1. 233S16 FINAL REVIEW

2. MESOAMERICAN MATERIAL

3. TIME
PERIODS
CULTURES
BCE
FORMATIVE
Olmec
___________
Zapotec
Earliest Mesoamerican high civilization: monumental scultures, jaguar shamans, ball game, human sacrifice
________________
Early Mesoamerican civilization : astronomical observatories
100 BCE – 900 CE
CLASSIC
Mayan
Teotihuacan
Popol Vuh
City "Where Gods Were Made"; pan-Mesoamerican shrine CE
POSTCLASSIC
Aztec
Leyenda de los Soles
POST-CONQUEST
Cortés and defeat of Motecuhzoma II

4. Mesoamerican Themes • astronomical observation
• pyramidal architecture
• shamanistic animal cults
• oppositional structures
• ball game
• blood-letting and human sacrifice
• agricultural symbolism (maize)
• regeneration

5. Emergence Myths Chicomoztoc : Mesoamerican Cave of Origins
Tree of Origin : example of axis mundi

6. Mayan Cosmogony: Popol Vuh
ANIMAL
noise
- praise
wilderness
eaten
STAGES
DETAILS
Plumed Serpent + Heart of Sky
earth created by power of word
animals
animals of forests, animals of mountains assigned habitats and habits (failure)
humans 1
mud creature (failure)
humans 2
wood people (failure)
humans 3
maize people
MAIZE
speech
awareness
mobile
gendered
wet
full
memory
respectful
MUD
-speech
- awareness
immobile
sexless
WOOD
+ speech
- awareness
mobile
gendered
dry

7. Aztec Cosmogony: Leyenda de los Soles
Primal Duality
Ometeotl : God of Duality
Creation of 4 Tezcatlipocas
Xipe Totec, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli OR Mictlantecuhtli (Death)
Creation of Suns 1-4
each destroyed by excess of own power
Creation of 5th world
cooperation between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl
sacrifice of caiman (Cipactli)
blood-letting by gods to feed earth
Descent into Mictlan
Quetzalcoatl and spirit-double (nahualli) Xolotl retrieve bones
Mountain of Sustenance
contains maize
Quetzalcoatl fails to retrieve it
Nanahuatzin (Lame Pimply God) splits mountain with lightning
servants of Tlaloc (Rain God) steal maize
human beings made from ground maize + divine blood at Tamoanchan (blood tree)
Creation of pulque
Quetzalcoatl elopes with Mayahuel to Tamoanchan (blood tree)
star-demons (tzitzimime) murder Mayahuel
maguey grows from corpse; sap used to make medicinal beverage pulque
Creation of 5th Sun
Tecuciztecatl (Rich God) and Nanahuatzin (Poor God) compete at Teotihuacan
Nanahuatzin sacrifices himself to become Sun; Tecuciztecatl  Moon
Quetzalcoatl sacrifices other gods and himself to feed and move Sun and Moon

8. Quetzalcoatl (Plumed Serpent)
• quetzal serpent • rain and wind (Quetzalcoatl + Ehecatl [Wind God]) • daytime (Day Sun) • creator and culture-bringer (bones, maize, maguey) • nahualli dog (Xolotl) • as Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl, priest of Tula, corrupted by Titlacauan(-Tezcatlipoca) with pulque • Topiltzin disappears; Motecuhzoma suspects Cortés may be return of god

9. Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirror)
• original (Black) created god • cooperates with Quetzalcoatl to create world • associations: night (Night Sun), earth, death, jaguar (nahualli), obsidian (divination), smoke, mirrors (divination), magic, drunkenness, sexual debauchery (lameness, fire, lightning), war, kingship • Tezcatlipoca (as Titlacauan) corrupts Quetzalcoatl-Topiltzin with pulque, causing fall of city of Tula

10. Huitzilopochtli and Aztec Migration
• Migration as “external motivation”: fated, destined, divinely supported. • Migration charts genealogical, physical, topographical ancestry. • Migration establishes itinerary of significant places, sacralizing space. • Migration establishes political history of relations, legitimizing wars and alliances. • Route of migration provides map for ritual reenactment.

11. Huitzilopochtli and Aztec Migration
• Aztecs leave Aztlan led by bodiless Huitzilopochtli • group splits into two tribes • Coatlicue (Snake Skirt Woman) impregnated by feather • Huitzilopochtli born and attacked by 400 step-brothers and Coyolxauhqui (She Whose Face is Adorned with Bells) • death of Coyolxauhqui ~ defeat of moon by sun • sculptured slab of dismembered Coyolxauhqui at Templo Mayor • Aztecs arrive at Lake Texcoco, are enslaved by neighbors • Aztecs defeat masters, found Tenochtitlan (1345) where eagle perches in cactus

12. Sacrificial Themes compensation/justice shed blood of Cipactli
debt-payment
blood sacrificed by gods for humans
nourishment
blood feeds earth, Sun, Moon
order
blood sacrifice prevents destruction by tzitzimime (star demons)
regeneration
blood feeds dead, irrigates earth, ensures growth
social functions of sacrifice
• group identity and cohesion
• ritualized entertainment: sacrifice as theatre
• participation in maintenance of universe
• state terrorism

13. Festival of Flayed Men
• 20-day festival celebrated before spring planting season • festival in honor of Xipe Totec • captives in xochiyaoyotl (flower war) dressed as ixiptla (god-impersonators) • ixiptla treated like gods, subjected to mock battles, sacrificed to Xipe Totec, heart put in cuauhxicalli (bowl), skull put in tzompantli (skull-rack) • skin of ixiptla flayed and worn by Eagle Warriors, flesh cooked and eaten • skins shed on last day of festival, buried in fields to promote fertility

14. Eagle Warrior Cihuatateo
• participates in xochiyaoyotl • souls of women dead in childbirth • mock combat with ixiptla • causes mental illness, theft of children • distributes meat of victims • drags sun down from sky each night • wears flayed pelt of victims • after death, lifts sun into sky

15. Xipe Totec (Our Lord the Flayed One)
outer/inner dry/ green, wet husk/maize seed/flower skin/heart human/god dead/living death/regeneration
• gold-working
• jewelry
• writing
• poetry
• fertility
• rebirth
• regeneration

16. Summary of Popol Vuh 1
Cosmogony; creation of animals and first two (mud, wood) humans 2
Hero Twins Hunahpu (Hunter) and Xbalanque (Jaguar Deer) defeat Vucub Caquix, the False Sun. 3
Descent into Xibalba of Hun Hunahpu (1 Hunter) and Vucub Hunahpu (7 Hunter), father and uncle of Hero Twins; their defeat. Birth of Hero Twins. Childhood of Twins. Descent of Twins into Xibalba; their victory. 4
Creation of maize people.

17. First Generation Hun Hunahpu (1 Hunter) & Vucub Hunahpu (7 Hunter)
•Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu descend into Xibalba to play ball. •Hun and Vucub fail in Xibalba: cannot keep cigars lit •Head of Hun Hunahpu put in calabash tree. •Head impregnates Xquic (Little Blood). •Xquic ascends to Upperworld with twins in her womb.

18. Second Generation Hunahpu (Hunter) & Xbalanque (Jaguar Deer)
•Twins descend into Xibalba to play ball. •On the way, Twins defeat Vucub Caquix , the False Sun. •Twins succeed in Xibalba: use fireflies to keep cigars lit •Twins overcome trials in House of Knives, Cold House, Jaguar House, Fire House •Hunahpu decapitated in Bat House; head replaced by gourd. •Xibalbans use head of Hunahpu in ball game. •Twins substitute gourd for head, and win game. •Twins sacrifice themselves in fire. •Twins reappear as entertainers, perform resurrection shows in Xibalba. •Twins trick Lords of Xibalba into participating; they are sacrificed. •Twins rescue Hun Hunahpu, who becomes God of Maize. •Twins rise from Xibalba to become Sun and Moon.

19. Substitutions in Popol Vuh
head of Hunahpu  skull  gourd  ball  head  Sun

20. Ball Game
• ball game mimics passage of Sun through underworld • ball game ensures that Sun survives passage through underworld • identification of Sun with human being : ball game helps turn linear trajectory of human life into cyclical pattern, as in astronomy and agriculture

21. CUMULATIVE MATERIAL

22. Characteristics of Myth
Narrative Oral Traditional Anonymous Multiform Homeostatic Authoritative “True”

23. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : claim that ancestors emerge from earth • axis mundi : world axis; spatial, temporal, ritual center of world • emergence myth : claim that ancestors emerge from trees, caves, mountains etc. • etiological myth : myth that accounts for natural feature or cultural practice • regeneration myth : myth that represents life as circular (not linear) process

24. Myth, Legend, Folktale sacred myth legend folktale OPENING
In the beginning...
Sing, Muse...
Once upon a time...
ENDING
confirmation of way things are
death
wedding
OCCASION
sacred
high secular
low secular
BELIEF VALUE
fact
fact/fiction
fiction
TIME
remote
historical
anytime
PLACE
primeval world
battlefield
anyplace
CHARACTERS
divine (god)
superior in kind
divine human (hero)
superior in degree
human/animal
same or inferior in degree

25. Myth, Legend, Folktale SACRED MYTH LEGEND FOLKTALE WORLD inflexible
somewhat flexible, generally hostile
highly flexible
CAUSALITY
hard determinism
rigid laws, fateful determinism, some room for human choice
chance and luck; in the extreme, fairytale wish-fulfillment
STANCE
absolute resignation
acquiescence and endurance
optimism and opportunism
MORALITY
irrelevant: good = divine will
irrelevant: moral character NOT = quality of experience
relevant: moral character = quality of experience

26. Cosmogonic Types TYPE NATURE DEITY MYTH created world inert matter
transcendent
Genesis
evolved world
dynamic matter
immanent
Enuma Elish

27. Cosmogonic Pattern 1. Primal Unity 2. Separation
3. Proliferation of Beings
4. Destabilization
5. Plot (Regret)
6. Confrontation
7. Resolution
8. Stability

28. Combat Myth VICTOR ENEMY male female youngest offspring oldest parent
anthropomorph
theriomorph
alliance of gods
alliance of monsters
temple
abyss
form/structure/organization
raw matter
civilization
nature

29. Hero Pattern BIRTH Mixed Status divine + human parents CHILDHOOD
Signs of Election
Separation
Education
superior abilities as child/teen
removal from home due to threat
mysterious teacher
DEPARTURE
Call
Sidekick
Journey
Exploits
Encounters
desire for glory / urgent mission
double
unexplored terrain
monsters (cosmogonic)
young woman/old woman/old man
RETURN / DEATH
Failure
Reconciliation
Death
death of sidekick
bond with others
heroic funeral
MEMORIALIZATION
Myth & Ritual
center of community

30. Regeneration Pattern 1. Descent 2. Failure/Limitation 3. Ascent
Repeat 1-3