for reasons of data manageability.

Analysis and codification: Pictures of the fantasies articulated were taken (the
participants decided to keep the originals), then they were printed to be able to work
on the content, making side notes. Five focused interviews were transcribed textually,
lasting between 20 and 35 minutes each, with a total recording of 105 minutes.

For the content analysis and data reduction of sexual fantasies, keywords and narrative
topics were identified, reviewing word by word and line by line, in an inductive way.
Peripheral categories associated with the following themes were obtained: 1)
respectful and affectionate treatment by partners; 2) sensations and emotions; 3)
setting and scenarios; 4) partner’s sexual characteristics; 5) active (sexual)
participation; 6) protected sex; 7) fidelity; and, 8) desires.

Data analysis of the focused interviews with five key informants consisted of a critical
feminist content analysis, from the perspective of ‘amor y contramor’ (love and against
love) (Herrera, 2011; Mogrovejo, 2016) which was carried out word-by-word,
identifying thematic and discursive axes associated with the sociocultural background
of participants. From both the content analysis of the sexual fantasies and focused
interviews, three central categories were obtained: 1) influence of culture on the sex-
erotic life of women; 2) influences associated with romantic love; and, 3) personal
agency with respect to erotic life. The discursive content of the fantasies and the
focused interviews describe in the participant’s voices elements of discourse that
favor, enrich, delimit and condition the erotic life of Purépecha women.

Analysis of results

The content analysis of sexual fantasies reveals interesting aspects of reported

experience that are correlated at the content level and which can be analyzed from a
critical feminist perspective: 1) influence of culture on the sex-erotic life of women; 2)
elements associated with romantic love; and 3) personal agency regarding erotic life.
The analysis shown below intersects with some feminist reflections (Mogrovejo, 2016
and Esteban Galarza, 2011).

Influence of culture on the sex-erotic life of women

For me and for Purépecha culture it is very difficult to think about these things.
It is not discussed. It is not said here... But well, I barely, after 50 that was not
bad... for you to have sex, you have to be married to law, to God, to society, to
all, and there you can do whatever you want with your husband...
(E_50_YEARS).

I have already observed how society and culture have a determining influence on the
regulation of erotic life, of sexual practices and manifestations. However, these
regulations do not work in the same way for men as for women; female oppression is
evident in some backgrounds when women have to assume obligatory reproduction,
be in charge of domestic services without any remuneration, and show fidelity:

...and well I never complained to him, actually for me it was better that he was
away (referring to the husband's infidelity)... They told me you have to have
sexual relations, you have to find a partner because otherwise you'll harm
yourself and I mean it's not something that was in my head and nothing
happened. I didn't have and, well, finally, sometimes I had but I didn't enjoy it...
When my husband came and wanted to have sex I couldn't, I just couldn't. So, I
forgot because I was married. I couldn't fail and say I'm going to find someone
else, I think it was like a brake and I denied myself" (E_50_YEARS).

It is assumed as a social and cultural mandate that pleasure is linked to reproduction,

which is only valid within marriage: marriage and reproduction that women do not
necessarily want or enjoy, but whose ultimate goal is to preserve family (Rosso, 2016).

In the beginning when you are young and when you get married you know you
are going to have sex and you don't know how or anything and you don't enjoy
 it, because you are afraid, because you are young, because you don't want to
have children yet because you have other goals in life and that, personally, did
not allow me to feel. I was kind of restricted, like I had my children without
feeling, like I was pregnant and that's it, and the kids had to go out. I had to
have them and I've always been responsible, because I suffered a lot. I didn't
like it. I always said I didn't want to have children and yet they are there but I
have been very responsible" (E_50_YEARS).

It seems that the only event that can dissolve the mandate of imposed monogamy on
women is the death of the spouse; which opens up a small possibility of recuperating
desire and erotic experience.

...because at the beginning I was closed off and I was married for many years
and I was closed, that is, I didn't pay attention, here… and that's how my
culture works and how they told me and only death can separate us. I mean,
it's something so stuck in our heads that it was like that until he died or I
died..." (E_50_YEARS).

Society and culture become so determining and totalizing that even after the
relationship ends due to the death of the spouse, for women social surveillance
endures:

My widower's relatives still say after his death – “it's not right for you to leave
your children to follow another man”. It's that I'm not following him, you have
to be there. The culture here is very macho. It hits you in many ways, people
whether, women are tearing down, they are dead in life, they have no
enjoyment, they have no life." (E_50_YEARS).

However, the psychological consequences for women of the internalization of a social

order that represents monogamy and fidelity in marriage can be devastating. Even
after the relationship ends or the partner dies, as in the case of the key informant:

Even with that person I was living in secret. It was hidden. Because of
education, I didn't want anyone to find out here. I left where we were going
and I felt that everyone was looking at me and you feel everybody was staring
everywhere and that's how that you were left feeling] the sorrow, the shame,
the culture. You feel like a whore, you are a whore and a prostitute if you leave,
if you mess with a person. I really felt that way and sometimes the moment
comes when you say, “I'm a whore, I'm a whore” and it's not true. I mean, no,
no... (E_50_YEARS).
Accounts of romantic love

For most of history it was inconceivable that people would choose their
partners based on something as fragile and irrational as love and then
concentrate all their sexual, intimate and altruistic desires on the marriage that
resulted from that choice’ (Coontz, 2005; in Rosso, pp: 73).

Rosso (2016), affirms that marriage for love is a modern invention, which updates the
structure of marriage, which, in principle, was intended to provide stability and social
recognition; now adding the obligation to sustain and provide emotional satisfaction
and psychological well-being. Because of discourses and practices associated with
romantic love that are established in the collective imagination of the monogamous
couple, it is not surprising that part of the content of women's sexual fantasies make
reference to this factor. Such thought and practice have been ‘sold’ for more of a
century - that people are involved in a tireless search for the ‘other half’ that embodies
true love and will know how to satisfy each needs, including sexual ones, and therefore
will make us complete, happy beings:

...I allowed it on my own just now because I always said when I was a widow, I
was about to look for someone I'm not going to die without having loved. I'm
still fine and I'm going to look for someone..." (E_50_YEARS).

With the person you love, kisses of the person you love makes you feel
successful and trustworthy" (M_62_AÑOS).

Looking at each other like it was the first day, like saying love at first sight..."
(E_60_AÑOS).

I would like to live it [life] with my only partner because he is the only person
with whom I want to end my days" (N_66_AÑOS).

Sexual relations help you to have a stable emotion to feel safe with your
partner" (M_62_YEARS).

That they treat me well, with respect and not violence..." (M_52_YEARS).

...he tells me nice things in my ear..." (M_56_YEARS). "...performs the sexual act
with respect and love…" (E_60_YEARS).

With affection, with tenderness, with passion and if we come to a sexual

relationship, that it is willingly..." (M_52_YEARS).
 ...we have the right to be. The only thing I would recommend is that if they look
for their permanent partner, fine for now, that would be very good if they did
it, with respect for themselves of their person..." (E_50_YEARS).

The discourse and practices of romantic love linked to monogamy specifically for
women legitimize a system of oppression, of their relationships, bodies, desires and
lives; since romantic love includes by definition monogamous fidelity, and this, as well,
introduces a series of demands such as: a) exclusivity in its different manifestations
(emotional, affective, sexual, relational); b) possession/property, which naturally brings
with it the idea that this ‘all of mine’ concretely and symbolically represents possession
of affections, of the body, desires and pleasures and even of the life of the partner. It
should be made clear that all these factors invariably apply to women, though it works
the same way for men, at least in a symbolic way.

Personal agency regarding erotic life

…because now one chooses better, because at the beginning it is how you fall
in love, you have to get married, you have to have children, that is the culture...
Now, on this second occasion, and in these five decades, one says, “I am going
to choose well. I'm going to look. I'm going to see.” I was open, I stayed like that
for many years, five years, a widow and later, “I said I'm going to give myself a
chance but if the person you want comes, you do, and if not, then you don't
leave, your freedom remains..." (E_50_AÑOS).

Societies controlled by great or powerful men are, obviously, hetero-patriarchal. In

terms of Purépecha society, Segato (2018) observes that native people had completely
differentiated practices for men and women, which constitutes of itself (viewed
through western eyes) a pre-hispanic sex-gender system that mandates a dimorphic or
binary masculinity and femininity. Segato (2018) has referred to this as a low-intensity
patriarchy that was later reconfigured with the conquest, with that high-intensity
patriarchy and when they combined, it reached such extreme forms of violence
(Segato, 2018).

In this section, I refer to that low-intensity patriarchy (Segato, 2018) to explain those
practices that do not denote extreme violence against women but that, undoubtedly,
have a profound impact on their lives. Put more simply, we could frame this issue as
Pessah (2016) does, in terms of ‘bad education’ in that education, both formal and
informal, that persists today, in the daily life of women, is reminiscent (or not) of that
low-intensity patriarchy where the exchange of women as a basis of society and
culture is nourished by monogamy, fidelity, sexual exclusivity and a sense of ownership
on women.
‘Bad education’ for Pessah (2016) concerns ways of transmitting knowledge-culture, as
invaluable knowledge that has to be apprehended, introjected, assimilated and put
into practice by women to be recognized as women. In the field of women's sexual life,
it seems that a requirement to start building personal agency and freeing oneself from
that bad education requires questioning of the culture; as reflected by one of the key
informants:

I don't know, maybe I left, what's it called, I put culture aside, maybe I
disobeyed something that wasn't present but that all your life educates you in
that way they say sex is bad. Sex is the Devil’s thing. Sex is that if a man takes
you, he doesn't want you for good. It means you don't give to a person what
you are worth, for you to have sex you have to be married to the law, to God,
to society, to everything, and then you can do whatever you want with your
husband..." (E_50_YEARS).

As has already been said, bad education has generated a sexual morality based on
patriarchy, creating the power-knowledge-pleasure triad, a triad to which women have
restricted or no access (through men’s eyes and practices). Therefore, when women
question either from experience or reflection that sexual morality, they become open
to the possibility of building a sexual morality or ethics of pleasure (Hierro, 2014), a
path towards autonomy, discovery of potential, of women's own erotic sex lifestyle.
Thus, the sexual morality of women could be represented through a triad:
appropriation of the body, desire election and on its fair measure, surely the following
quotes can represent the elements of the triad:

...when he had already left, I had and had desires and searched and wanted
and... it was until then, not even before, I said what a wonderful life, I said
that’s why there are women so happy because they have that I had in a very
short period of time..." (E_50_YEARS).

That he participated with me, I also caress him, love him, kiss him, hug him"
(M_52_YEARS).

I touch him with my hands just out of the shower..." (E_60_AÑOS).

We kiss, we touch our bodies, we feel our breath, we feel our bodies, the smell
of each other. For the first time, I want to make love in the couch that is there.
“Let's do it once, then he gives me oral sex, I'll give it to him...then I'll ask him to
take a bath and make love in that tub. Let's do it, then I look at myself in the
mirror in the room and I tell myself it's really you" (V_59_AÑOS).
 ...a protected sexual relation using a female or male condom to avoid sexually
transmitted infections..." (M_52_YEARS).

By the way, we are using strawberry condoms for oral sex" (V_59_YEARS).

Personal agency effectively requires questioning what is supposedly already given, but
also personal work that allows us to deal with guilt, shame or the sorrow of having
transgressed what is already established (Pick and Rirkin, 2010), learn to live as a
pariah, even excluded from what at some point gave you support and sustenance at
social level, but with a new knowledge about oneself that allows continuity of
existence:

...well, if I'm free, yes, it's like I don't care now what people say, now my
coworkers tell me here, “Teacher, you're foul-mouthed, you this...”. And I say,
“Yes, so what? Yes someone sees it badly. I'm very sorry, actually, you have to
come with me to teach you, you who are alone, then find someone, I am totally
full in my thoughts, in my actions and feelings..."

Discussion and conclusion

Analysis of the sexual fantasies from the focused interviews with Purépecha women
reflect key elements of Purépecha society and culture such as obligatory monogamy,
with which they reaffirm concepts such as conjugal exclusivity and the sense of
ownership of women. This analysis has also highlighted the varying expression of
romantic love that, according to Mogrovejo (2016) and Galarza (2011), as well as being
a contemporary manifestation of patriarchy as per family structure, limit Purépecha
women’s autonomy. Romantic love underpins the domination and control of women,
their bodies and sexual, reproductive and erotic resources. Yet another factor that
consolidates these constraints concerns issues associated with the inalienable
acceptance of motherhood and compliance with sexual fidelity.

However, the content of sexual fantasies reveals possible processes of reconfiguration

of the desires and pleasures of Purépecha women. Discursive elements such as those
contained in the peripheral categories discussed above are indicative of a more active
participation in sexual activity where women are placed as sexual actors and authors of
their own fantasy with autonomy, capacity to act and decide on their own pleasure.
This suggests some escape from the supposedly ‘natural’ status of being the object of
desire to materialize, participate and execute their desire. This repositioning may be
the prelude to a change in the mentalities and specific practices of women to the
extent that the process of westernization of the same also brings benefits to the
communities that still retain features of the social and cultural organization of the
original towns.

However, this will require a profound reflection on the possibilities that exist or not in
the societies and cultures of Purépecha people for the construction of an ethic
associated with pleasure, an ethic to be and live as a Purépecha woman, a mestizo
woman. An ethic that enables women with social, symbolic and personal tools to live
their sexuality, desire, love more outside than within the old structures of patriarchy.

Finally, I consider it important to highlight the vision of Esteban Galarza (2016), as a

civilizing project of sexual morality associated with women's pleasure:’...to maintain
that it is essential to think and build ourselves away from dichotomous forms of
relationships and opting for open, alternative relationships; daring to build our own
creative way of relating as we go, trying out new ways that also lead us to generate
social transformations that lead to horizontal collectivities.’ In order to achieve this
aim, it is essential to, ‘question the family/marriage/monogamy/coexistence quartet,
as well as the deconstruction of love, desire, sexuality, intimacy...’ (pp: 191).

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