DOCSLIB.ORG

Aztec Stone Boxes: Myth, Metaphor, and History

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Aztec Stone Boxes: Myth, Metaphor, and History Aztec Stone Boxes: Myth, Metaphor, and History Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Hulshoff, Amy Catherine Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 08/10/2021 23:13:34 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621178 AZTEC STONE BOXES: MYTHS, METAPHOR, AND HISTORY by Amy Catherine Hulshoff ____________________________ Copyright © Amy Catherine Hulshoff 2016 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ART In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN ART HISTORY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 Hulshoff 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR The thesis titled Aztec Stone Boxes: Myth, Metaphor, and History prepared by Amy Cat Hulshoff has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for a master’s degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Amy C. Hulshoff APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: June 11, 2016 Emily Umberger Date Professor Art History Hulshoff 3 Acknowledgements This essay is a culmination of my study and academic practices achieved here at the University of Arizona, and it is not easily done and not done alone. The faculty and staff of this university deserve unending praise for their care and dedication to students like myself, and for passing it on to future students and staff. Not just this essay, but also my ability to research and write have been vastly improved and molded by my professors and my peers. I would like to thank Paul Ivey for all the good reads and constructive conversations, and for all the professional advice. Thank you Julie-Anne Plax for being my second reader, and for being such a constructive professor. You helped me take the first big steps towards becoming a better writer (spelling may be a lost cause). Thank you (saint) Megan Bartel for doing, well, everything to make sure I could stay in the program and make it this far! I don’t know how you can raise your kids and all the grad students at the same time, but you are a saint. Thank you, Marie Teemant, for always making it look like I knew what I was doing, when it was probably you all along. And thank you Kimberly Mast for keeping us glued together when we were all falling apart at the seams. A huge thank you to Larry Deutsch and Bill Parker for their generous funding and confidence in my research by providing me the financial support to study these objects in person in Mexico City. Their support through the Medici Scholar foundation was another big step forward in my scholastic career, as my first professional travel grant. A profound thanks to Emily Umberger for everything she has done and continues to do. It would be impossible to understate how helpful and dedicated she has been to making me a better writer and scholar. I thank her for all of the articles and good reads, and exposure to aspects of my study that I would never have considered without her generous knowledge and experience in the field. Thank you for your encouragement and guidance. Hulshoff 4 To my parents, my sister, and Myron. Hulshoff 5 Table of Contents Title Page………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....1 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………………...3 Dedication Page…………………………………………………………………………………………………...4 Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………………………5 Thesis Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………………………………8 Dennis Sandgathe Quote…………………………………………………………………………………….10 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………11 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Aztecs…...………………………………………………………….....14 Who were the Aztecs?……………………………………………………………………………...16 Aztecs in Numbers…………………………………………………………………………………..17 Aztec Religion and Origin Stories……………………………………………………………..17 Gods and Myths……………………….………..…………………………………………………….19 Chapter 2: Boxes in Scholarship…………………………………...……………………………………..22 Chapter 3: The Balance of Myths and Metaphors With History……………………………..27 The Aztec Calendar………………………………………………………………………………….27 Structure of Aztec History………………………………………………………………………..29 Functions of Metaphor and Aztec Story Telling…………………………………………33 Chapter 4: The Hackmack Box, the Islas y Bustamante Box, the Ahuitzotl Box……....37 The Hackmack Box…………………………………………………………………………………..42 The Islas y Bustamante Box……………………………………………………………………...48 The Ahuitzotl Box……………………………………………………………………………………52 Chapter 5: Conclusion……………………….………………………………………………………………..58 What is a box?…………………………………………………………………………………………58 Review……………………………………………………………………………………………………58 Images……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….62 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..75 Hulshoff 6 Thesis Abstract: This essay is study of Aztec stone boxes from the pre-conquest Aztec empire. My study focuses on the interpretation of carvings on the surfaces, as well as the interiors and lids when applicable. The study includes not only traditionally functional boxes, but also altars (blocks or basins) and offering chambers, as comparative examples. The thesis focuses on three specific stone boxes located in museums in Mexico, Germany, and Great Britain: the Islas y Bustamante Box (Museo Nacional de Anthropología, Mexico), the Hackmack Box (Museum fur Volkerkunde, Hamburg), and the Ahuitzotl Box (British Museum, London, and Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin). I am studying the iconographic programs, with a focus on themes of auto- sacrifice and creation, carved on the art objects themselves and their function as story-telling devices, with or without the contents that the box may have contained. In their forms, the objects themselves are metaphors for space, time, Aztec history, and Aztec creation myths. The Hackmack Box depicts the creation god, Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), and refers to the creation myth of mankind saved from the underworld and resurrected from the ashes of bones, using Quetzalcoatl’s own blood. The box bears Montezuma’s name glyph and is likely a tribute to his birth, his ascension and success as a ruler, and his piety. The Islas y Bustamante Box depicts the god of caves, Tepeyolotl, and refers to the myth that man ascended from caves, as all of life originated from the mouth of a cave that was also a natural spring. The box itself is a metaphor for this type of cave. The Ahuitzotl Box depicts the god of water Tlaloc, and Hulshoff 7 refers to the myth of the tlaloques (helpers) discovery of “food-mountain”, in other words, the discovery of maize that nourished the Aztec people. It has been linked to the dedication of the aqueduct built under the Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl, and serves as a tribute to this historical event. The cosmic arrangement of the motifs on these boxes reveal the object as a metaphor for space and time itself as they comply with the Aztec’s earthly orientation of the heavens, the earth, an the underworld. Hulshoff 8 List of Figures Figure 1) Ahuitzotl name glyph, detail, ( Codex Mendoza facsimile , 1992: 13). Pg. 35,53,54. Figure 2) Templo Mayor Offerings Box, interior wall, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg. 38,49. Figure 3) Offering Chambers from the Templo Mayor, Museo del Templo Mayor, c. 1469-1481, Phase IVb, photograph by the author. Pg. 38,39. Figure 4) Stone Box with Offerings of various lapidary and jade pieces, aerial view, Museo del Templo Mayor, c. 1469-1481, Phase IVb, photograph by the author. Pg. 38,39. Figure 5) Tizapán Box and lid, stone, stucco, and paint, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg. 39. Figure 5.1) Tizapán Box and Figure, green stone, stucco, and paint, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg. 39. Figure 6) Warrior Box, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.39. Figure 7) Venus Altar, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.39. Figure 8) The Hackmack Box, Montezuma I Bloodletting side, with lid Quetzalcoatl with dates One Reed and Seven Reed , (Seler, 1992, Vol. 3: 92). Pg.43. Figure 9) The Hackmack Stone Box , Lid, Quetzalcoatl One Reed and Seven Reed , (Solana, 1983: 66). Pg.43. Figure 10) The Hackmack Box , Lid, Quetzalcoatl One Reed and Seven Reed , drawing, (Solana, 1983: 62). Pg.43. Figure 11) Xiuhcóatl Box, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.44. Figure 12) Moctezuma box and lid, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.44. Figure 13) The Hackmack Box , Inside Bottom , 1 cipactli (crocodile), (Solana, 1983: 47). Pg.44,45. Figure 14) The Hackmack Box , Inside Bottom Earth Monster , (Solana, 1983: 47). Pg.45. Figure 15) The Hackmack Box , Front (Montezuma I) and Back (Quetzalcoatl) and both sides (1 rabbit and 4 rabbit), (Solana, 1983: 48). Pg.46. Figure 16) Licenciado Nicoloas Islas y Bustamante , sides 1 and 2 with cacatapayolli (grass ball with agave points), (Seler, 1992,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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).
    [Show full text]
  • Harvard University Announces the Inaugural Lecture of the Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series, to Be Delivered by Its Namesake, Professor Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
    Harvard University announces the Inaugural Lecture of the Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series, to be delivered by its namesake, Professor Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Mexico City and Cambridge, MA – September 27, 2017. Harvard University expresses solidarity with the people of Mexico following the earthquake of September 19, and reaffirms its commitment to collaborate alongside the country’s academic community to identify solutions to Mexico’s most pressing problems. As ever, Harvard wholeheartedly supports and values collaboration with Mexican institutions. In an effort to renew its commitment to collaborations with Mexico on research and education, Harvard University has established the Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series. This series celebrates the excellence of Mexican archaeology, represented by the figure of Professor Matos Moctezuma. In addition to honoring Mexico’s preeminent archaeologist, the series seeks to convene world-renowned experts on pre-Hispanic Mexico. The Inaugural Lecture of the Matos Lecture Series will be held on Tuesday, October 3rd at 7pm CDT/8pm EST at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Though space is limited, this event will be live streamed. A delegation from Harvard will include Mark Elliott, Harvard’s Vice Provost for International Affairs and Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History, who will preside over the event. Other members of the Harvard delegation traveling to Mexico include Brian Farrell, Director of the David Rockefeller for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and David Hempton, Dean of the Harvard Divinity School and Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies and John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity.
    [Show full text]
  • Encounter with the Plumed Serpent
    Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez ENCOUNTENCOUNTEERR withwith thethe Drama and Power in the Heart of Mesoamerica Preface Encounter WITH THE plumed serpent i Mesoamerican Worlds From the Olmecs to the Danzantes GENERAL EDITORS: DAVÍD CARRASCO AND EDUARDO MATOS MOCTEZUMA The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal: Science, History, and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque, GERARDO ALDANA Commoner Ritual and Ideology in Ancient Mesoamerica, NANCY GONLIN AND JON C. LOHSE, EDITORS Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan, PHILIP P. ARNOLD Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures, Revised Edition, ANTHONY AVENI Encounter with the Plumed Serpent: Drama and Power in the Heart of Mesoamerica, MAARTEN JANSEN AND GABINA AURORA PÉREZ JIMÉNEZ In the Realm of Nachan Kan: Postclassic Maya Archaeology at Laguna de On, Belize, MARILYN A. MASSON Life and Death in the Templo Mayor, EDUARDO MATOS MOCTEZUMA The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, GABRIELLE VAIL AND ANTHONY AVENI, EDITORS Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, E. CHRISTIAN WELLS AND KARLA L. DAVIS-SALAZAR, EDITORS Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage: Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, DAVÍD CARRASCO, LINDSAY JONES, AND SCOTT SESSIONS Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, “Lord of the Smoking Mirror,” GUILHEM OLIVIER, TRANSLATED BY MICHEL BESSON Rabinal Achi: A Fifteenth-Century Maya Dynastic Drama, ALAIN BRETON, EDITOR; TRANSLATED BY TERESA LAVENDER FAGAN AND ROBERT SCHNEIDER Representing Aztec Ritual: Performance, Text, and Image in the Work of Sahagún, ELOISE QUIÑONES KEBER, EDITOR The Social Experience of Childhood in Mesoamerica, TRACI ARDREN AND SCOTT R. HUTSON, EDITORS Stone Houses and Earth Lords: Maya Religion in the Cave Context, KEITH M.
    [Show full text]
  • Oral Tradition 25.2
    Oral Tradition, 25/2 (2010): 325-363 “Secret Language” in Oral and Graphic Form: Religious-Magic Discourse in Aztec Speeches and Manuscripts Katarzyna Mikulska Dąbrowska Introduction On the eve of the conquest, oral communication dominated Mesoamerican society, with systems similar to those defined by Walter Ong (1992 [1982]), Paul Zumthor (1983), and Albert Lord (1960 [2000]), although a written form did exist. Its limitations were partly due to the fact that it was used only by a limited group of people (Craveri 2004:29), and because the Mixtec and Nahua systems do not totally conform to a linear writing system.1 These forms of graphic communication are presented in pictographic manuscripts, commonly known as codices. The analysis of these sources represents an almost independent discipline, as they increasingly become an ever more important source for Mesoamerican history, religion, and anthropology. The methodology used to study them largely depends on how the scholar defines “writing.” Some apply the most rigid definition of a system based on the spoken language and reflecting its forms and/or structures (e.g., Coulmas 1996:xxvi), while others accept a broader definition of semasiographic systems that can transmit ideas independent of actual spoken language (yet function at the same logical level) and thus also constitute writing (e.g., Sampson 1985:26-31). The aim of this study is to analyze the linguistic “magical-religious” register of the Nahua people, designated as such because it was used for communication with the sacred realm. In this respect, it represents one of the “sacred languages,” as classified by Zumthor (1983:53).
    [Show full text]
  • Codex Nicholson Pp. 59-126
    Codex Nicholson 59 THE GREAT NITPICKER Davíd Carrasco I met H. B. Nicholson for the first time in 1974 at a session on Magic Books of Mexico at the 41st Internacional Congreso de Americanistas in Mexico City. He and the great Wigberto Jiménez Moreno were chairing the session, and I was thrilled to be in the audience and listen to these two wonderful scholars. Afterward I walked up and introduced myself to Professor Nicholson and told him I was planning to write a dissertation on Quetzalcoatl while completing my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. We spoke for a few minutes as he was clearly interested in talking about Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl. He wondered if I’d read his dissertation. When I said I had come to know about it through reading Alfredo López Austin’s (1973) book, Hombre-Díos, but had not been able to obtain a copy, he promised to send me one. Soon after returning to Colorado I wrote him to thank him for our exchange and inquired about his Harvard dissertation. To my surprise and delight, a photocopy of his 1957 dissertation, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl of Tollan: a Problem in Mesoamerican Ethnohistory, arrived at my home. As a student of religion struggling to make my way through the primary sources, a great feeling of relief came over me: I’ve just been saved! Reading through Nicholson’s dissertation focused my mind and work. The clarity, the pinpoint research, the overall organization, and the reconstruction of the “tale” all read like a tour de force legal argument making the case that the Aztecs had inherited and internalized a sacred history about the Toltec priest-king that shaped their priestly practices, religious world view and, later, their interpretation of the encounter with the Spaniards.
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking the Maya Code : Michael D. Coe Interview (Night Fire Films)
    BREAKING THE MAYA CODE Transcript of filmed interview Complete interview transcripts at www.nightfirefilms.org MICHAEL D. COE Interviewed April 6 and 7, 2005 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut In the 1950s archaeologist Michael Coe was one of the pioneering investigators of the Olmec Civilization. He later made major contributions to Maya epigraphy and iconography. In more recent years he has studied the Khmer civilization of Cambodia. He is the Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus at Yale University, and Curator Emeritus of the Anthropology collection of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is the author of Breaking the Maya Code and numerous other books including The Maya Scribe and His World, The Maya and Angkor and the Khmer Civilization. In this interview he discusses: The nature of writing systems The origin of Maya writing The role of writing and scribes in Maya culture The status of Maya writing at the time of the Spanish conquest The impact for good and ill of Bishop Landa The persistence of scribal activity in the books of Chilam Balam and the Caste War Letters Early exploration in the Maya region and early publication of Maya texts The work of Constantine Rafinesque, Stephens and Catherwood, de Bourbourg, Ernst Förstemann, and Alfred Maudslay The Maya Corpus Project Cyrus Thomas Sylvanus Morley and the Carnegie Projects Eric Thompson Hermann Beyer Yuri Knorosov Tania Proskouriakoff His own early involvement with study of the Maya and the Olmec His personal relationship with Yuri
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Sonya Wohletz Spring 2013 Through a Glass, Darkly: a Study Of
    Sonya Wohletz Spring 2013 Through a Glass, Darkly: A Study of Mirrors in Aztec Art Introduction As Hernán Cortez and his men made their way to the shores of Mexico, they may have dreamed of the vast treasures in the unknown lands to the West and the shimmering caches of gold that would soon fill their coffers, launching them to the greatest heights of Spanish society. Meanwhile, Motecuzoma II paced his palace chambers, contemplating the dark omens that announced the approach of a sinister band of invaders who would bring an end to his empire. We can imagine his worry and confusion as these strange signs visited upon him a growing kind of terror for which he could not find the language to describe. There is no way Motecuzoma could have envisioned the scale of destruction that awaited him and his people nor the profundity of the changes that the unknown invaders would bring; however, with the help of sages and diviners, Motecuzoma was already encountering clues as to the identity and nature of these unknown beings. Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, who recorded the stories and cultural customs of native informants in his cultural encyclopedia, The Florentine Codex, describes eight such clues or omens. Of these eight, perhaps the most curious is the seventh omen, in which the royal hunters discovered a bird with a mirror on its forehead: A seventh omen: at one time the fisher folk who hunted or snared with nets took captive an ashen hued bird like a crane. Then they went to show it to Moctezuma, [who was] in the Tlillan calmecatl.1 It was past noon, still daytime.
    [Show full text]
  • Interpreting Tepantitla Patio 2 Mural (Teotihuacan, Mexico)
    INTERPRETING TEPANTITLA PATIO 2 MURAL (TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO) AS AN ANCESTRAL FIGURE ____________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Chico ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts In Art History ____________ by © Atalie Tate Halpin Fall 2018 INTERPRETING TEPANTITLA PATIO 2 MURAL (TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO) AS AN ANCESTRAL FIGURE A Thesis by Atalie Tate Halpin APPROVED BY THE INTERIM DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES: ______________________________ Sharon Barrios, PhD. APPROVED THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: ______________________________ ______________________________ Asa S. Mittman, PhD., Chair Matthew G. Looper, PhD. Graduate Coordinator ______________________________ Rachel Middleman, PhD. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………….. iv CHAPTER PAGE I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 II. Tepantitla Patio 2 Mural: Context and Description .......................................................... 4 III. Previous Interpretations: Literature Review …………………………………………… 14 A. “Tlaloc”……………………………………………………………………………... 14 B. “Great Goddess” …………………………………………………………………… 15 C. “Spider Woman” …………………………………………………………………… 18 D. “Water Goddess” and Other Interpretations ……………………………………….. 19 IV. Methods ………………………………………………………………………………... 24 A. Iconography ………………………………………………………………………... 24 B. Cross-cultural and Trans-historical Comparisons …………………………………. 25 V. Iconographic Analysis …………………………………………………………………… 29 A. World Trees and the Cosmic Center ……………………………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • Contexts of Offerings and Ritual Maize in the Pictographic Record in Central Mexico
    Contexts of offerings and ritual maize in the pictographic record in Central Mexico NATALIA MORAGAS SEGURA and ELENA MAZZETTO he objective of this article is an initial enquiry into the evidence and classification of the Tofferings of maize in Central Mexico from the Classic period to early colonial times. In order to achieve this goal, we will analyse the presence of maize in Central Mexico according to the evidence found in mural paintings and some pictographic codices. Two Mesoamerican cultures will be considered to achieve our analysis: the Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Maize was instru- mental in the performance of daily rituals and in the diet of these ancient Mesoamerican cultures and the cereal also had sacred connotations in pre-Hispanic, colonial and contemporary narratives. We suggest this by reading the iconographic and symbolic representations of corn in the form of seeds and pods, or as an ingredient in cooked foods which are represented in the mural paintings of Teotihuacan as well as some codices of the post-Classic Nahua tradition. These methodological enquiries reveal evidence of a cultural continuity in Central Mexico as a contrasting perspective on the archaeological and ethno-historical period. Introductory remarks In 1943, Paul Kirchhoff coined the term ‘Mesoamerica’ as a cultural concept to refer to the development of complex societies (Kirchhoff 1943, Flannery 1968) in the region. This concept defines a variable geographical area but also emphasizes the cultural traits that were shared by a number of different indig­ enous cultures. The geographical area covers Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica.
    [Show full text]
  • 42 WOLF Explaining Mesoamérica
    Clásicos y Contemporáneos en Antropología, CIESAS-UAM-UIA Social Anthropology (EASA), No. 2, Vol 1, 1994, págs 1 -17. EXPLAINING MESOAMERICA Eric Wolf* Anthropology is an unusual discipline - ‘impossible’, as Aidan Southall has said, ‘but necessaryi. It’s objects of study are human beings, peculiarly polymorphous as creatures both biological and cultural; behaving so you can observe them, yet also engaged in inaudible internal discussions; transforming nature through production, while simultaneously using language and making symbols. So far no one theory has done justice to this gamut of characteristics. Any one attempt at theory has inevitably privileged some aspects over others, selecting these aspects as ‘figure’ and relegating the rest to “ground”. The followers of any one of these approaches —temporarily hegemonic— always hoped that the marginalized phenomena would someday be explained by means of the dominant paradigm. Inevitably, temporary success was followed by a return of ‘the repressed’, often accompanied by claims that the hitherto back grounded material actually contained the missing key to solve all problems. These cycles of assertion and replacement have intensified as anthropologists previously confined within particular national traditions increasingly communicate trans-nationally. There is probably no one solution to this impasse in finding an all-powerful, all- embracing theory, but several more modest alternatives suggest themselves. One is to become more eclectic, to turn into a virtue what Marvin Harris has stigmatized as a vice. We might come to admit a range of theoretical perspectives and treat them as so many 'discovery procedures’. In place of one imperial master-paradigm, we could entertain the possibility of a set of micro-paradigms, each the source of a set of methods that might teach us something new and interesting about the world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mexica in Tula and Tula in Mexico-Tenochtitlan
    Twelve THE MEXICA IN TULA AND TULA IN MEXICO-TENOCHTITLAN Leonardo López Luján Alfredo López Austin THE TOLLAN-QUETZALCOATL DYAD IN THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF MEXICO-TENOCHTITLAN THE autHorS of THIS CHAPter share an interest regarding a crucial dyad in Mesoamerican history: that of Tollan-Quetzalcoatl. A book on the nature of men-gods appeared more than 30 years ago (López Austin 1973); since then, another has just come out examining the Tenochca imitation of Toltec art (López Luján 2006). More than three decades separate one study from the other, and during this time, we have left the subject and returned to it, both individually and together. There is nothing unique about our keen interest in revealing the mysteries of the Feathered Serpent, the legendary ruler, and the city that oscillates between ecumenical and anecumenical.1 For centuries, countless authors, intrigued by similar enigmas, have come before us, and clearly many will follow us with their inquiries on this interplay of myth, legend, and history. Saying that the Tollan-Quetzalcoatl dyad is complicated because of the impact of politics does not fully explain this concept. The dyad was the ideological basis of a widespread political project in Mesoamerica, one that had been in operation for centuries. We dealt with this subject together in our essay Mito y realidad de Zuyuá [The myth and reality of Zuyuá] (López Austin and López Luján 1999, 2000), where we focus on the double figure of Tollan (as an anecumenical dwelling place, where the distinction was produced between men prior to their appearance on the surface of the earth and as a prototypical earthly capital), which is a parallel to the double figure of Quetzalcoatl (as a generic creator of humanity and as a legendary ruler).
    [Show full text]
  • Eduardo Matos Moctezuma to Deliver Lecture in Cambridge on April 10
    Eduardo Matos Moctezuma to Deliver Lecture in Cambridge on April 10 Cambridge, MA – March 19, 2018. Harvard University is honored to welcome Professor Eduardo Matos Moctezuma on April 10, 2018 to deliver the lecture, “Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Discovers Himself: Excavations of the Great Aztec Temple,” at 6 pm at the Geological Lecture Hall (24 Oxford Street). This is the first lecture on campus as part of the five-year Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series; the inaugural lecture in the series was delivered at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City this past October and was covered extensively by the press. With the Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series, Harvard seeks to celebrate the excellence of Mexican archaeology and history and aims to build and strengthen existing educational and research ties with Mexico. In subsequent years, other world-renowned experts on pre- Hispanic Mexico will be chosen to deliver the Matos Moctezuma lectures in Mexico City in the fall and at Harvard in the spring. The Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series is made possible thanks to the generosity of José Antonio Alonso Espinosa and the initiative of Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin America at the Department of Anthropology and Harvard Divinity School. This is the first such series to be named after a Mexican in Harvard’s nearly 400-year history. It is the product of almost four decades of close collaboration between Professors Matos and Carrasco on the excavation and research projects surrounding the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan. The Lecture Series comes out of collaboration among the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies offices in Cambridge and Mexico City, the Harvard Divinity School, and the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project.
    [Show full text]