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Aztec Fevers, Medicine, and Magic in 16Th-Century Mexico a Thesis Submitted In University of Nevada, Reno As Hot as the Sun: Aztec Fevers, Medicine, and Magic in 16th-Century Mexico A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History By Star C. Flagel Dr. Linda A. Curcio /Thesis Advisor May, 2020 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by Star C. Flagel entitled As Hot as the Sun: Aztec Fever, Medicine, and Magic in 16th-Century Mexico be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Linda Curcio, Ph.D. Advisor Christopher L. von Nagy, Ph.D. Committee Member Renata Keller, Ph.D. Committee Member Louis C. Forline, Ph.D. Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, Ph.D., Dean Graduate School May, 2020 i Abstract Fevers had a significant presence in Mexico's sixteenth-century medical manuscripts, a consequence of the endemic and epidemic infections common to the pre and post-Hispanic eras. The distinctly Aztec conceptualization of these fevers invites further inquiry into the Aztec medical system. The Aztecs recognized multiple types of fevers, both natural and supernatural, manifesting in hot and cold forms. Thus, fevers can serve as a lens through which to examine the Aztecs' perception of the body and the universe, as well as the cosmic structure, dualities, and deities that governed the two. Furthermore, the animistic entities that connected the body to the divine also played a role in the development of fever. To address this state of disequilibrium, health practitioners relied upon their knowledge of the body, disease symptomology, and their vast pharmacopeia. In cases where a condition was suspected of having a supernatural etiology, these practitioners turned to magic. ii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents and my boyfriend, whose support and belief in me fortified me throughout my academic career and to my dog, Buddy, a very good boy. iii Acknowledgements I want to express my most profound appreciation for my committee chair, Dr. Linda A. Curcio, for her wit, wisdom, and patience. Dr. Curcio’s passion for the Aztecs continues to inspire me. I am incredibly grateful for my committee members, Dr. Christopher von Nagy, Dr. Renata Keller, and Dr. Louis Forline, for their guidance and support through this process. I want to extend a special thanks to Dr. von Nagy for his enthusiasm for Mesoamerican studies and for allowing me to turn my research into a public history project displayed at the University of Nevada, Reno. Many thanks are owed to Dr. Jeffrey Shepherd at the University of Texas, El Paso for being my earliest mentor as I endeavored to study Aztec medicine, and to Professor Patrick L. Pynes of El Paso Community College for encouraging me to become a history major and allowing me to write disease-themed papers in his world history class. Finally, I would like to acknowledge all of the individuals who have supported me throughout my studies, including the entirety of UNR's History Department; my dearest graduate school friends, Jen, Ed, and M.C.; my HSI Pathways to the Professoriate Fellowship cohort; my parents, Brenda and Jerry; my best friend, Alejandra; and my boyfriend, Mike. iv Table of Contents Abstract i Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Aztec Cosmology, the Body, and Health 22 Chapter 2: Aztec Fevers 43 Chapter 3: Fever Diagnosis and Treatment 66 Conclusion 88 Bibliography 94 1 Introduction One drinks [an infusion of the root of] chichipilli, [with] alum [and] acid water. First one is purged; then [an infusion from] the edible root of the sand tomato is drunk, adding to it the root of tacanalquilitl. The grown people drink [an infusion of] two sand tomato roots; small children drink [an infusion of] four. And five kernels of maize are mixed in this. And when there is fever, one is to drink [an infusion of the root of] aitztoli in acid water. “Fever,” The Codice de la Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana de Florencia, 15851 The only surviving records that can provide insight into Aztec medical practices were produced during the first century of Spanish colonization. These manuscripts, informed by Nahua physicians, long lost pictographic codices, and oral histories, reveal common illnesses and symptom, methods of diagnosis, and prescribed treatments.2 It is important, however, to keep in mind that these invaluable texts emerged from Spanish institutions that desired to put an end to the Aztec practices that the Church deemed idolatrous. Nevertheless, enough evidence has been preserved for scholars to gain an understanding of the Aztec’s medical system and the ailments it sought to remedy. Of the numerous ailments recorded in this medical literature, fever is ubiquitous. An explanation for the pervasiveness of fevers in the historical record can be found in scholarship on the endemic and epidemic diseases that impacted the Aztecs. Respiratory and gastrointestinal infections were common in the pre and post-Hispanic eras, while the arrival of Spaniards resulted in waves of epidemics that lasted for a century.3 Sherry Lee 1 Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, trans. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, Revised, vol. XI (Salt Lake City, UT: The University of Utah Press, 1981), 160. 2 Nahua is a modern scholarly term that encompassed the Aztecs and other Nahuatl speaking people in Central Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. 3 Sherry Lee Fields, Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 5, 8. 2 Fields notes that the 16th-century ultimately saw fifteen epidemics, the most serious of which were “the well-known smallpox epidemic of 1520–1, and the great epidemics of 1545–8 and 1576–80, either one, or both, of which could have been typhus.”4 The presence of these epidemics during the creation of the 16th-century Aztec medical literature means that it reflects pre-Hispanic medicine as well as how this tradition was adapted to treat epidemic diseases. Epidemics also ensured that fever, in all of its classifications, remained a constant concern for the Aztecs. To respond to this ever- present symptom, the Aztecs relied on their vast botanical pharmacopeia and their highly skilled physicians. This work provides an in-depth analysis of Aztec fevers and fever remedies. Given their ubiquity in the 16th-century literature and nuanced conceptualization, fevers present a unique vantage point from which to explore Aztec medicine. Through the lens of fever, it is possible to answer the questions: How did the Aztecs understand fevers, from their etiologies and symptomologies to how they were diagnosed and treated? What do these elements reveal about Aztec medicine? Firstly, fevers reveal how the body mirrors the cosmos in its structure, dependence upon cosmic dualities, and susceptibility to supernatural interference usually manifested within the body’s animistic entities. Secondly, fevers were understood through the cosmic duality of hot/cold, which accounts for the Aztecs recognizing both hot and cold fevers, and the cosmic duality of equilibrium/disequilibrium understood medically as health/illness. Thirdly, fevers, a state of disequilibrium, stemmed from internal and external causes, both natural and 4 Ibid., 8. 3 supernatural; though, the ultimate cause of fever(s) was generally supernatural. Lastly, the diagnosis and treatment of fevers reveal rationalistic, empirical, and magical elements indicative of a holistic medical system. The earlier epigraph is the primary entry for fever in the Codice de la Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana de Florencia, or the Florentine Codex.5 This entry is not, however, fully representative of how the Aztecs conceptualized the ailment. Rather, this single entry is a reflection of the Spaniard’s singular term for fever, fiebre. Aztec physicians held that there were, in fact, many varieties of fever, each with its own etiology: totonqui and motlehuia, general terms for fever, referred to hot fevers located in the head often accompanied by swelling in the stomach and suppuration of the skin; the hot fever tletl, possibly synonymous with totonqui, required cooling herbal treatments; iztac totonqui, known as "white fever" or a "high fever," was a hot fever with swelling and suppuration of the flesh; and the hot fever matlaltotonqui, or "green fever,” presented with dark bruising. The Aztecs also recognized a cold fever called atonahuiztli, or "aquatic fever,” a supernatural ailment originating from the Tlaloc deity complex.6 The historical record also reveals two other supernatural fevers, tlallatonahuiztli, “aquatic fever of the earth,” and yoallatonahuiztli, “aquatic fever of the night.” The study of Aztec medicine extends beyond the bounds of the pre-Hispanic era, as indigenous healing traditions formed the foundation of medicine in the Colonial era. The Aztec’s medical system immediately drew the admiration of the Spanish invaders, 5 Book Ten of the Florentine Codex’s singular fever entry uses the term motlevia, an ethnographic variation of motlehuia. 6 Tlaloc is a god associated with rain, moisture, and fertility. 4 who recognized its sophistication and efficacy. Franciscan Friar Toribio de Benavente, known by his native name, Motolinía, meaning "poor one," wrote the History of the Indians of New Spain after he arrived in Mexico in 1523 at the request of Hernán Cortés.7 Motolinía’s account of the Aztec medical system is effusive in its praise. He states: They have their
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