An Effigy of Tezcatlipoca from the Bilimek Collection in Vienna
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Notes on the Sacred Place Called the Coatlan by the Aztecs
NOTES ON THE SACRED PLACE CALLED THE COATLAN BY THE AZTECS There is a large plaza at Teotihuacan which lies at the the foot of the so-called Temple of the Moon. This Temple looms like a mountain at the northern terminus of the great north-south ceremonial way and is almost certainly a man-made model of that mountain which the Aztecs named "Tenan" meaning "Our Mother' or "Mother of Stone". As a sacred enclosure the plaza is second in size only to the Ciudadela toward the southern end of the ceremonial way which was by far the most prominent thoroughfare through the city of Teotihuacan. The Aztecs named it "The Road of the Dead". Although the original name of the plaza is lost to us, the significance of the space must have been clearly understood by the Aztecs. We know they had the most profound respect for Teotihuacan even though its ancient structures had lain in ruins for five hundred years before the nomadic tofeecs entered the Valley of Mexico. Like the mountain Tenan, the plaza and its temple honored the mother goddess, the giver of life and the devourer of the dead. She had many names and manifestations for the newcomers. Her most prestigious name among the new lords of the Valley of Mexico was "Cihuacoatl", "Woman-serpent", and in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan her temple and its enclosure was called the "Coatlan". As with Coatlans everywhere, the Aztecs saw the Plaza of the Moon as a the Place of Origins and Endings, both womb and tomb. -
Public Ritual Sacrifice As a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec" (2017)
University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Honors Scholar Theses Honors Scholar Program Spring 5-1-2017 Public Ritual Sacrifice sa a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec Madeline Nicholson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Folklore Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Nicholson, Madeline, "Public Ritual Sacrifice as a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec" (2017). Honors Scholar Theses. 549. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/549 APRIL 2017 Public Ritual Sacrifice as a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec MADELINE NICHOLSON UNIVERISITY OF CONNECTICUT Anthropology Honors Thesis Public Ritual Sacrifice 1 Introduction against the Mesoamerican archaeology. Help from other anthropologists such as: Catherine For decades, archaeologists have Bell, Pierre Bourdieu, Edmund Leach, Emile researched the fascinating finds of Aztec Durkheim, and Åsa Berggren supplement the sacrifice. Evidence of their sacrifices are seen two main theories. on temple walls, stone carvings, bones, and Rituals are the foundation of society. in Spanish chronicler drawings. Although They create an environment where laypeople public ritual sacrifice was practiced before lose their personal identity in favor of the the Aztecs, with evidence from the Olmec group. They reinforce social roles and civilization (1200-1300 BCE) and Maya ideologies through their performance. Pierre (200-900 BCE), Aztec sacrifices are among Bourdieu explains rituals through “practice the most extensively documented. How does theory where rituals are seen as expressions such a practice as human sacrifice survive in of meaning, as parts of a structuration process different civilizations through different where everything and everybody are tied rulers? This thesis will analyze the phases of together into a whole that is perceived as Aztec public ritual sacrifice and the close objective and true” (Bruck 1999: 176). -
Compressing History: Excavating Meaning from the Codex Xolotl Fragments
Compressing History: Excavating Meaning from the Codex Xolotl Fragments Hayley B. Woodward LAST 7000 – Core Seminar 18 December 2017 Profs. Jimmy Huck and Thomas Reese The Codex Xolotl stands out within the oeuvre of early colonial Nahua manuscripts for its compendium of historical, genealogical, martial, and geographical information, painted by the hands of multiple indigenous painters-scribes in early 1540s Texcoco.1 Across ten pages of indigenous amatl paper, the historical narrative of the Chichimec migratory group and the nascent royal line of Texcoco unfolds onto a geographic template, which binds the painted events to a spatial schema of the eastern valley of Mexico. Although many questions remain regarding the ten primary pages of the document, even less is known about three fragmentary sheets that are undoubtedly associated with the Xolotl (Figures 1, 2, and 3). These fragments portray a parallel valley schema and exhibit stylistic similarities with the ten complete pages, but the narrative content is obscure and has received even less scholarly attention than the completed codex. After providing a background on the pictorial histories of Texcoco and the ten complete pages of the Codex Xolotl, this paper will examine the material and textual evidence of the fragments’ relationship to one another, which proves that the strips of paper were intended to be viewed as a composite whole in their original context. The paper will then address the relationship between the narratives of the fragments and the complete Codex Xolotl. This analysis reveals that the fragments are assuredly not integral of the complete Xolotl’s uninterrupted, linear narrative, as the fragments compress historical events from multiple pages of the Xolotl into their geographic scope. -
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Nahua and Spanish
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Nahua and Spanish Concepts of Health and Disease in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1615 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Rebecca Ann Dufendach 2017 © Copyright by Rebecca Ann Dufendach 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Nahua and Spanish Concepts of Health and Disease in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1615 by Rebecca Ann Dufendach Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Kevin B. Terraciano, Chair This dissertation uses a wide variety of original historical sources to examine Nahua (Aztec) and Spanish concepts of health and sickness in the sixteenth century, and how both cultures applied these concepts in their attempt to understand the widespread, devastating epidemics that plagued colonial Mexico or New Spain. The Nahuatl and Spanish texts of the Florentine Codex and the Relaciones Geográficas, in addition to several other pictorial and alphabetic writings, abound with information on a topic that is little explored and poorly understood: how did indigenous peoples comprehend and remember the terrible, recurring diseases that wiped out about 90% of their population over the course of a century? How did they associate disease with the arrival of the Spaniards, the conquest, Christianity, and colonial rule? How did they speak and write about these matters? And how did their words on these topics differ from what the Spaniards said? How did Spanish cultural concepts, based on Greek, Roman, -
The Bilimek Pulque Vessel (From in His Argument for the Tentative Date of 1 Ozomatli, Seler (1902-1923:2:923) Called Atten- Nicholson and Quiñones Keber 1983:No
CHAPTER 9 The BilimekPulqueVessel:Starlore, Calendrics,andCosmologyof LatePostclassicCentralMexico The Bilimek Vessel of the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna is a tour de force of Aztec lapidary art (Figure 1). Carved in dark-green phyllite, the vessel is covered with complex iconographic scenes. Eduard Seler (1902, 1902-1923:2:913-952) was the first to interpret its a function and iconographic significance, noting that the imagery concerns the beverage pulque, or octli, the fermented juice of the maguey. In his pioneering analysis, Seler discussed many of the more esoteric aspects of the cult of pulque in ancient highland Mexico. In this study, I address the significance of pulque in Aztec mythology, cosmology, and calendrics and note that the Bilimek Vessel is a powerful period-ending statement pertaining to star gods of the night sky, cosmic battle, and the completion of the Aztec 52-year cycle. The Iconography of the Bilimek Vessel The most prominent element on the Bilimek Vessel is the large head projecting from the side of the vase (Figure 2a). Noting the bone jaw and fringe of malinalli grass hair, Seler (1902-1923:2:916) suggested that the head represents the day sign Malinalli, which for the b Aztec frequently appears as a skeletal head with malinalli hair (Figure 2b). However, because the head is not accompanied by the numeral coefficient required for a completetonalpohualli Figure 2. Comparison of face date, Seler rejected the Malinalli identification. Based on the appearance of the date 8 Flint on front of Bilimek Vessel with Aztec Malinalli sign: (a) face on on the vessel rim, Seler suggested that the face is the day sign Ozomatli, with an inferred Bilimek Vessel, note malinalli tonalpohualli reference to the trecena 1 Ozomatli (1902-1923:2:922-923). -
“Enclosures with Inclusion” Vis-À-Vis “Boundaries” in Ancient Mexico
Ancient Mesoamerica, page 1 of 16, 2021 Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/S0956536121000043 “ENCLOSURES WITH INCLUSION” VIS-À-VIS “BOUNDARIES” IN ANCIENT MEXICO Amos Megged Department of General History, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31990, Israel Abstract Recent in-depth research on the Nahua Corpus Xolotl, as well as on a large variety of compatible sources, has led to new insights on what were “boundaries” in preconquest Nahua thought. The present article proposes that our modern Western concept of borders and political boundaries was foreign to ancient Mexican societies and to Aztec-era polities in general. Consequently, the article aims to add a novel angle to our understanding of the notions of space, territoriality, and limits in the indigenous worldview in central Mexico during preconquest times, and their repercussions for the internal social and political relations that evolved within the Nahua-Acolhua ethnic states (altepetl). Furthermore, taking its cue from the Corpus Xolotl, the article reconsiders the validity of ethnic entities and polities in ancient Mexico and claims that many of these polities were ethnic and territorial amalgams, in which components of ethnic outsiders formed internal enclaves and powerbases. I argue that in ancient Mexico one is able to observe yet another kind of conceptualization of borders/ frontiers: “enclosures with inclusion,” which served as the indigenous concept of porous and inclusive boundaries, well up to the era of the formation of the so-called Triple Alliance, and beyond. -
Notes on a Sacred Place Called "The Coatlan" by the Aztecs
NOTES ON A SACRED PLACE CALLED "THE COATLAN" BY THE AZTECS There is a large plaza at Teotihuacan which lies at the the foot of the so-called Temple of the Moon. This Temple looms like a mountain at the northern terminus of the great north-south ceremonial way and is almost certainly a man-made model of that mountain named by the Aztecs "Tenan" meaning "Our Mother1 or "Mother of Stone". As a sacred enclosure the plaza is second in size only to the Ciudadela situated toward the southern end of the ceremonial road, by far the most prominent thoroughfare through the city of Teotihuacan. The Aztecs named it "The Road of the Dead". Although the original name of the north plaza is lost to us, the significance of the space must have been clearly understood by the Aztecs. We know they had the most profound respect for Teotihuacan even though its ancient structures had lain in ruins for untold centuries before Aztec nomads entered the Valley of Mexico. Like the mountain, Tenan, the plaza and its principal temple must have honored the Teotihuacani mother goddess, the giver of life and the devourer of the dead. She had many names and manifestations for the Aztec people. Her most prestigious Aztec name was probably "Cihuacoatl", "Woman-serpent", and we know that, in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, her temple with its enclosure was called the "Coatlan" and the "Tlillan". Coatlan means "the Place of Serpents". The Serpent is the supreme symbol of the life force but, as in the case of poisonous snakes, it is also associated with the power to cause death. -
La Doctrina De Xochipilli
La Doctrina de Xochipilli Jenaro Ismael Reyes Tovar María Guadalupe Rodríguez Licea Dibujos: Rubén Soto Orozco Sabiduría Gnóstica Material didáctico de uso interno y exclusivo de estudiantes del Instituto Cultural Quetzalcóatl de Antropología Psicoanalítica, A.C. www.samaelgnosis.net | www.samaelgnosis.org | www.samaelgnosis.us La Doctrina de Xochipilli www.samaelgnosis.net La Doctrina de Xochipilli Autores del libro y fotografías: Jenaro Ismael Reyes Tovar y María Guadalupe Rodríguez Licea Portada y dibujos: Rubén Soto Orozco © Todos los derechos reservados. Flores, símbolo de la belleza espiritual y la alegría del alma. [Teotihuacán] Página web: www.samaelgnosis.net www.samaelgnosis.org www.samaelgnosis.us El contenido de este libro está basado en las conferencias y libros del V.M. Samael Aun Weor. Es el resultado del trabajo y cariño que ponen los instructores gnósticos y el equipo de voluntarios del Instituto Cultural Quetzalcóatl. 2 La Doctrina de Xochipilli www.samaelgnosis.net Introducción l amor es la fuerza más poderosa que existe en todo el cosmos infinito; tiene el poder de transformar radicalmente al ser humano, es capaz de llevarlo, de ser un simple E gusano del lodo del mundo a las esferas más sublimes y divinas. En el origen de los tiempos, el amor dio existencia al universo; y, una vez creado, esta fuerza tiene la capacidad de sostenerlo firme en su marcha; por tanto, si es tal el poder que tiene, cuando el ser humano lo llega a encarnar, éste posee, en consecuencia, la potestad para transformar su vida completamente. El amor todo lo puede, todo lo penetra, todo lo vence. -
Aztec Festivals of the Rain Gods
Michael Graulich Aztec Festivals of the Rain Gods Aunque contiene ritos indiscutiblemente agrícolas, el antiguo calendario festivo de veintenas (o 'meses') de la época azteca resulta totalmente desplazado en cuanto a las temporadas, puesto que carece de intercalados que adaptan el año solar de 365 días a la duración efectiva del año tropical. Creo haber demostrado en diversas pu- blicaciones que las fiestas pueden ser interpretadas en rigor sólo en relación con su posición original, no corrida aún. El presente trabajo muestra cómo los rituales y la re- partición absolutamente regular y lógica de las vein- tenas, dedicadas esencialmente a las deidades de la llu- via - tres en la temporada de lluvias y una en la tempo- rada de sequía - confirman el fenómeno del desplaza- miento. The Central Mexican festivals of the solar year are described with consi- derable detail in XVIth century sources and some of them have even been stu- died by modern investigators (Paso y Troncoso 1898; Seler 1899; Margain Araujo 1945; Acosta Saignes 1950; Nowotny 1968; Broda 1970, 1971; Kirchhoff 1971). New interpretations are nevertheless still possible, especially since the festivals have never been studied as a whole, with reference to the myths they reenacted, and therefore, could not be put in a proper perspective. Until now, the rituals of the 18 veintenas {twenty-day 'months') have always been interpreted according to their position in the solar year at the time they were first described to the Spaniards. Such festivals with agricultural rites have been interpreted, for example, as sowing or harvest festivals on the sole ground that in the 16th century they more or less coincided with those seasonal events. -
Clothes Make the God: the Ehecatl of Calixtlahuaca, Mexico
Clothes Make the God: The Ehecatl of Calixtlahuaca, Mexico Jennifer Lynn Burley During the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in of this addition to his name, he is regularly identified by a Central Mexico, the Aztec government commissioned works red, protruding buccal mask, the Calixtlahuaca Ehecatl’s of art throughout the inner provinces of its empire as well as permanent feature. in the capital, Tenochtitlan, where Mexico City now stands. The deity image belongs to a group of sculptures that One of the provincial areas was the colony of Calixtlahuaca, Aztec scholar Richard Townsend terms cult effigies—anthro- located in the Tollocan province, 70 miles west of the impe- pomorphic figures that were the object of ceremonies.5 As rial capital. A number of Aztec period sculptures have been evidenced by the absence of permanent clothing and lack found at this site.1 Among these is the only known imperial- of detail in the body, this type of effigy would have been style deity image found at a temple in the Aztec realm, the dressed and its clothing could be changed for different oc- unclothed sculpture of the Aztec wind god, Ehecatl (Figure casions. As in other Aztec productions, the Calixtlahuaca 1). The stone sculpture was found at Calixtlahuaca during Ehecatl’s garments were an essential part of the deity image, José Garcia Payón’s excavation of the site in the 1930s on the and the image cannot be interpreted without considering its southeast side of Structure 3, a round temple known to be the costume. Townsend’s analysis emphasizes the supernatural type of building associated with the wind in Mesoamerica.2 aspect of cult effigies, but they had other meanings as well. -
Quetzalcoatl, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Volume 11 Number 1 Article 3 7-31-2002 Quetzalcoatl, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ Diane E. Wirth Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Wirth, Diane E. (2002) "Quetzalcoatl, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Vol. 11 : No. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol11/iss1/3 This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Title Quetzalcoatl, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ Author(s) Diane E. Wirth Reference Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 11/1 (2002): 4–15, 107. ISSN 1065-9366 (print), 2168-3158 (online) Abstract Many scholars suggest that Quetzalcoatl of Mesoamerica (also known as the Feathered Serpent), the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ could all be the same being. By looking at ancient Mayan writings such as the Popol Vuh, this theory is further explored and developed. These ancient writings include several stories that coincide with the stories of Jesus Christ in the Bible, such as the creation and the resurrec- tion. The role that both Quetzalcoatl and the Maize God played in bringing maize to humankind is com- parable to Christ’s role in bringing the bread of life to humankind. Furthermore, Quetzalcoatl is said to have descended to the Underworld to perform a sacrifice strikingly similar to the atonement of Jesus Christ. -
THE XALAQUIA CEREMONY the Present Study Is an Attempt To
THE XALAQUIA CEREMONY CHARLES E. DIBBLE The present study is an attempt to explore the possible meaning or meanings of a ceremony called xalaquia. The term is apparently limited to Sahagún's Historia and his Primeros Memoríales. Saha gún's explanation thereof occurs only once in the corresponding Spanish texto The ceremony is first mentioned in Book II, in the month Uei tecuilhuitl. According to the Nahuatl text, after a woman had been arrayed as the likeness of the gooddess Xilonen, "she entered at four places" -nauhcampa yn aquja, "or she entered the sand"- anofo xalaquja. Thus the entering at four places is a ceremony which is equated with entering the sand, i.e., the xalaquia ceremony. The Nahuatl text gives the meaning of the ceremony: Hit was said 'she enters the sand' because in this way she made known her death -that on the morrow she wouId ynic mitoa xalaqui, ic quimachtilia }'1t jmiquizJ in miquiz muztla. The Nahuatl text con tinues by giving the four places she entered and uses the verb aquí or aquia. X alaquía does not occur in this portion of the texto In personal correspondance, Dr. Angel Maria Garibay K. suggested aquia is probably an assimilation of aaquia "enter the water" The four places of entry were Tetamazolco, Necoquixecan (Necoc Ixecan ), Atenchicalcan and Xolloco. These four places or stations "followed, accompanied the four year-bearers -acatl, tecpatl, calli, tochtli-" fá quitoctiaia, fan qujujcaltiaia yn nauhtetl xiuhtonalli yn acatl, in tecpatl in calli, in tochtli. 1 Sahagún's corresponding Spanish text adds further detail: "many women surrounded the woman [arrayed as the goddess XilonenJ and took her to offer incense at the four pIaces" -cercábanla mu chas mujeres; llevábanla en medio a ofrecer incienso a cuatro partes.