Abstract
Three Maya women served as documented rulers during the Classic period. The expressions of their names and titles, unlike those of all of their contemporaries, share a unique syntactic variation throughout Mayan hieroglyphic inscriptions: their systematic lack of feminine prefixes. In addition to this variation, the bestowing of the na bate warrior title upon other exceptionally prominent Maya women suggests that women of extraordinary status in Classic-period Maya society were “masculinized,” or granted male attributes, in order to accommodate their sharing of status or occupancy of roles that were traditionally masculine. Since some male rulers were similarly portrayed with certain feminine traits, it is suggested that the Classic Maya concept of gender was based on a complementary, or balanced, relationship of masculine and feminine. The projection of one gender's traits onto individuals of another sex indicates that gender was not polar but rather inclusive and reciprocal, such that characteristics could be adopted and utilized by members of both sexes in order to make them suitable for specific roles.
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