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404 OLD GODS Tectural Elements Or Could Be Protected Inside Ums, Stone Privileges 404 OLD GODS tectural elements or could be protected inside ums, stone privileges. Among the last was the right to become inebri- boxes, or chambers. Generally, the offerings included ma- ated on pulque, a fermented beverage believed to have a terials of all types, nearly always evoking powerful sym- "cold" nature. The elderly were greatly admired and re- bolism: minerals (rock crystal, quartz, green stones, cin- vered because they had accumulated authority, wisdom, nabar, stalactiteslstalagmites),plants (flowers,seeds, spines), and the capacity for transmitting their knowledge; how- animals, and human beings. They also contained semi- ever, they were also feared for their internal "fire." In fact, precious and finished objects of ceramic, stone, metal, according to sixteenth-century Nahua concepts, the el- shell, bone, textile, wood, and other materials. Orna- derly had received the influences of the fifty-two possible ments, vessels, divine images, and instruments of sacri- combinations of the four year bearers (House, Rabbit, fice and autosacrifice were quite common. Reed, Flint Knife) and their thirteen numerical coeffi- In the majority of cases, the gifts were not deposited cients. As a consequence, their tonalli and teyolia (the ani- haphazardly; rather, the faithful followed a strict ritual mistic entities lodged in the head and the heart) had been order prescribed by liturgy. Therefore, Mesoamerican of- invigorated to the extreme with powerful energy of a hot ferings were true symbolic complexes-that communicated nature. Therefore, the elderly were called chicahuac and a message through principies of spatial distribution. For pipinqui, terms that mean "strong, robust," a clear allu- example, objects were arranged horizontally according to sion to their unusual animistic strength. It was said that imaginary axial lines; they were assembled in groups grandparents possessed adivine heart and were thus con- whose numbers related to the cosmos (4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 20, sidered yolteteo, equal to artists, inventors, savants, and 52); and they were connected vertically, forming layers of diviners. the same type of material. The results were cosmograms Within Mesoamerican mythology, old age found its that reproduced in miniature a section or totality of the greatest expression in the figure of the primordial pair: universe. a woman and aman, toothless, with wrinkled faces and hunched bodies. In the Nahua world, they were known as BIBLIOGRAPHY Oxomoco and Cipactonal. According to some accounts, Baudez, Claude. Una historia de la religión de los antiguos mayas. Mexico City, in press. they had been sent by the gods to the earth's surface to Becker, Marshall Joseph. "Caches as Burials; Burials as Caches: The spin, weave, and cultivate the fields. They created the cal- Meaning of Ritual Deposits among the Classic Period Lowland endar, gave origin to humanity, and instituted the arts of Maya." In Recent Studies in Pre-Columbian Archaeology, edited by divination and healing. Oxomoco had the butterfly as her N. J. Saunders and O. de Montmoullin, pp. 117-142. Oxford, 1988. principal attribute and was directly related to the goddess Calligéris, Catherine. "Fonction et signification des dépóts de fonda- tion mayas, dans les Basses Terres, a la période Classique." Disser- Itzpapalotl ("Obsidian Butterfly"): Cipactonal was dis- tation, Université de París I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. tinguished by the glyph cipactli ("earth monster")-that Coe, William R. "Caches and Offertory Practices of the Maya Low- is, by the sign of the first day in the calendar. Among lands." In Handbook of Midd/e American Indians, edited by Robert the Maya, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane played an analogous Wauchope, vol. 2, pp. 462-468. Austin, 1965. mythical roleo It was said that, by means of divination, Coggins, Clemency C. Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichért ltzá, Yucatán. Cambridge, 1992. this elderly couple had pointed out to the gods the way Drucker, Philip, Robert F. Heizer, and Robert J. Squier. Excavations in which they should create humanity; in addition, Xmu- at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955. Washington, D.C., 1959. cane ground the maize that would serve as the raw mate- López Luján, Leonardo. The Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenoch- rial for human beings. titlan. Translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma These and other primordial pairs are not the only divin- Ortiz de Montellano. Niwot, Colo., 1994. Mock, Shirley Boteler, ed. The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination, ities in the Mesoamerican pantheon who possessed the Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethno- traits of old age. In fact, there is an extensive list of deities graphic Record of Mesoamerica. Albuquerque, 1998. of advanced age, including Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl Nagao, Debra. Mexica Buried Offerings: A Historica/ and Contextual ("Lord of the Year," "The Old God"), a numen of fire and Ana/ysis. Oxford, 1985. its transforming power, Without a doubt, the cult dedi- Rattray, Evelyn Childs. The Teotihuacan Buria/s and Offerings: A Commentary and Inventory ; Nashville, 1992. cated to Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl is one of the oldest LEONARDO LÓPEZ LUJÁN and most significant of the pre-Hispanic world. His ori- Translated from Spanish by Scott Sessions gins can be found in the Middle Formative period (1200- 400 BCE), and Joralemon has identified God 1 of the 01- mecs as his most remote antecedent. However, the first OLD GODS. Old age was one of the most important images of the Old Fire God as a seated old man support- stages in the life of a Mesoamerican. The individual ar- ing a brazier on his hunched back were produced in the rived at old age upon completing fifty-two years and be- Formative site of Cuicuilco (Federal District, Mexico). carne eligible for a series of honors, considerations, and Later, in Teotihuacan (state of México), sculptures of OLMEC 405 Huehueteotl acquired more complex and standardized Nicholson, H. B. "Religíon in Pre-Hispanic Central México." In Hand- form and were produced in greater quantity. From there, book of Middle American Indians, edited by Robert Wauchope, vol. 10, pp. 396-446. Austin, 1971. they spread throughout Mesoamerica to Westem Mexico, Taube, Karl A. The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Washington, D.C., the Gulf Coast, Oaxaca, highland Guatemala, and Yu- 1992. catán. LEONARDO LÓPEZ LUJÁN Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl was intimately associated Translated from Spanish by Scott Sessions with time and with space. His festivities coincided with the register of annual, quadrennial, octennial, and secu- lar (fifty-two year) periods. It was also believed that this OLMEC. This Preclassic-period archaeological culture god resided in the center of the universe, in which posi- of Mexico's tropical southem Gulf Coast, extant around tion he was invoked as Teteo Innan-Teteo Inta ("Mother, 1200-500 BCE, is significant as the first Mesoamerican so- Father of the Gods"). He was also called Nauhyotecuhtli ciety to create stone monuments, a trait that for centuries ("Lord of the Group of Four"), because he was the god of set them apart from their contemporaries. However, the fire in relation to the four cardinal points, just as the bra- term "Olmec" is also used loosely to characterize a variety zier for kindling fire was the center of the indigenous of Preclassic-period iconographic motifs, pottery vessels, household and temple. figurines, and jadeite objects that occur at sites within It is interesting to note that, along with Xiuhtecuhtli- the Olmec realm, as well as at non-Olmec sites across a Huehueteotl, nearly all the Old Gods of the Mexica pan- large area of Mesoamerica (e.g., "Olmec art," "Olmec mo- theon belong to the select group of supreme divinities. tifs," "the Olmec style"). Whether the archaeological cul- These were beings with enormous powers related to cre- ture and the widely used motifs and objects were some- ation, generation, and sustenance. They were also distin- how related is a hotly debated topic among scholars. guished by their esoteric knowledge of divination, sor- Nevertheless, the two different uses for "Olmec" lead to cery, and medicine, and on occasions they were related frequent confusion and misunderstandings, and they are to weaving, music, and dance. The most important Old treated separately here. Gods were Tonacatecuhtli ("Lord of Our Sustenance") Olmec, the Archaeological Culture. An "archaeologi- and his consort Tonacacihuatl ("Lady of Our Suste- cal culture" is defined by scholars on the basis of a dis- nance"), Iztac Mixcoatl ("Serpent of the White Cloud") tinctive complex of artifacts that occur within a restricted and his consort Ilamatecuhtli ("Old Lady"), Teteoinnan geographic region. The archaeological culture called "01- ("Mother of the Gods"), Toci ("Our Grandmother"), Itzpa- mec" was first distinguished by magnificent stone monu- palotl ("Obsidian Butterfly"), Huehuecoyotl ("Old Coy- ments found on Mexico's southem Gulf Coast within a ote"), and Tlacaocelotl ("Man Jaguar"). limited area extending from the Tuxtla mountains of Old Gods also abounded among the Maya. Examples southem Veracruz approximately 160 kilometers (l00 include God D or Itzamná, supreme divinity, creator, and miles) east to the humid lowlands of westem Tabasco. god of sustenance, who was usually represented as a cai- That area was a source of rubber production in pre-His- man or a personified tree; God G or Kinich Ahau, a solar panic times, and "Olmec" essentially means "people of deity; Goddess 1, related to the moon, maize, and weav- the rubber country," but that name was given by modem ing; God L, associated with the underworld and com- scholars; what the Preclassic peoples of that region called merce; God N, lord of the mountain, supporter of the sky, themselves will never be known. Although more than two and a being symbolically linked to music and inebriation; dozen sites with monuments are known in the Olmec and Goddess O or Ix Chel, a generative creator divinity area, the majority of the carvings occur at just three large and goddess of death, also related to weaving, divina- sites: La Venta, San Lorenzo, and Laguna de los Cerros.
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