Aztec Philosophy Aztec Philosophy Understanding a World in Motion James Maffie UNIVERSITY PRESS OF COLORADO Boulder © 2014 by University Press of Colorado Published by University Press of Colorado 5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C Boulder, Colorado 80303 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of American University Presses. The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Maffie, James. Aztec philosophy: understanding a world in motion / James Maffie. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60732-222-1 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60732-223-8 (ebook) 1. Aztec philosophy. 2. Aztecs—Folklore. I. Title. F1219.76.P55M35 2013 199’.7208997452—dc23 2013018407 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover photo credit: Almena en forma de caracol cortado, El Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City, Mexico. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías. To my mother, Elaine Wack Maffie, and the memory of my father, Cornelius Michael Maffie. Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Teotl 21 1.1. Teotl 21 1.2. Supporting Scholarship 31 1.3. The Cosmos as Teotl’s Artistic-Shamanic Self- Transformation 38 1.4. Some Implications of and Objections against Several Aspects of this Interpretation of Aztec Metaphysics 43 1.5. Conclusion 62 Chapter 2. Pantheism 79 2.1. Pantheism 79 2.2. The Sacred 92 2.3. Neltiliztli, Self-Presentation, and Nonhierarchical Well-Ordering 100 2.4. Ixiptla and Teixiptla 113 2.5. Animism 114 2.6. Objections and Replies 116 2.7. Conclusion 121 Chapter 3. Agonistic Inamic Unity 137 3.1. Agonistic Inamic Unity 137 3.2. Agonistic Inamic Unity as a Pattern in the Weaving of the Cosmos 140 vii 3.3. Examining Agonistic Inamic Unity 143 3.4. Artistic Presentations of Agonistic Inamic Unity 159 3.5. Abstract Inamic Pairs 164 3.6. Balance and Imbalance, and Center and Periphery Are Not Inamic Pairs 168 3.7. Ometeotl 169 3.8. Conclusion 172 Chapter 4. Teotl as Olin 185 4.1. Olin 186 4.2. Linguistic Evidence 187 4.3. Literary Evidence 194 4.4. Graphic Evidence 230 4.5. Conclusion 241 Chapter 5. Teotl as Malinalli 261 5.1. Linguistic Evidence 261 5.2. Literary Evidence 267 5.3. Graphic Evidence 320 5.4. Conclusion 329 Chapter 6. Teotl as Nepantla 355 6.1. Linguistic Evidence 355 6.2. Literary Evidence 364 6.3. Graphic Evidence 401 6.4. Conclusion 403 Chapter 7. Teotl as Time-Place 419 7.1. Introductory Remarks on Time and Place 419 7.2. The Tonalpohualli 423 7.3. The Xihuitl or Xiuhpohualli 430 7.4. Aztec Cosmogony 432 7.5. Aztec Time-Place: a Monistic and Processive Interpretation 452 7.6. Conclusion 465 viii contents Chapter 8. Weaving the Cosmos: Reality and Cosmos as Nepantla Process 479 8.1. The Dynamics of the Aztec Cosmos 479 8.2. Backstrap Weaving 483 8.3. Weaving the Fifth Sun-Earth Age 495 8.4. The First Four Sun-Earth Ages as Nepantla Process 502 8.5. The Fifth Age as Nepantla-Generated Woven House 503 8.6. The Vertical Folding of the Cosmos and of the Fifth Age 504 8.7. Cosmos and Reality as Nepantla Process 508 8.8. Conclusion 512 Conclusion: Nepantla and Aztec Philosophy 523 Bibliography 531 Index 567 contents ix Acknowledgments This work would not have been possible without the monumental achievements of Miguel León-Portilla and Alfredo López Austin. They are the giants upon whose shoulders Aztec scholarship rests. Although I know neither personally, I found myself in constant dialogue with them while writing this book. I also owe intellectual debts to the work of Cecelia Klein, Willard Gingerich, David Hall, Roger Ames, Thelma Sullivan, Eva Hunt, Alan Sandstrom, Pamela Effrein Sandstrom, Barbara Tedlock, Dennis Tedlock, Timothy Knab, Louise Burkhart, Davíd Carrasco, H. B. Nicholson, Jill McKeever Furst, Kay Read, Doris Heyden, Vine Deloria Jr., and Peter Furst. Although trained in Western epistemology, meta- physics, and philosophy of science, I have always har- bored a deep interest in non-Western philosophies. It was my chancing upon León-Portilla’s Aztec Thought and Culture that led me to decide to pursue Aztec (Nahua) philosophy. Such a pursuit is tantamount to philosophical heresy and career suicide from the per- spective of academic philosophy in the USA. My pre- vious colleagues at Colorado State University – Grant Lee, Pat McKee, Ron Williams, James Boyd, Richard Kitchener, Jane Kneller, Michael Losonsky, and Bernie Rollins – wholeheartedly supported my retraining myself as a Nahuatlist. My thinking over the years has benefited from discus- sions with Sandra Harding, David Hall, Barry Hallen, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Helen Verran, David Turnbull, Alberto Hernández-Lemus, Henry Odera Oruka, Shari Stone-Mediatore, Norman Swazo, Helmut Wautischer, Zeno Vendler, Oscar Martí, Alicia Matsunaga, Susana Nuccetelli, Ofelia Schutte, Elizabeth Milan-Zaibert, xi Larry Lauden, Vinay Lal, Susantha Goonatilake, Meera Nanda, Lawrence Sklar, William R. Carter, Xuan Wang, Deepak Mirchandani, Sara Castro-Klaren, and Alejandro Cañeque. For as long as I can remember, Julie Greene, Howard Brick, Paul Roth, William E. Morris, and Alex Greene have challenged me to rethink my ideas with greater rigor. For stimulating discussions I’d like to thank audience members at the Pratt Institute; the 2013 Northeastern Group of Nahuatl Studies Conference, Yale University; the Johns Hopkins University; American University; University of Colorado, College Springs; University of San Diego; University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Colorado College; Texas State University, San Marcos; Ohio Wesleyan University; Colorado State University; the Precolumbian Society of Washington, DC; University of Maryland; Caribbean Philosophy Association Meetings, Rutgers University; New Directions in Critical Theory Conference, University of Arizona; American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meetings; Nahuatl Workshop 1, University of Maryland; Latin American Studies Association Meetings, Montreal; Society for Iberian and Latin American Thought, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meetings; Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, Santa Fe; and Third Annual St. Louis Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable. I am deeply grateful for the support given to me by the University of Maryland, College Park. Dean James Harris and Richard Price, Chair of the Department of History, arranged a two-year research fellowship that enabled me to devote myself to researching and writing this book. Mary Kay Vaughn, Karin Rosemblatt, Daryl Williams, and Sandra Cypess welcomed me to my new home in the Latin American Studies Center. As successive directors of the Latin American Studies Center, Mary Kay and Karin have sponsored two Nahua Workshops. The Department of Philosophy offered me a place to teach world philosophies. Christopher Morris and Allen Stairs have been especially welcoming. Students in my World Philosophies, Aztec Thought, Indigenous Thought of the Americas, and Contemporary Latin and Caribbean Philosophy courses have helped me sharpen and clarify my ideas. Nancy Struna, Chair of the Department of American Studies, and Maxine Grossman, Director of the Religious Studies Program, have also extended welcome mats to me. Finally, the members of the Precolumbian Society of Washington, DC, provided me with an instant community here in the greater Washington, DC, area. I’d like to thank Darrin Pratt, Jessica d’Arbonne, Laura Furney, Daniel Pratt, and Karl Yambert at the University Press of Colorado for patiently guiding the manuscript through publication and the two anonymous referees who read an early draft and made insightful suggestions regarding its improvement. xii Acknowledgments Special thanks go to my teachers of Nahuatl at IDIEZ: John Sullivan, Urbano Francisco Martínez, Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz, Andrés Francisco Martínez, and the extended Francisco Martínez family of San Luis Potosí. I have many Mesoamericanists to thank. At one time or another Alfredo López Austin, Richard Townsend, John F. Schwaller, Jonathan Amith, Frances Berdan, Frances Karttunen, Jane Hill, Alejandro Santana, Kim Goldsmith, Davíd Carrasco, Leisa Kauffmann, Gordon Brotherston, Richard Haly, Patricia Anawalt, Viviana Díaz-Balsera, Alejandro Santana, Michael Smith, Jacqueline Messing, Catherine DiCesare, and John Millhauser have improved my under- standing of Aztec philosophy. Joe Campbell generously shared many of his con- cordances of Nahuatl words. These – along with his amazing A Morphological Dictionary of Classical Nahuatl – were absolutely indispensable to formulating and testing my ideas. Academics are commonly concerned with guarding their boundaries and wary of outsiders. I have been extremely fortunate to find a group of Nahuatlists who exemplify quite the opposite. I owe very special thanks to James Taggart, Cecelia Klein, the late Elizabeth Brumfiel, Jerome Offner, Joanna Sánchez, and Camilla Townsend for warmly welcoming me and generously sharing with me their understanding of all