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Ancient Mexico: the Legacy of the Plumed Serpent

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Ancient Mexico: the Legacy of the Plumed Serpent LACMA | Evenings for Educators | April 17, 2012 Ancient Mexico: The Legacy of the Plumed Serpent _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The greatness of Mexico is that its past is always alive . Mexico exists in the present, its dawn is occurring right now, because it carries with it the wealth 1 of a living past, an unburied memory. —Carlos Fuentes MUCH OF THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF MESOAMERICA, The system of pictographic communication a cultural region encompassing most of Mexico and and its accompanying shared art style was an northern Central America, can be traced through ingenious response to the needs of communities a pictorial language, or writing system, that was whose leaders spoke as many as twelve different introduced around AD 950. By 1300 it had been languages. Beginning in the tenth century, widely adopted throughout Southern Mexico. Southern Mexico was dominated by a confeder- This shared art style and writing system was used acy of city-states (autonomous states consisting to record and preserve the history, genealogy, and of a city and surrounding territories). Largely mythology of the region. It documents systems controlled by the nobility of the Nahua, Mixtec, of trade and migration, royal marriage, wars, and and Zapotec peoples, these city-states claimed records epic stories that continue to be passed on a common heritage. They believed that their through a pictorial and oral tradition today. kingdoms had been founded by the hero Quetzalcoatl, the human incarnation of the This pictorial language was composed of highly Plumed Serpent. They shared a culture, world- conventionalized symbols characterized by an view, and some religious practices but operated almost geometric precision of line. It was mani- independently. Residents of these city-states fested in polychrome (brightly painted) ceramic called themselves the Children of the Plumed objects, codices (illustrated manuscripts), and other Serpent. More than fifteen distinct ethnic groups, small-scale, portable works of art in bone, wood, including the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, lived (and shell, precious metal, and stone. Artisans used vivid still thrive today) in what are now the Mexican colors, and the imagery on artworks shared many states of Oaxaca, Puebla, and Tlaxcala. These attributes of contemporary cartoons, particularly communities transformed Mesoamerica with an exaggerated emphasis on the head and hands. their innovative system of social and economic Often depicting figures and animals, the style was exchange. This curriculum and the corresponding employed primarily to convey historical or ritual exhibition, Children of the Plumed Serpent: The narrative. Certain symbols were reduced to simple Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico, examine icons that could signify either an idea or a spoken the shared art style and pictographic writing word and facilitated communication for a multi- system that served to unite the broad network lingual population. of elites across the region. As you explore these curriculum materials, For over two centuries, both cities flourished, consider the following: until their decline in AD 1200. The archaeological records of both cities reflect their cosmopolitan • Why do people record and preserve their history nature. Ceramic vessels and gold from Central and belief systems? What are the ways in which America, along with turquoise from the American they do so? Southwest (used on the shield featured in this • How do we use stories (oral, written, and pictorial) resource), are among the rare materials found to communicate our identity and beliefs? at each site. • How do we record our family histories and rituals? The New Tollan: The Rise of Cholula and • How do beliefs and ideas circulate today? What the Birth of the International Style are the systems that support the exchange of The city of Tula fell in AD 1200. According to goods and ideas? legendary accounts, Quetzalcoatl was corrupted by a rival and banished. Another cause could be Origins of Quetzalcoatl: The World of Tula the arrival in Tula of semi-nomadic tribes that and Chichen Itza undermined local alliances. The reasons for the city’s destruction are unclear, but many Toltecs Who is Quetzalcoatl, or the Plumed Serpent? He is migrated south to Cholula (in the modern state the human incarnation of the ancient spirit force of Puebla), where they built a new Tollan. They of wind and rain that combined the attributes of dedicated the city to Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed a serpent with those of the quetzal, a bird in Serpent and god of wind, in whose honor they Mesoamerica that was prized for its green plumage. erected a conical-roofed temple. Cholula soon He is also an epic hero, a Mesoamerican god whose emerged as the center of religious authority in story and veneration have influenced generations. Mesoamerica, and confederations of kingdoms throughout Southern and Central Mexico According to legend, Tollan (or present-day Tula) referred to themselves as the Children of the in Central Mexico was founded by Quetzalcoatl. Plumed Serpent. Cholula was considered the Tula, or Tollan, translates as the Place of Reeds in holiest of cities, according to the sixteenth- Nahuatl, an indigenous language spoken in Central century Spanish chronicler Gabriel de Rojas, Mexico. The city was considered an ancestral place and could be compared to Rome for Christians of origin for many of the civilizations of Mexico. or Mecca for the Moors. The Toltecs (the people who lived in Tula) were revered for their sophisticated culture, wisdom, As the most important pilgrimage destination and skilled artistry—attributes associated with in the region, Cholula became a crossroads for the city’s legendary founder and ruler. Tula people and goods. The constant flow of exotic became an important religious center, attracting materials fostered the development of one of pilgrims from across Mesoamerica and emerging the most significant marketplaces in the as a dynamic marketplace and international Americas, an achievement befitting the city’s center between AD 900 and 1200. deity, Quetzalcoatl, who was also known as the patron of merchants. By the fourteenth century, Like Tula, the Maya city of Chichen Itza on the a new art style had emerged alongside a picto- Yucatan Peninsula claimed an important relation- graphic system of communication. Known as ship to the Plumed Serpent (who was known to the International Style, it was characterized by the Maya as Kukulcan). Its art and architecture a vivid palette and bold symbols that reduced include numerous depictions of him. As hubs of ideas and spoken words to simple icons in order an extensive web of exchange networks, Tula and to promote the exchange of ideas across ethnic Chichen Itza drew merchants and traders from and linguistic boundaries. across the Americas. Feasting, Trade, and the Spread of the The Aztec Conquest of Oaxaca and the International Style Spanish Incursion The performance of religious stories as depicted in The Children of the Plumed Serpent were the masterful works of art was an integral part of royal dominant cultural, political, and economic force feasts among the Children of the Plumed Serpent. in Southern Mexico for three hundred years until Poets used codices (illustrated manuscripts) like the arrival of the Aztecs in the fifteenth century. storyboards to recite royal genealogies and heroic The Aztec Empire forced the Mixtec and Zapotec histories. Nobles even donned costumes and kingdoms to produce luxury goods for their own enacted specific roles, dancing and singing their system of exchange as tribute. The confederacies’ parts to musical accompaniment. military expertise and deft negotiating skills enabled them to retain some of their trading Feasting was an essential part of alliance building networks, however, and prevented the Aztecs and elite economic exchange. For example, finely from fully subjugating them. crafted polychrome drinking vessels were not only props for the drama of ancestor rituals, but Spaniards arrived in 1519, further derailing also promoted political alliances when given as Aztec attempts to gain more power and territory. prized gifts that could later be buried with their The Aztecs’ imperialism had engendered hostility owners. Other luxury goods, such as works of from surrounding communities, who readily precious stone and metal, the feathers of tropical forged alliances with the Spaniards and soon birds, and exquisitely woven and embroidered brought down the Aztec Empire. Native ruling textiles, served as currency in the buying and lords, or caciques, allied themselves with Spanish selling of prestige and political power. These clergy and acted as intermediaries between the goods moved along strategic alliance corridors indigenous past and colonial present. Today, through bridewealth, dowry, and other forms descendants of the Children of the Plumed of gift exchange. Serpent continue to thrive in Southern Mexico. Turquoise-mosaic Shield MEXICO, PUEBLA, ACATLAN, MIXTEC, AD 1100–1521 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRICATELY COMPOSED OF TINY PIECES OF TURQUOISE Wealth and Status tesserae, or tiles, this ceremonial shield portrays Made of exotic material and rich in color, this an origin story important to the Mixtec, a group shield would have been a part of a military of people who occupied the rugged mountains costume intended to demonstrate wealth and of what
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