Chicomoztoc
Chicōmōztōc ([t͡ʃikoːˈmoːs̻toːk]) is the name for the mythical origin place of the Aztec Mexicas, Tepanecs, Acolhuas, and other Nahuatl-speaking peoples (or Nahuas) of Mesoamerica, in the Postclassic period.
The term Chicomoztoc derives from Nahuatl chicome (“seven”), oztotl (“cave”), and -c (“place”). In symbolic terms these caves within a hill have been compared to the wombs from which the various peoples were born; another possible association is with the seven orifices of the human body. In either case, this term is associated with the origin, birth, or beginning of a group of people, both mythic and historical.[1]
There is an association of Chicomoztoc with certain legendary traditions concerning Culhuacan (Colhuacan), an actual pre-Columbian settlement in the Valley of Mexico which was considered to have been one of the earliest and most pre-eminent settlements in the valley. Culhuacan ("place of those with ancestors" is its literal meaning in Classical Nahuatl) was viewed as a prestigious and revered place by the Aztec/Mexica (who also styled themselves 'Culhua-Mexica'). In Aztec codical writing, the symbol or glyph representing the toponym of Culhuacan took the form of a 'bent' or 'curved' hill (a play on the homonym col- in Nahuatl, meaning "bent, twisted", e.g. as if by old age).
Some researchers have attempted to identify Chicomoztoc with a specific geographic location, likely between 60 and 180 miles northeast of the Valley of Mexico including perhaps a height near the present-day town of San Isidro Culhuacan.[2] The purported existence of actual caves plays a role in New Age Mayanism.
Cerro Culiacán
[edit]In the State of Guanajuato the highest mountain is "El Cerro de Culiacán" and is surrounded by all the signs that correspond to the measure and chronicles of the legendary Chicomoztoc.[citation needed]
In fiction
[edit]In Clive Cussler's novel Lost Empire, Chicomoztoc is discovered to be an island in South Sulawesi, Indonesia,[3] from where the ancestors of the Aztec were exiled sometime in the 6th century.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Huerta, Blas Roman Castellon. "Chicomóztoc." In Davíd Carrasco (ed). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. : Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 9780195188431
- ^ Richard F. Townsend (2009). The Aztecs (3rd ed.). Thames & Hudson. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-500-28791-0.
- ^ Cussler, Clive; Grant Blackwood (2010). Lost Empire. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 377. ISBN 9780399156762.
- ^ Lost Empire, pp. 312-3, 318
External links
[edit]- James E. Brady; Keith M. Prufer (1 February 2005). In the Maw of the Earth Monster: Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use. University of Texas Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-292-70586-9.
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