Re Readings

Human sacrifice was a global phenomenon, still little understood. The most renowned manifestation occurred in Aztec culture, which utilized frequent large-scale sacrifices. Through an in-depth analysis of the format and content of Aztec human sacrifice (based on primary sources), this thesis finds a remarkable degree of acquiescence and social expectation was involved. The author notes serious deficiencies in current theories which attempt to explain the rite. He then applies Frederick Streng's model of religious practices as means of "ultimate transformation" and develops the hypothesis that human sacrifice provided a means of personal and societal transformation for Aztec culture. On this basis, he reconstructs some of the complex "sacrificial mysticism" underlying the practice. He finds this embodied in Aztec sacrificial themes such as atonement, remorse, transformative 'birth', 'mirroring,' extinction and symbiotic exchange.

This paper traces the putative Aztec/Nahua divinity Ometeotl, "Lord of Duality" back to, well, to nothing. There are no sources for this duality other than a desire to create a "classical" vision of Aztec culture somewhat resembling Christianity. Not abstract, not spiritual, Omiteuctli, "Bone Lord" was the epitome of ancestral re-generation. I wrote this paper c. 1990 (the font was Palatino!) and the rhetoric of post-modernism flavors it somewhat, though I never drank much of the post-modern Kool Aid. As an ethnographer, it was evident that cultures created their understandings of truth(s). For me, the study of culture has always been in great part, epistemology - how a people make sense of the world.

The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology, 2019

The cultural construction of experience and perception has been a topic of interest among scholars working in Mesoamerica for decades. Archaeological remains, art, ancient and historic textual sources, and ethnographic observations complement and inform one another in those investigations, many of which stress the particular conceptions of bodies, sensorial hierarchies, and lived experiences across the culturally and linguistically connected region extending geographically from northern Mexico to Costa Rica. This chapter provides an overview of sensorial studies in Mesoamerica that highlights the rich and diverse evidence available. It emphasizes a diachronic, comparative approach, common in Mesoamericanist archaeology, which forces scholars to go beyond the identification of specific stimuli on discrete senses and enables them to study contexts of heightened synaesthetic experience, as well as those contexts' affective and symbolic meanings. Finally, I suggest possibilities for considering an archaeology of the senses that extends beyond the limits of a singular human body in order to more fully embrace the conceptual nature of ancient Mesoamerican experience.

Morning Star and Evening Star are prominent gods of West Mexican Indian religions. Venus deities are linked to contrasting aspects of traditional corn agriculture but may also appear in many other ritual and mythological contexts. The main reason why Venus-related symbolisms are so important seems to be the specific way the relationship between both aspects of Venus is conceived. Simultaneously, Morning Star and Evening Star are related through antagonism, identification, and transformation. Venusʼs dynamic ambivalence offers a mytho-logical paradigm that can be linked to a whole range of practices and beliefs--from agricultural and rain-related ceremonies to ritual deer hunts and sacrifice.

When Sahagún translated from Nahuatl to Spanish his understanding of the information provided to him by Nahua informants, he relied heavily on his religious lens utilizing it as a template to inform his translations. Over the centuries, as researchers have gone back and translated 16 th century documents, they have also allowed their religious perceptions to inform their understanding and translations of Nahuatl texts. When the Florentine Codex was translated into English, Anderson and Dibble relied heavily on Sahagún's translations. This paper reexamines early documents with new translations and interpretations that utilize a contemporary Indigenous lens to better understand Nahua cosmology and perceptions of the divine.