Male Honor and Female Shame, When Patriarchy Dictates Morality ABSTRACT Culturally reinforced patriarchy has been used to dictate cultural mores for centuries. This essay is one student's reflection on her cultural past in her homeland of Turkey, through the lens of 16ª century Spanish colonial control of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. Just as Spanish controlled the Pueblo's sexuality, many societies today are still highly concerned about controlling sexuality, especially whenever and wherever borders are crossed. Using Ramon Gutierrez's book, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away for historical reference, this essay contrasts the experience of patriarchal control across time and distance, concluding both that patriarchy has changed little over time, and that violation of cultural mores has a price. One aim of this essay is to show how religious principles, which are almost always based in patriarchy, transform into cultural norms that the community is then expected to uphold. These norms are used across religions and cultures to provide for, or to remove, individual agency, and to support self- perpetuating power structures that enforce gender inequality. Gutierrez's book, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, portrays the 16th century religious and sexual repression of the New Mexico Pueblo by the Spanish. It is written in a style that reaches beyond the academic. He paints a picture of the 300 years of Pueblo history under Spanish rule using the "rules of marriage" as a mural revealing the subtle changes over time. His book is exploring the legacy of colonization by reviewing the connection between female shame and male honor within the context of the colonial marriage contract. I find similarities in his descriptions of gender inequality and my own Turkish culture. Out of a deep appreciation for the clarity in When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away I use it as a lens to consider gender inequality over time. Further, I extend the book's depiction of the discriminatory experience of the Pueblo to a global perspective, especially relative to my personal experiences. Through his mural, I was able to understand my family's willingness to interpret my marriage as taboo, and their consequent sense of an obligation to use patriarchy to protect the family's honor. Gutierrez wrote an historical account of 350 years of Pueblo life under Spanish rule, an account that certainly did not include anything about 20ª century Turkish culture. And yet, to me the analogous mores are crystal clear. He shows how the 18ª century church supported patriarchy and a Spanish supremacy class hierarchy upon the Pueblo. As Gutierrez showed, marriage was completely under the control of the church, " .... matrimony was totally under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. The Church determined who were and were not appropriate partners, specified the juridical form of marriage, and defined the ritual gestures that constituted the sacrament". (Gutierrez, 243) He also makes the point that ethnic, racial, and national borders are also sexual borders; borders, which constrain love to culturally, approved populations. Gutierrez clearly documented