The Fate of Earthly Things

Molly H. Bassett

Published by University of Texas Press 2015

The Fate of Earthly Things

Aztec Gods and God-Bodies

Molly H. Bassett

In the series Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas

https://doi.org/10.7560/760882

Overview
Contents

About this book

Following their first contact in 1519, accounts of Aztecs identifying Spaniards as gods proliferated. But what exactly did the Aztecs mean by a “god” (teotl), and how could human beings become gods or take on godlike properties? This sophisticated, interdisciplinary study analyzes three concepts that are foundational to Aztec religion—teotl (god), teixiptla (localized embodiment of a god), and tlaquimilolli (sacred bundles containing precious objects)—to shed new light on the Aztec understanding of how spiritual beings take on form and agency in the material world. In The Fate of Earthly Things, Molly Bassett draws on ethnographic fieldwork, linguistic analyses, visual culture, and ritual studies to explore what ritual practices such as human sacrifice and the manufacture of deity embodiments (including humans who became gods), material effigies, and sacred bundles meant to the Aztecs. She analyzes the Aztec belief that wearing the flayed skin of a sacrificial victim during a sacred rite could transform a priest into an embodiment of a god or goddess, as well as how figurines and sacred bundles could become localized embodiments of gods. Without arguing for unbroken continuity between the Aztecs and modern speakers of Nahuatl, Bassett also describes contemporary rituals in which indigenous Mexicans who preserve costumbres (traditions) incorporate totiotzin (gods) made from paper into their daily lives. This research allows us to understand a religious imagination that found life in death and believed that deity embodiments became animate through the ritual binding of blood, skin, and bone.

Author information

MOLLY H. BASSETT is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta and a research affiliate with the Zacatecas Institute for Teaching and Research in Ethnology (IDIEZ) in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Reviews

Philip P. Arnold, Associate Professor of Religion, Syracuse University; founding director of Skä•noñh—Great Law of Peace Center; and author of Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan:
"This is a very impressive work that exhibits a command of the sources. . . . It covers the issues of interpreting the idea of ‘gods’ and ‘embodiment’ that have been discussed by Mesoamericanists for generations in new and important ways."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
INTRODUCTION >>> God-Bodies, Talk-Makers: Deity Embodiments in Nahua Religions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 1 >>> Meeting the Gods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
CHAPTER 2 >>> Ethnolinguistic Encounters: Teotl and Teixiptla in Nahuatl Scholarship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
CHAPTER 3 >>> Divining the Meaning of Teotl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
CHAPTER 4 >>> Gods in the Flesh: Th e Animation of Aztec Teixiptlahuan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
CHAPTER 5 >>> Wrapped in Cloth, Clothed in Skins: Aztec Tlaquimilolli (Sacred Bundles) and Deity Embodiment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
CONCLUSION >>> Fates and Futures: Conclusions and New Directions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
APPENDIX A. Ixiptla Variants in Early Lexicons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
APPENDIX B. A List of Terms Modifi ed by Teo- in the Florentine Codex Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
APPENDIX C. Turquoise, Jet, and Gold Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Other: 7 b&w illus., 26 b&w photos

eBook

Published: January 30, 2015
ISBN: 9780292762985