Antrocom 2007 - Vol 3- n. 1 -5-7 Antropologia cult. e sociale The Jaguar: The ’ Dark Side of Power.

SANDRA BUSATTA

Anthropologists have found especially is based on duality: an immediately per- cosmic ball court (Gemini) where the useful to analyse human relationships ceivable trait is the dual, androgynous gods played a game to set the fate of with animals, including the meanings character of many deities, and the tension humankind. He lit the fire sticks (Orion’s assigned to them and the ways of classi- between opposing, complementary pairs belt) that brought warmth to the hearth fying them (Mullin 1999:207, Foucault (or twins) of divine beings (Léon-Portilla and, at the end of every 52 years cycle, he 1970, Ritvo 1991, Haraway 1991, Geertz 1990 [1959])3. The universe was also tinned the rattlesnake’s tail (the Pleiades) 1994). Lévi-Strauss in particular, thought structured around opposing/complemen- so that it passed over at midnight, and his that animal species offered «conceptual tary pairs: female/male, cold/warm, festival was at the winter solstice (Aveni support for social differentiation» lower/upper, jaguar/eagle, number 9 (the 2001). Second, as designation for brave (1963:101). In his study of feline sym- 9 levels of the underworld)/ number 13 (the Jaguar order, representing bolism, Saunders (1994a, 1994b, 1994c, (the 13 levels of the upper world), under- the deceitful, cunning, furtive fighters), 1998, 2001), in turn, argues that studying world/sky, night/day, dry/rainy, etc. usually mentioned together with the it offers the prospect of understanding « can be understood only Eagle warriors in ritual chants, poetry and a deeply rooted, pan-American, and fun- within this dualistic thinking: he created the Codices (Léon-Portilla 1990 [1959]). damentally shamanic conception of the first and darkest of the five Suns, Third, as the devourer of the sun during political power» (1998:43). In addition, called Nahui Ocelotl or “4 Jaguar”, which eclipses, hence the representative of dark- Saunders analyses the Aztec god was destroyed by jaguars (Léon-Portilla ness and earth (Aveni 2001, Caso 1953). Tezcatlipoca to support the jaguar 1990 [1959], Durand 2004). Tezcatlipoca Fourth, as an image of Tlazolteotl, the metaphor of Aztec royal power. Both is the god of the sorcerers, the adulterers moon goddess of the 14th day. She was arguments are nothing new.1 I am going and the assassins, the acrobats, jesters and one of Tezcatlipoca’s four wives, and the to demonstrate, however, that jaguar- puppeteers, the patron of the slaves and most important goddess associated with power does not actually represent royal the school for , the individuals considered asocial, such as power in general, but its darkest aspect telpochcalli (Caso 1953)4. He stands for prostitutes, adulterers and sodomites. Her within the Aztecs’ dualistic conception of the nocturnal sky (the diurnal sky and the name, although usually translated as the universe. south, are represented by the tribal god of Goddess of Filth, could also read Divine If the feline can be considered the great the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli5), the earth Filth or even Divine Excrement. She unifying factor in Pre-Columbian cul- sun with lunar traits. Handsome, young, “ate” spiritual ordure, heard all confes- tures, only the jaguar (Panthera onca) lame and left-handed, Tezcatlipoca is sions and removed corruption (Klein and the puma (Felis concolor, also associated with sexual excess, homosexu- 1993). Fifth, as the jaguar form (nahual) known as cougar or mountain lion) pre- ality included6, sin and punishment, of Tepeyollotly, the god of caves and occupied Amerindian artists and reli- repentance and sacrifice, fate and deceit regent of the west and the sunset, the gious thinkers. The jaguar-shaman reli- (Léon-Portilla 1990 [1959]). His smoking celestial region where the mothers dead at gious complex has been established as mirror hides more than reveals7; he is a childbirth accompanied the sun (Graulich one of the fundamental traits of royal creator-demiurge, a trickster and a god of 1981)10. Tezcatlipoca’s nahualli (animal power in Central and South America for discord. In contrast, he is the patron of guises) are the jaguar Tepeyollotly (the decades2. It is an archaic shamanic sub- princes and, as One Acatl, presides ban- Heart of the Mountain), the coyote (canis stratum which runs through the quets; his glyph is the sacrifice knife latrans) Huehuecoyotl (Old Coyote, there Americas, as Furst (1972:67, 42) put it, (Caso 1953, Léon-Portilla 1990 [1959])8. was also a Coyote warrior order), the suggesting an Asian origin associated The Jaguar Throne is a metaphor for turkey or Jewelled Fowl (Huey , with the metaphoric cluster made of the Aztec power (Benson 1997), albeit usual- the Great Xolotl, a dog deity), and an bird, the tiger and the serpent, which in ly in the phrase “the Eagle and Jaguar eerie apparition named Ioalteputztli Mesoamerica became the eagle, the Throne” (Davies 1973:152). (Night Axe), whose chest and belly were jaguar and the serpent. On the other Furthermore, Aztec beliefs about the broken open and who tested men’s brav- hand, the eagle-jaguar complex, central jaguar can be summarized, after Kubler ery (Klein 1993). Sixth, the Aztecs sepa- to the Aztec warrior cult in Tenochtitlan, (1972), this way: first, as the image of rated the Toltec cult of Tezcatlipoca as a originated among the Toltecs, and Black Tezcatlipoca9 as patron of the jaguar from that of Quetzacoatl as a feath- Tezcatlipoca itself is thought of as north, struck by the spear of the planet ered serpent. Tezcatlipoca was especially Toltec-Chichimec, and therefore, of Venus (, as god of Dawn) in worshipped in Texcoco, the probable northern origin (Caso 1953, the second phase of its revolution. He capital of the Aztecs (Caso 1953). Tozzer 1957:129-35). ruled the night from his northern abode, Duality governed not only the Aztec pan- In a nutshell, Nahuatl theology, of which with his wheel, called Jaguar (the Big theon, but also the state, which was made the Aztec one is a latter day development, Dipper or Big Bear); he presided over the of the Triple Alliance of the Mexica of Antrocom 2007 - 3 (1 ) SANDRA BUSATTA 6

Tenochtitlan, the Acolhua of Texcoco and and the nocturnal one, made of deceit, Kaplan 1956, Saler 1964, Pitt-Rivers 1970, the Tepaneca of Tlacopan. The Chronicles treachery and sorcery, the shamans’ Tranfo 1979, Buchler 1980, Musgrave-Portilla 1982, Sandstrom 1991, Paz, 1995, Baez-Jorge relate that the (the “orator” or the “black ops”. The jaguar belongs more to 1998, Gossen 1975, 1994, Knab 1995, Klein “speaker”, like Moctezuma II, represented the chthonian cihuacoatl, the “feminine” 2002.), which is an obvious descendant of Pre- Huitzilipochtli as warrior sun) took no , shamanic side of Aztec royal power Columbian religious ideas. Furthermore, in decision without consulting the cihua- than to the solar tlatoani, and the clear order to demonstrate the shamanic basis of Aztec power, Saunders (1994a, 1994c) coatl or Snake Woman, and no decision thinking of the tlamatinimeh, the “wise describes only those aspects of Tezcatlipoca was valid if Snake Woman had not given men” or priests who wrote the Codices. which fit his model, but by doing this he his consent (Davies 1973, Olguin 2004). Sexual and moral ambiguity and liminal- betrays his rather shaky grasp on the fundamen- The cihuacoatl was a position that was ity are the shaman’s trade mark all over tals of Nahuatl religion in general, and Aztec theology in particular (see, for example, always held by a man, and probably the Americas (and the world, Eliade Soustelle 1940, Léon-Portilla 1990 [1959], reflects the religious conception of the 1962). The jaguar is as much ambiguous: 1993, Caso 1953, Séjourné 1956, Graulich Aztec universe: that the universe had in South America it sometimes is female, 1981, Klein 1997, Matos Moctezuma 2003, been created from a male and a female sometimes male, it may stand either for Durand 2004). The Nahua are a group of indigenous peoples of Mexico. Their language principle. The fact the cihuacoatl was a matriliny or patriliny (Turner in Coe of Uto-Aztecan affiliation is called Nahuatl and female name (it is also the name of the 1972:14-15). It may symbolize both consists of many dialects. Often the term earth goddess presiding over childbirth “paragon” and “peril”: his upper body Nahuatl is used specifically with reference to and fertility, one of Tezcatlipoca’s four and yellow jaguars are identified as male Classical Nahuatl, the administrative language wives) indicates that it was probably of the . Properly speaking, all the founders of a community, whilst jaguar Nahuatl-speaking peoples in the Valley of meant to represent the female princi- claws and black jaguars are seen as the Mexico were Aztecs, while the culture that ple11. Hence, the tlatoani represents the negative, feminine threat to society (Roe dominated the area was a tribe of the Mexica “outside” and male creative power, the 1998). The jaguar is the of the fire called the Tenochca. cihuacoatl the “inside” and female cre- “within”: the fire inside the mountains 2 See, for example, the discussion between Furst ative power. and the earth, and the cooking fire (Lévi- and Coe (in Coe 1972:16), or Reichel- Saunders (1994a, 1994b, 1994c) does not Strauss 1964, 1966). This feline express- Dolmatoff (1972:54-62). explain well why volcanic obsidian, and es the vital energy in nature, and especial- 3 The supreme deity, Ometeotl, Two Deity, lives the heat of volcanoes are associated to ly male energy, which can easily become in the 13th sky, the highest, Omeyocan, Two Place or Place of Duality. S/he divides her/him- Tezcatlipoca as well as one of his a destructive agent, one which the self into Ometecuhtli, Two God or Lord of nahualli, the jaguar. Yet, the connection shaman must tame, in order to become an Duality and Omecihuatle, Two Goddess or between caves, obsidian and magmatic agent of social control (Gossen 1975, Lady of Duality. The Mictlan, the lowest of the fire with the jaguar gives us a clue about Reichel-Dormatoff 1972, Knab 1995). nine-tiered underworld has also a pair of Death deities (Léon-Portilla 1990[1959]). the real meaning of both this animal In the Aztec context, this tension metaphor, and of Nahuatl notions of between nature and culture, the raw and 4 Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, was the power. Obsidian is congealed fire, that is god of the warrior school for noblemen, the the cooked (Lévi-Strauss 1964, 1966), is Calmecac, and of the priests. “cold”, or “old” fire: in fact, the Nahuatl controlled by the dualistic, opposing word, itztli, is part of the name of forces which gave birth to Ollin 5 The Blue Hummingbird on the Left, supreme god of the Aztecs, whose name derives from the Itzlacoliuhqui (Curved Obsidian Knife), Tonatiuh, the Sun of Movement or Fifth mythic Aztlan, where thy came from in the the god of cold and ice, one of the aspects Sun. The Aztec jaguar is connected with north. He guided his elected people southward of Tezcatlipoca as the master of the the notions of moral, social and cosmic as the war god and day god, patron of the Eagle North and the North Star12. Spatially disorder, sin and death, as well as warrior order, complementary, in reality and speech with the Jaguar warrior order. The name obsidian is represented by the cave- unchecked, primordial, androgynous cre- Mexica of the Aztecs came from one of the womb, and temporally, by the first sun ative power. It is both chthonian and other names of this god, Mexitli (Matos destroyed by jaguars (Caso 1953, Léon- lunar and a celestial constellation gov- Mosctezuma 2003). Portilla 1977, 1990 [1959], Matos erning a critical part of the year. In the 6 The Aztecs were very puritanical and abhorred Moctezuna 2003, Durand 2004). Thus, Aztecs’ pessimistic view of the world, homosexuals. The axe was a reminder of their the jaguar represents not only the chthon- however, chaos will prevail in the end, fate; Tezcatlipoca in this aspect was addressed as “wretched sodomite” (Klein 1993). ian and nocturnal aspects of feminine and the orderly cosmic equilibrium of the creative power, but also the link with the current Fifth Sun will be unbalanced by 7 Actually, he has two mirrors, in the codices, ancestors through “old” or “iced” vol- the destructive aspects of Tezcatlipoca. one on his temple, close to his forehead, and one substituting the foot he lost when he was canic fire, obsidian. In fact, both the god The roars of his jaguar nahual in the dismembering the Earth Monster together with and the jaguar are connected with the depths of the earth will originate terrible Quetzalcoatl. His obsidian statue was painted creation of the hearth fire, and the New earthquakes and destroy their world. with a powder with metal reflection, which was Fire after a 52-year-cycle. Hence, they called tezcapoctli, or “smoke which reflects”. Astronomically, it means that at austral lati- stand for the beginning. From a dynastic Notes tudes one of the stars of the Big Dipper stays point of view, this aspect connects the 1 What makes me uncomfortable with Saunder’s below the horizon, and thus it “disappears” royal line, even that of newcomers like articles (1994a, 1994b, 2001) is, firstly, that he (Caso 1953). does not even mention the previous discussions the Aztecs, to the immemorial past of the on the subject, such as the landmark 8 The sacrificial knife was made of flint or obsid- first creation; it also recognizes pragmat- Conference on the Cult of the Feline (1970); ian (the lancets for self-sacrifice and blood-let- ically that warrior bravery and priestly secondly, that he compares the Aztec god ting were mostly of obsidian): as such he is wisdom are not enough to keep the Tezcatlipoca with ethnographic Amazonian Iztlacoliuhqui, the Curved Obsidian Knife, god cultures and he simply ignores the well studied of cold and ice. He is also Nezahualpilli, The power. In the dualistic Aztec world there Mesoamerican Nagualism (see, for example, Fasting Nobleman, and Yaoltl, the Enemy is a tension between that diurnal power Brinton 1894, Foster 1944, Villa Rojas 1947, (Caso 1953, Léon-Portilla 1990[1959]). 7 The Jaguar: The Aztecs’ Dark Side of Power. Antrocom 2007 - 3 (1 )

9 Lord and Lady of Duality had four sons, to Caso, A. 1953. El pueblo del Sol. Mexico City: Mullin, M. 1999. Mirrors and Windows: whom they entrusted the creation of the other Fondo de Cultura Economica [Eglish Trans. Sociocultural Studies of Human-Animal gods, the world and humankind. These sons 1958] Relationship. Annual Review of Anthropology were: the first son, Red Tezcatlipoca or Xipe Coe, M. 1972. Olmec Jaguars and Olmec Kings. 28:201-224. Totec, Our Flayed Lord, associated with the Discussion. In Benson, E. (ed.) The Cult of the east; Black Tezcatlipoca, usually called simply Musgrave-Portilla, L. M. The Nahualli or Feline. A Conference in Pre-Columbian Transforming Wizard in Pre- and Postconquest Tezcatlipoca, associated with the north; Iconography. October 31st and November 1st, Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind and Venus, also Mesoamerica. Journal of Latin American Lore 1970. 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